ChampionTracker

How to prepare a contact list in Excel or Google Sheets, with LinkedIn URLs

Not using a CRM, or keeping your best contacts in a spreadsheet? This is how to lay out the list so any tool can read it, LinkedIn profile links included.

Who to put in the list

The people who already know you: buyers and users at your customers, the champions of deals you won or lost, and former customers. When one of them moves to a new company, they are the warmest lead you’ll get there.

If your CRM marks your customers (a status, a lifecycle stage or a won deal), filter on it before you export, so the file holds only the people who bought from you.

How to set up the list

  1. One row per person, with a column of LinkedIn profile links. Name, company, job title and email columns are read too.
  2. Excel: import the .xlsx file, or save it as CSV (comma or semicolon both work).
  3. Google Sheets: File → Download → Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) or Comma-separated values (.csv).

Even a plain list of LinkedIn links works: the names are taken from the links.

Menu names can differ slightly between versions and languages of Excel or Google Sheets.

Where’s the LinkedIn link?

Any column with LinkedIn profile links. Column names in English, Dutch, Spanish, German, French and Italian are recognised.

The link must point at the person’s profile, like linkedin.com/in/name. Links from Sales Navigator (linkedin.com/sales/…), company pages and old /pub/ links don’t identify the profile: open it on LinkedIn and copy the address from there.

Check the file before you use it

  • One row per person, with the column names in the first row (title rows above them are fine).
  • A LinkedIn profile link for everyone you want to follow; name, company, job title and email help but aren’t required.
  • CSV, TSV or Excel (.xlsx or .xls), up to 10 MB and 20,000 rows.

See which of these contacts changed jobs

Upload the file to ChampionTracker. Every contact is checked straight away: anyone who already left the company in your list shows up as a job change, and every contact is checked again every week.

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Other CRMs

Before you export: estimate how many of your past buyers changed jobs. Comparing tools? All job-change tools compared, or ChampionTracker next to UserGems, KeepSync, LeadIQ, Champify and Apollo.io.