How to Migrate From Groove by Clari to lemlist Without Risk

Why teams are switching from Groove by Clari right now

What started as an AI sales forecasting tool grew through acquisitions into a broader revenue platform. Clari acquired Groove in August 2023 for sales engagement, then merged with Salesloft in December 2025. That means Groove users are now two acquisitions deep into a platform whose roadmap keeps shifting.

Clari’s acquisition strategy has expanded its capabilities, but integration work lags behind. Groove was acquired in 2023, and two years later that integration remained incomplete. As of September 2026, Clari is no longer a standalone brand either, after the Salesloft merger was announced in August 2025 and closed in December 2025.

For teams running outbound day-to-day, this creates real friction. Since the Clari acquisition, Groove is increasingly bundled with Clari’s broader platform, and new customers are often pushed toward the full Clari suite, which increases total cost. Teams that just want email sequences and activity logging may end up paying for forecasting and conversation intelligence they don’t use.

The acquisition has created uncertainty: some features have been rebranded, the roadmap has shifted toward Clari’s vision, and pricing has become less transparent. If you’re reading this, you’re probably experiencing one (or several) of those problems already.

What you can and can’t export from Groove

Before pulling the trigger on any migration, you want to know exactly what data leaves Groove with you and what stays behind. Groove does not provide a structured data export API, so your migration data comes from the native export tools in the Groove admin console.

Sequences (Flows) and templates

Groove calls its automated sequences “Flows.” You can export the contacts enrolled in a Flow as a CSV, but there’s a catch. The CSV download is limited to 100 contacts at a time. The automation logic, step timing, and conditional branches don’t come along. You’ll recreate those in your new platform.

Email templates are easier. Copy them into a text file or spreadsheet before you begin. They’ll serve as your starting drafts when rebuilding campaigns.

Contact and prospect data

Because Groove is Salesforce-native, most of your contact data lives in Salesforce rather than inside Groove. Export a CSV of every contact enrolled in Groove sequences in the last 90 days, including which step they completed and their reply or meeting status. That gives you both an import list and a suppression list (contacts who already replied or booked and shouldn’t be re-sequenced).

Engagement history and activity logs

Open, click, and reply data is partially exportable, though the more complete record is typically in Salesforce. Groove’s sequence performance analytics (open rates, reply rates, meeting rates by sequence) don’t transfer. Screenshot or export those reports as PDFs before you deactivate anything.

CRM field mappings

Document every custom Salesforce field Groove writes to: sequence status, enrollment date, last contacted. If you skip this step, your new platform might write data to the wrong CRM field, and Salesforce won’t show you an error. It’ll just quietly store data in the wrong place.

7 migration risks that break outbound pipeline

Four risks consistently kill platform migrations: active sequence disruption, CRM engagement data loss, sending domain damage, and rep productivity collapse. In practice, we see at least seven. Here’s each one, with the fix.

1. Active sequences drop prospects mid-conversation

Audit every sequence currently running: name, step count, active contact count, owner. Flag sequences with contacts in steps 2 through 5, because those contacts are mid-conversation and will fall through if you cut over abruptly. Let those Flows finish before switching, or manually move in-flight contacts.

2. Sending reputation tanks from a hard cutover

Your sending reputation is tied to the domain and mailboxes warmed on the old platform. When those same mailboxes connect to a new platform, the new sending infrastructure treats them as new relationships with receiving mail servers. Jumping to full send volume immediately can push a large share of your emails into spam, and it can take weeks to recover.

The fix: warm up your sending domains on the new platform before you send a single outreach email. lemlist includes lemwarm, which exchanges real emails with real inboxes at a controlled pace to build sender reputation automatically.

3. CRM engagement data disappears

Activity history logged in Groove may not carry over. Confirm that every send, open, and reply is fully synced to Salesforce before deactivating Groove. Otherwise, reps lose the context they rely on for follow-ups.

4. Custom field mappings break silently

As noted above, Groove’s custom Salesforce fields won’t auto-replicate in a new tool. Map every field manually before your first import.

5. Rep productivity drops during the learning curve

A new UI means slower work for the first few days. A structured 30-day migration plan prevents this: pause and export active sequences in Week 1, rebuild and test in Week 2, run parallel operations in Week 3, and fully cut over in Week 4.

