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 makes it difficult to find the right deals on the fly and to feel confident about the results when searching.

Insycle's Transform Data module can standardize deal names, pulling important data from multiple fields to create meaningful and consistent titles.

This article walks through formatting deal names to follow the naming convention, "Company / Close Date / Product ID," 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

Navigate to Data Management > Transform Data, then 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]," using the "Negate Regex" function. Unless you already have deals that follow this convention, this will typically bring up 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

Set up functions that pull data from multiple fields and separate them using the slash "/" character.

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The example above starts with the Company field, then pulls data from the Close Date, Amount, and Next Step fields, putting it together in the Deal Name field:

  • The Copy: Value function copies the Company value to the Deal Name field, then it will apply all the other functions.
  • The Append: Concatenate function is used to append a slash, " / " followed by the Close Date value. 
  • With the Split: By any delimiter and pick just Nth 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 ProductID value. 
  • The last function, Format: Proper Case Company, formats the new 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]

[Company] / [Close Date] / [Product ID]

United Oil Emergency Generators

United Oil / 2022-12-16 / E-GEN-4400

United Oil Plant Standby Generators

United Oil / 2022-12-16 / PS-GEN-6750

United Oil Refinery Generators

United Oil / 2022-12-16 / R-GEN-9150

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 (you could do All, but if you have a large number of records, you may just want to do a chunk for your preview), 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 in Step 1 and functions in Step 2 and try making some adjustments, then preview 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.

Under Step 3, click the Review button again, and this time select Update mode.

On the When tab, you should use Run Now the first time you apply these changes to the CRM. If you have a large number of records, you may want to do a smaller batch to review the results in your CRM.

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Save Templates and Set Up Automation

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

If you have several templates you'd like to automatically run together, you can create a Recipe. Additionally, HubSpot users can integrate Insycle Recipes into HubSpot Workflows.

Return to the Template menu at the top of the page and click Copy to save your configurations as a new version of the template you started with. Then click the pencil to edit your new template name.

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Under Step 3, click the Review button, and select Update mode.

On the Notify tab, select the send option appropriate for your automation: Always send, Send when errors, or Do not email.

Add any additional recipients who should receive the CSV (and make sure to hit Enter after each address). You can also provide additional context in the message subject or body.

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On the When tab, select Automate, and configure the frequency you'd like the template to run. When finished, click Schedule.

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You can view all your scheduled automations at any time on the Operations > Automations page.

Tips for Transforming Values

  • 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.
  • If you aren't sure what variations you have, you should do a little exploratory work to identify what non-standard values exist.

    Use the Cleanse Data module to get a summary of all the data variations that are in a specific field in your database. This makes it easy to review the values in use and decide what needs to be cleaned up.

Advanced How-Tos

Combining More than One Function

Functions can be layered to make changes in a series of steps. They will cumulatively apply to the field value, executing in order from top to bottom.

For example, you can use several functions to populate the country value by using the email address:

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  1. Select the email field with the value to start with.  
  2. Select the Split: By any delimiter and pick the last term function. 
  3. In the Parameter field, enter a "." to use as the delimiter.
  4. Click the plus at the end of the row to add an additional function for this field.
  5. Now that you've isolated the two-character country code, select the Standardize: Country Code2 to Name function. Click the plus.
  6. Select the Copy: Value function and the Target Field the country name should be written into.

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.

For another example, say you want to clean up Website URL values that have multiple directories. Instead of “https://app.insycle.com/data/bulk/contact/,” you just want to keep the main domain value, “insycle.com.”

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  1. 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. Leaving the Target Field blank, will write the value back to the original field.
  2. To get rid of those directory values, add the function Split: By any delimiter and keep Nth term to remove everything after the forward slash, “/”, and keep the value in the first section.
Using the Move vs Copy Functions

When configuring Step 2, there may be cases where you want to use the Move function instead of Copy.

The Copy function will duplicate data from a specified field into a target field. The data in the source field will remain as is.

With the Move function, the data from the source field is duplicated into the target field. However, the Move function will then clear the data from the source field.

You may want to use the Move function if the data belongs in the target field, and should not be in the source field. For example, if you've discovered some contact records where the Job Function field is mistakenly being used for the job title, these values can be moved to the Job Title field and removed from Job Function.

Step 2 Move function

Learn more about using the Move or Copy functions.

Exporting Filtered Data, One-Time or Automatically

With your filter and layout set, Insycle can now export your segment of data. You can export it one time, immediately, or set up automated exports.

In Step 1, click the Export button.

In the popup, select New File and click Next.

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On the Email tab, enter additional email addresses (hit Enter after each), a Subject, and Description. The CSV export will be attached to this email whenever it is generated.

To export the data once:

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.

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To set up automation for recurring exports:

On the When tab under Automate, set up the frequency your CSV should automatically be exported--hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.

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Then, data that matches your set filter will be automatically exported and emailed to you or your team on a set schedule, improving data collaboration and allowing you to keep an eye on the most important customer data.

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

Should I build a separate template for each field I want to format?

Yes. As a best practice, you should build separate templates for formatting each specific field. This helps you to keep things organized and troubleshoot issues if they arise.

Can I use other field data in the deal name?

Yes, you can add any field values into the deal name by selecting different fields in the Append: Concatenate functions of Step 2. 

transform-data-deals-standardize-deal-name-step-2-deal-name-field.png

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 in Step 2. 

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Additional Resources

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