Standardize Deal Name Format Using Values From Multiple Fields

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How to Format and Standardize Deal Names Using Data from Other Fields

Your sales team needs to find existing deal information quickly, but the default deal names in the CRM are generic, inconsistent, and not descriptive. This is making it difficult to find the right deals on-the-fly and to feel confident about the results when searching.

Use the Transform Data module to standardize deal names, pulling important data from multiple fields to create consistent deal names that are searchable and descriptive.

This article walks through formatting deal names to follow the naming convention, "Deal Name / Close Date / Amount / Next Step," but you can use data from any field to name your deals. 

Process Summary

  1. Filter records to find deals that don't follow the naming convention.
  2. Set up functions to pull data from other fields and add them to the deal name.
  3. Preview the changes.
  4. Apply changes to the CRM records.
  5. Set up automation to maintain deal name formatting.

 

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Find Deals That Don't Follow the Naming Convention

In the Transform Data module, select the database and Deals record type. 

A good starting point is the Standardize Deal Name template, though you may need to customize it a bit for your specific needs.

Under Step 1, the filter is set up to surface deals that do not follow the naming convention, "[text] / [text] / [text] / [text]," using the "Negate Regex" function. Because you are unlikely to have deals that follow this convention, it typically will select every deal in your database. 

Learn more about using regular expressions (regex) here.

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Click Search and scroll down to the Record Viewer at the bottom of the screen. You will see all deal records that match your filter.

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To change the fields that show in the Record Viewer, click the Layout tab in Step 1.

Step 2: Set Up Functions to Pull Data from Other Fields and Add to the Deal Name

Then, setup functions that pull data from multiple fields and separate them using the slash "/" character.

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The Close Date, Amount, and Next Step data are pulled in and these functions do the following after the Deal Name value:

  • Concatenate is used to append a slash, " / " followed by the Close Date value. 
  • With the Split by any delimiter and keep just selected term function, the Existing Text value of "T, tells Insycle to remove the time value from the Close Date.
  • After the Close Date value, add a slash, " / " followed by the Amount value. 
  • After the Amount value, add a slash, " / " followed by the Next Step value.
  • The last function formats the original Deal Name value with proper capitalization.

Here are some examples of how Deal Names would look after running this template:

Deal Name Before

Deal Name After

[Deal Name]

[Deal Name] / [Close Date] / [Amount] / [Next Step]

United Oil Emergency Generators

United Oil Emergency Generators / 2022-12-16 / 440000 / Nurturing

United Oil Plant Standby Generators

United Oil Plant Standby Generators / 2022-12-16 / 675000 / Negotiating

United Oil Refinery Generators

United Oil Refinery Generators / 2022-12-16 / 915000 / Contract

This makes your deals searchable and user-friendly, with multiple data points to use in your query. You can customize this template to pull data from any field in your CRM database.

Step 3: Preview Changes and Update CRM Records

Preview Changes in the CSV Report

With the filters and functions set up, you can preview the changes in a CSV file. It's important to verify that your formatting is working as expected before those changes are pushed to your live database.

Under Step 3, click the Review button, then select Preview in the popup.

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On the Notify tab, you can select recipients for the email report and add additional context to the message. (Make sure to hit Enter after each email address.)

On the When tab, click Run Now and select which records to apply the change to (in most cases this will be All), then click the Run Now button.

Open the CSV file from your email in a spreadsheet application and review the (Before) and (After) values for each field. If the results don't look the way you expected, go back to your filters and functions and try making some adjustments before previewing again.

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Apply Changes to the CRM

If everything in your CSV preview looks correct, return to Insycle and move forward with applying the changes to the live CRM data.

Click the Review button under Step 3 and select Update Mode

On the When tab you can choose to run and apply the update now, or you can set up an automation to run the template on a regular schedule. The first time you apply these changes to the CRM, you should use Run Now.

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After you've seen the results in the CRM and you are satisfied with how the operation runs, you can save all of the configurations as a template, and set up automation so this formatting operation runs on a set schedule. This ensures that your deal names are consistently formatted on an ongoing basis.

Tips for Transforming Data

  • If there isn’t a single function under Step 2 that makes the change you’re looking for, you can still complete the step in one template. Functions can be layered to make changes in a series of steps. See the Advanced How-Tos section below for more information. 
  • You may need to do some experimentation. Use the Preview mode and CSV report to see if you get the desired result. If not, adjust your functions, maybe try reordering them, then Preview again.

Advanced How-Tos

Combining More than One Function

For example, you have records that contain Website URLs with multiple directories, “https://app.insycle.com/data/bulk/contact/.” You want to clean these up so it’s just the main domain value, “insycle.com.”

The “Extract domain from URL” function will remove the https:// and subdomain, but the directory values after the domain, '/data/bulk/contact/' would still be there.

To get rid of those directory values, the function 'Split by any delimiter and keep selected term' can be added to remove everything after the forward slash, “/”, and keep the value in the first section.

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Formatting Examples

In Insycle, you can select pre-built functions, or build custom functions, to format and standardize any field in your CRM.

Capitalize First Name, Remove Salutations and Whitespace

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Format Phone Numbers to E. 164 International Standard

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Format and Standardize Street Addresses

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Troubleshooting

If you encounter any problems while standardizing deal names, there are a couple of things you should look into:

Deals Aren't Showing In the Record Viewer

If you've followed the instructions and your filter is not finding any deals, make sure that you have entered the negate regex correctly. This is especially true if you have typed this in manually, instead of selecting the pre-created template. 

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Here is the regex code for copying and pasting:

.*\/.*\/.*\/.*
Fields You Expect to See Aren’t Showing in the Record Viewer

If a field you'd like to see is not present in the Record Viewer, click the Layout tab in Step 1 and ensure that you have added the field to the Visible Fields section on the left side of the page. 

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Deal Names Aren’t Re-writing Properly

If your deal names are not re-writing correctly, compare your template to the example below. Make sure yours mirrors this, even if you are using different fields. The order here matters, and changing the order of the functions can impact the template. 

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For a complete guide to troubleshooting issues with Insycle, please refer to our article on Troubleshooting Issues

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use other fields in the deal name?

Yes, you can add different fields into the deal name by swapping out the concatenated fields in Step 2. 

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Can I change the separator in the deal names?

Yes, you can add different fields into the deal name by swapping out the concatenate "Parameter" entry in Step 2. 

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Additional Resources

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