Drop Funnel

The messy way I figured it out (but it works)

So I had this spreadsheet, right? Names, emails, phone numbers — the usual. Thought I’d just toss it into GoHighLevel and be done in five minutes.

Nope.

The first time I tried importing contacts, I botched it. Half the phone numbers didn’t show up, tags didn’t stick, and I ended up with duplicates. So yeah, here’s the version that actually worked for me — no tech jargon, just what I did.

---

Step one: Get your list together

Use Google Sheets or Excel. Then export it as a CSV file. That’s all GHL accepts.

My sheet looked something like this:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email
• Phone
• Tags

Nothing fancy. Don’t overthink it.

Just make sure you got country codes in the phone numbers. GHL hates missing plus signs. If your number is like “079…” and not “+96279…”, you’re gonna have problems.

---

Step two: Go to Contacts and hit Import

Once you’re logged in, go to the left panel. Click “Contacts.” At the top, you’ll see a button that says “Import Contacts.” Hit that.

Now it’s gonna ask you to upload your file. Pick your CSV. Boom.

---

Step three: Match the fields

This part tripped me up. GHL will try to guess what each column in your file means.

If your column is labeled Phone, it’ll usually guess right and map it to the phone field. But if you wrote something weird like Mobile Num or Cell, it might not catch it.

Same for First Name, Email, whatever. Fix the ones that are wrong before you continue.

Also, don’t skip the tags. If your CSV has a column called Tags, and you’ve got stuff like “Lead”, “Client”, or “Hot Prospect” in there — GHL will tag them automatically.

---

Step four: Import it and hold your breath

Click the import button. Depending on how many people are on the list, it could take 10 seconds or a couple minutes.

Don’t refresh anything. Just wait.

After it’s done, it’ll say something like:

• Imported: 498
• Failed: 2

Click “View Failed” if there’s any issues. It’ll tell you what went wrong — usually missing phone numbers or formatting problems.

Fix those rows in your CSV, then import just those again. No need to redo the whole thing.

---

Step five: Check that it actually worked

Go back to “Contacts” and search for someone you just imported. Open their profile.

• Is their phone number there?
• Did the tag show up?
• Anything look weird?

If something’s missing, it’s probably a formatting issue in the CSV. Double-check it.

---

Stuff I learned the hard way

• Don’t use weird symbols in the column headers. Keep it basic: email, phone, first_name.
• Put the plus sign in phone numbers. GHL won’t guess your country.
• Try uploading 5 people first. Seriously. Do a mini-test run before uploading 2,000 contacts and realizing it’s all jacked up.
• Tags are super helpful later. Even if you don’t need them now, throw in a Tags column like “Imported-June” just to keep things organized.

---

One last thing

I spent more time cleaning my sheet than importing it. That’s the truth.
But once it’s clean and mapped right, the import part takes like two minutes.

If you’re stuck or it’s not working — it’s not you. This stuff isn’t as plug-and-play as it looks. Send me your sheet or take a screenshot of what’s not matching. Been there.