6. Duplicate contacts flood your CRM

Importing contacts while CRM sync is also active creates duplicates. Deduplicate your lead list before importing into the new platform, and run a duplicate scan in your CRM immediately after.

7. In-flight deals go dark

Late-stage deals can’t wait for a platform switchover. Flag every opportunity past discovery and assign manual follow-up ownership during the transition window.

Groove vs. lemlist feature map

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of what maps directly, what’s new, and what changes:

The biggest shift in your daily workflow is where replies appear. In Groove, everything routes through Salesforce. In lemlist, every channel (email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, calls) surfaces in a single unified inbox, so you don’t toggle between tools to see what a prospect said and where.

Step-by-step migration plan from Groove to lemlist

1. Audit your Groove account and flag active sequences

List every active Flow, template, and connected mailbox. Tag each Flow by status: active, paused, or completed. Prioritize which ones to rebuild first based on pipeline impact.

2. Export contacts, templates, and engagement data

Pull contacts to CSV (in 100-contact batches from Groove), save email templates, and confirm your CRM activity logs are fully synced. This is also when you export sequence performance reports as screenshots or PDFs for reference.

3. Clean and deduplicate your lead list

Clean your email list before migrating, not after. Sending to invalid, inactive, or risky addresses during the warmup period is particularly damaging because mailbox providers are already scrutinizing your new sending infrastructure. A high bounce rate or elevated complaint rate at this stage can set back your warmup by weeks.

Remove bounced emails, merge duplicates, and standardize field formats (job titles, phone numbers, company names). lemlist’s Email Finder & Verifier can re-verify addresses during import.

4. Set up your lemlist workspace and connect your CRM

Create your lemlist account, connect Salesforce or HubSpot, and follow the in-app onboarding dashboard. If questions come up, lemlist offers in-app chat support during setup.

5. Warm up your sending domains

Moving mailboxes to a new platform without a warmup cycle resets your sending reputation in the eyes of Google and Microsoft. A single week of high-volume sending on a cold infrastructure can push a significant share of your emails into spam, and that hole takes weeks to climb out of.

Teams that follow a phased mailbox import with platform-level warm-up keep their inbox placement stable through the migration. lemwarm handles this automatically by exchanging real emails with real inboxes at a controlled pace.

6. Rebuild your top sequences as multichannel campaigns

Start with the highest-performing Groove Flows and recreate them in lemlist. This is also your chance to add LinkedIn, call, or SMS steps where they make sense. lemlist’s campaign generator (lemAgent) can build a full multichannel sequence from a text description of your goal and ICP.

7. Run a parallel pilot week

Send from both platforms for one week with a small test group. Compare deliverability, reply rates, and CRM sync accuracy. This is your safety net. The biggest threats during any cutover are dropping active prospects out of live sequences, damaging your sending domain reputation, and leaving reps without a workflow. A parallel week catches all of them.

8. Cut over, pause Groove, and validate

Pause all Groove Flows, confirm every active prospect has moved, and verify CRM data integrity. Keep read-only Groove access for a buffer period so you can reference historical data if needed.

Post-migration checklist

After cutover, validate these within the first week:

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  CRM sync: Confirm that lemlist activities (sends, opens, replies) log correctly in Salesforce or HubSpot

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  Duplicates: Run a duplicate scan in your CRM to catch records created during the import

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  Deliverability baseline: Check inbox placement rates in lemlist’s monitoring dashboard

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  Sequence performance: Compare reply and meeting rates on rebuilt campaigns against the last month of Groove data

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  Team access: Verify every rep has the correct lemlist seat, connected mailbox, and CRM permissions

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  Historical data: Confirm past Groove activity is still accessible in your CRM for deal context

Start your migration with a free trial

The full migration typically takes one to three weeks, depending on the number of active sequences, contacts, and mailboxes. The warm-up period is usually the longest step, and it’s the one worth doing right.

lemlist gives your team more channels, built-in deliverability controls, and a 600M+ lead database that Groove never offered. You can start a 14-day free trial (no credit card required) or book a demo for a guided walkthrough with the team.