Salesforce uses Matching Rules and Duplicate Rules to determine whether a record already exists in your CRM and whether a new record should be created.

Cognism uses these Salesforce rules during every export and does not override your duplicate prevention settings.

Before you begin

Before configuring duplicate rules, ensure that:

• The Salesforce integration has been configured.
• You have Salesforce Administrator permissions.
• You understand how your organisation manages Leads, Contacts, and Accounts.

What's the difference?

Matching Rules

Matching Rules define how Salesforce identifies potential duplicate records.

For example, Salesforce can compare records using:

• Email address
• Name
• Company
• Website
• Custom fields

Matching Rules only identify possible duplicates.

Duplicate Rules

Duplicate Rules determine what Salesforce does when a duplicate is found.

Depending on your configuration, Salesforce can:

• Allow the record
• Warn the user
• Block the record completely

Cognism follows the behaviour configured in Salesforce.

How Cognism identifies existing Salesforce records

Before exporting a record, Cognism checks whether the Lead, Contact, or Account already exists in Salesforce.

This matching process is performed by Cognism and is separate from Salesforce's Matching Rules and Duplicate Rules.

Standard Integration matching

Leads and Contacts

Cognism searches for existing records using the following order:

1. Cognism ID (if mapped)
2. Email address
3. LinkedIn URL (if mapped)
4. First Name + Last Name + Company Name + Company City
5. First Name + Last Name + Normalised Company Name + Company City

Accounts

Cognism searches using:

1. Cognism ID (if mapped)
2. LinkedIn URL (if mapped)
3. Company Domain
4. Company Name + Company City
5. Normalised Company Name + Company City
6. Company Name
7. Normalised Company Name

If Cognism finds an existing record, it updates that record according to your configured field update rules.

If no match is found, Cognism attempts to create a new Salesforce record.

Note: Cognism ID and LinkedIn matching are only used when these fields have been mapped during the Salesforce integration setup.

Salesforce Duplicate Rules are still applied

After Cognism has completed its own matching process, Salesforce performs an additional duplicate check using your configured Matching Rules and Duplicate Rules.

This means two things can happen:

• Cognism finds an existing record → the existing Salesforce record is updated.
• Cognism does not find a match → Cognism attempts to create a new record, but Salesforce may still identify it as a duplicate and block the export.

For example:

• Cognism cannot match a Lead because the email address has changed.
• Salesforce has a Duplicate Rule matching records by First Name, Last Name, and Company.
• Salesforce identifies the record as a duplicate and prevents it from being created.

This is why Salesforce Duplicate Rules remain important even though Cognism performs its own matching before every export.

Check your Matching Rules

1. In Salesforce, open Setup.
2. Search for Matching Rules.
3. Verify that active Matching Rules exist for:
   • Leads
   • Contacts
   • Accounts

If a required rule is inactive, activate it before exporting records.

Check your Duplicate Rules

1. In Setup, search for Duplicate Rules.
2. Open the Duplicate Rule for each object:
   • Leads
   • Contacts
   • Accounts
3. Confirm that each rule is active.

Recommended Lead and Contact configuration

For the best duplicate detection, we recommend configuring:

Contact Duplicate Rule

Compare Contacts against:

• Contacts
• Leads

Lead Duplicate Rule

Compare Leads against:

• Leads
• Contacts

This allows Salesforce to identify duplicates across both objects instead of checking each object independently.

Account Duplicate Rules

For most organisations, the standard Salesforce Account Matching Rule is sufficient.

If you use custom Account Matching Rules, ensure that at least one active Matching Rule is associated with your Account Duplicate Rule.

Block duplicate records

To prevent duplicate records being created during export:

1. Open each Duplicate Rule.
2. Click Edit.
3. Under Actions, set Action on Create to Block.
4. Save the rule.

Repeat this for Leads, Contacts, and Accounts as required.

Important consideration

We do not recommend including Account Matching Rules within your Lead Duplicate Rules.

For example:

• An Account already exists for Acme Ltd.
• A new Lead from Acme Ltd is exported.

If the Lead Duplicate Rule also checks Accounts, Salesforce may incorrectly treat the Lead as a duplicate and block the export, even though no matching Lead exists.

Keeping Account matching separate helps avoid unnecessary export failures.

Using custom Matching Rules

If you choose not to use Salesforce's standard Matching Rules, ensure your custom rules are carefully tested before exporting large volumes of data.

Poorly configured rules can result in:

• Legitimate records being blocked.
• Duplicate records being created.
• Existing records not being updated correctly.

Test your configuration

After making changes:

1. Export a small number of records from Cognism.
2. Confirm whether new records are created or existing records are updated.
3. Review any duplicate warnings or blocked records in Salesforce.
4. Adjust your Matching Rules if required before rolling the configuration out to all users.

Troubleshooting

If exports fail because Salesforce identifies a duplicate record, review:

• Your active Matching Rules.
• Your Duplicate Rule actions.
• Your field mappings.
• Your export settings.