Improving Lead Deduplication Workflow with Clay and Salesforce Integration

Hi Clay, I’m reaching out regarding a critical issue in my current workflow involving Clay’s integration with Salesforce. The Issue Whenever new leads are created in Salesforce through Clay, I need to ensure that they are deduplicated against existing Salesforce Contacts and Leads. Currently, I am facing challenges with managing this process effectively:

1.
Current Workflow:

I rely on exporting all Salesforce Contacts and Leads as a CSV.

I then deduplicate the data manually or with external scripts, matching new leads across fields like:

Full Name (fuzzy matching).
Email (including domain-level matching).
Website (domain-level matching).
LinkedIn URL (unique ID matching).

Company Name (fuzzy matching).

The results are then returned to Salesforce with additional columns for:

Match confidence (e.g., "Sure" or "Unsure").
Matched record ID.

Matched field(s) and matched value(s).

4.
The Problem:

This process is slow, unreliable, and heavily dependent on external tools or developers.
With growing data volumes, it has become unsustainable, especially as I need a scalable, automated solution.

What I Need Help With I’d like support in identifying how Clay can address this issue within the current integration. Specifically:

1.
Deduplication Workflow:

Is there a way for Clay to automatically deduplicate new leads by comparing them against Salesforce Contacts and Leads during the creation process?

2.
Matching Logic:

Full Name: Fuzzy or phonetic matching (e.g., Jewish Soundex).
Email: Fuzzy matching for full email and domain-level matching (e.g., valenciarc.com vs. valenciarealty.capital).
Website: Domain-level comparison.
LinkedIn URL: Match based on unique IDs.
Company Name: Fuzzy matching for name variations.

3.
Output to Salesforce:

I need Clay to populate fields in the new lead or a related record with:

Matched record ID (Lead or Contact ID).
Confidence score (High, Medium, Low).

Matched field(s) and matched value(s).

5.
Automated Workflow:

If Clay can handle this process directly, it would eliminate the need for manual intervention or external tools, which would significantly improve accuracy and save time.

Additional Context Previously, I relied on a Python script set up by a developer to handle this deduplication. However, the setup was unreliable, and I’ve spent weeks troubleshooting without success. I’m looking for a solution that leverages Clay’s capabilities and doesn’t require me to rely on external scripts or manual processes. Can you assist me in configuring this deduplication workflow or suggest how I can achieve this through Clay’s existing features? Happy to speak with any developer referrals you may have as well. Thank you for your support—I look forward to hearing your recommendations.

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