Moving from Klenty to lemlist: a step-by-step guide

Why sales teams switch from Klenty to lemlist

Migrating between sales engagement platforms is a decision teams make when their current tool no longer covers the full outbound workflow. Klenty users generally appreciate the email automation capabilities for streamlining outbound workflows, including personalization features, behavior-based follow-ups, and engagement tracking. Yet the most common reasons teams start evaluating a switch come down to gaps in channel coverage, data access, and deliverability infrastructure.

Here’s a quick look at how the two platforms compare on core capabilities:

Klenty recommends keeping a consistent weekly volume of total emails sent and avoiding spikes and bursts in email volume, but doesn’t include a native warm-up tool. That difference matters when you’re switching platforms, because a migration is exactly when volume patterns tend to break.

The rest of this article walks through how to move your data, protect your sender reputation, and avoid the mistakes that trip up most teams mid-switch.

What you can export from Klenty before migrating

Before any platform migration, you want a clear inventory of what leaves with you and what stays behind. Think of this as the pre-flight checklist.

Prospect data and engagement history

Klenty lets you select the fields you want to export, along with engagements like opens, clicks, and replies. You go to the Prospects page, select the prospects you want to export (or use the Prospect Filter to select a specific set), and Klenty generates a CSV.

Klenty will send a link to download the CSV file to your email address. If you’re working with a large database, contact Klenty support to enable the “Export All” option, which they’ll turn on by request.

Cadence reports and campaign metrics

When exporting reports with more than 100 prospects, Klenty sends a CSV to your email, and exports can be taken from Reports (Cadence, Team, List, Calls), the Livefeed, and Sent items. Screenshot your dashboards too. You’ll want those historical benchmarks to compare against your lemlist results later.

CRM-synced records

If you’ve integrated Klenty with your Salesforce CRM, you can sync prospects, manage cadences from within Salesforce, and push prospect responses as tasks to Salesforce. If your Klenty instance is connected to HubSpot or Salesforce, much of your activity history already lives in the CRM. Confirm that sync is current before disconnecting Klenty.

What Klenty does not let you export

Here’s where teams often get surprised. Klenty’s email sequence automation allows you to clone sequences that work and pull from built-in templates, but those cadence structures and email templates don’t export as portable, reusable files you can drop into another platform.

Your sender reputation, however, is tied to your mailboxes, not to Klenty. If you connect those same email accounts to lemlist, the reputation carries over.

Step-by-step migration from Klenty to lemlist

Each step builds on the one before it. If your list is under a few thousand leads, you can realistically work through steps 1–5 in a single afternoon.

1. Audit your Klenty account and tag what moves

Klenty lets you categorize prospects using Active and Inactive filters: Active shows prospects you’ve contacted or imported in the past 30 days, while Inactive shows those you haven’t contacted in 30 days and who aren’t part of any cadence. Review your active cadences, paused prospects, and completed sequences. Decide which groups are worth migrating and which you leave behind.

2. Export prospects and engagement data as CSV

Go to the Prospects page, select the prospects you want, and click the Export button. Make sure to export your unsubscribe list separately, because it will go into lemlist’s suppression list rather than into a campaign.

3. Clean and map your CSV fields to lemlist variables

Klenty’s column headers won’t match lemlist’s variable names out of the box. During the “Set up imported custom variables” step in lemlist, you assign each CSV column to the correct lemlist variable type, which is what makes lemlist recognize fields like {{email}} and {{linkedinUrl}} in your campaign steps. See lemlist’s guide to choosing the right CSV import type for details.

A quick mapping reference:

• •

  Klenty {{FirstName}} → lemlist {{firstName}}

• •

  Klenty {{Company}} → lemlist {{companyName}}

• •

  Custom fields → rename columns to match your planned lemlist custom variables before uploading

A properly formatted CSV with correct variable mapping ensures your personalization works, your emails reach the right addresses, and enrichment adds valuable data. lemlist’s CSV import guide covers the expected format.

4. Set up your sending infrastructure in lemlist

Connect the same sending email accounts (Gmail or Outlook) you used in Klenty. Since sender reputation lives at the mailbox level, it transfers automatically when you use the same addresses.

Turn on lemwarm for each mailbox right away. If you’re adding new sending domains, you can buy and authenticate them directly inside lemlist’s Deliverability setup. The DNS records configure automatically, which saves you from editing TXT records manually.

5. Import leads and enrich missing contact data

You can upload up to 40,000 leads total via CSV in lemlist, split into batches of 10,000 leads per campaign (see lemlist’s import limits). On the “Enrich leads data” step, choose whether you want lemlist to find or verify emails, find phone numbers, or enrich LinkedIn data, then click Import leads to finish.

If your Klenty contacts already have verified emails, you can skip enrichment for those and only enrich the records with gaps.

6. Rebuild your sequences (or let lemAgent do it)

You won’t be able to copy-paste Klenty cadences into lemlist. But this is actually a good moment to upgrade your sequences. In lemlist, you build your workflow with steps like emails, LinkedIn messages, calls, tasks, and delays, and add conditions to create logic (for example, “if lead clicks, send Step 5”), as explained in lemlist’s guide to creating a campaign.

If you’d rather skip the manual build, describe your campaign goal to lemAgent in plain language (“book meetings with VP Sales at SaaS companies, 4-step sequence, email plus LinkedIn”), and it generates a full multichannel sequence for you to review and launch.

7. Connect your CRM and verify sync

lemlist supports CRM import and sync from HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Link your CRM, run a test send, and confirm that activity (sends, replies, calls) logs correctly. Watch for duplicate records, especially if both platforms briefly sync to the same CRM at the same time.

8. Run a parallel test before going fully live

Keep Klenty active on a small segment while you ramp lemlist on another. Compare deliverability, reply rates, and CRM logging side by side for one to two weeks. Once the lemlist numbers look stable (or better), cut Klenty over entirely.

How to protect email deliverability during the switch

The biggest risk in any cold email platform switch is a deliverability dip. Inbox providers like Google and Microsoft track your sending patterns closely, and sudden changes can trigger spam filtering.

Start lemwarm before you start sending. If you’re adding new mailboxes or domains, activate lemwarm at least two weeks before sending any outbound. If you’re reusing existing inboxes from Klenty, lemwarm still helps maintain their reputation during the volume shift.

Don’t cut Klenty off and blast from lemlist the same day. Gradually shift volume so inbox providers don’t see an abrupt pattern change. A parallel period of one to two weeks gives you a safety net.

Monitor inbox placement, not just open rates. lemlist’s Deliverability Hub runs inbox placement tests against real test addresses across Google, Microsoft, and other providers. You can see whether emails land in primary, promotions, or spam before scaling. Set up automated alerts for bounce rate spikes so you catch issues before they compound.

Migration risks most teams overlook

Even well-planned migrations have failure points. These are the ones that catch teams off guard most often.

1. Cutting over too fast and losing sender reputation

When you suddenly stop sending from one platform and start the same volume from another, inbox providers see a pattern break. The result is often throttling or spam placement. The fix: a gradual volume ramp on lemlist while Klenty winds down.

2. Broken CRM workflows and duplicate records

If Klenty and lemlist both sync to the same CRM simultaneously, you can create duplicate contacts or conflicting activity logs. Disable Klenty’s CRM sync before you enable lemlist’s. Don’t run both in parallel on the same records.

3. Unmapped custom fields that silently drop data

Poor formatting means broken personalization, failed imports, and wasted time fixing errors lead by lead. CSV imports skip columns that don’t match a recognized variable. If you forget to map a custom field, that data disappears without an error message. Always preview the import before confirming.

4. Active campaigns going dark

Prospects mid-sequence in Klenty won’t automatically continue in lemlist. You have two options: let active Klenty cadences finish before migrating those prospects, or manually re-enroll them in lemlist sequences at the right step. Either way, plan for it. An unexpected silence mid-sequence can kill a deal.

5. Team adoption lag

The technical migration is one thing. Getting reps comfortable in a new interface is another. lemlist’s dashboard includes a guided setup walkthrough and in-app chat support. Scheduling a short team session in the first week will save a lot of one-off questions later.

What lemlist gives you that Klenty does not

A migration is also an upgrade opportunity. Once you’re on lemlist, several capabilities become available that didn’t exist in your Klenty setup.

• •

  Built-in lead database with verified contacts: lemlist includes a 600M+ contact database, so you can prospect without a separate data vendor. Leads can be filtered by ICP criteria and pushed directly into campaigns.

• •

  Multichannel sequences across five channels: Where Klenty centers on email with add-on channels, lemlist runs coordinated sequences across email, LinkedIn, phone, WhatsApp, and SMS from one campaign. Engagement-based branching lets you adapt automatically (send a LinkedIn message if no email reply, for example).

• •

  AI agents for enrichment, personalization, and campaign building: lemAgent builds sequences from a text prompt. AI Agentic Enrichment pulls structured context from websites, LinkedIn, CRM data, and call recordings. Smart messaging generates personalized copy and cleans lead data at import.

• •

  Deliverability infrastructure on every seat: Every lemlist seat includes lemwarm, Deliverability Hub monitoring, inbox rotation, and pre-send content checks. These are not add-ons.

Your first week after migrating to lemlist

Here’s a practical day-by-day schedule to keep your migration on track:

• •

  Day 1–2: Confirm all mailbox connections, enable lemwarm, verify CRM sync is logging correctly

• •

  Day 3–4: Launch your first rebuilt sequence to a small test segment. Check inbox placement results in Deliverability Hub.

• •

  Day 5–6: Enrich any remaining leads with missing emails or phone numbers using waterfall enrichment. Add LinkedIn or call steps to your sequences if you haven’t already.

• •

  Day 7: Review early campaign metrics in lemlist’s dashboard. Compare against your Klenty benchmarks. If results are stable (or trending up), disable Klenty and go fully live.

Over to you

Switching from Klenty to lemlist is a controlled process. The data migration takes an afternoon of focused work. The parallel testing period adds one to two weeks. And once you’re live, you gain access to channels, data, and AI tools that weren’t part of your previous setup.

The biggest thing to get right is the transition period. Move volume gradually, map your fields carefully, and use the parallel-run window to confirm everything works before you commit.