Switch from Apollo to Sellinger: a migration guide

To move from Apollo to Sellinger, export your saved contacts to CSV, remove anyone who opted out or bounced, import the file into Sellinger, connect your mailbox and LinkedIn account, and let the agent take over the leads. Your Apollo sequences and templates do not transfer, so rewrite the first message as a persona and rules. Run the old sequences down before the new ones start.

Apollo is mainly a contact database with sequencing on top. Sellinger is an AI SDR that finds buyers, writes to each one on LinkedIn, email or WhatsApp, answers replies and books meetings, with a database of its own. This guide is for someone who decides to move the outreach, and wants to do it without losing contacts or contacting people twice. It does not argue that you should: for that, see the Sellinger and Apollo comparison and the Apollo alternatives page. The Apollo details come from its help center, read through a search result on 25 October 2026 because the article itself blocked automated reading, so confirm the screens in your account.

What moves, and what does not?

The row that matters most is the unsubscribes. Keep them out of the import, and keep your own copy.

How do you export from Apollo?

Apollo's help center describes the path: go to Search, then People, filter, select the contacts and click Export. Per the article, exporting contacts you have already saved does not use credits. If you select net new people from a search, Apollo saves them first, and each net new person with a verified email uses a credit. Larger exports can take several minutes, and you can follow them under Settings, Import and Exports, CSV Exports. Limits depend on your plan, so check your account.

Tips for a clean export:

• Export only what you will use. People you have no reason to contact do not belong in the new tool.
• Include the LinkedIn URL. A LinkedIn address lets the agent write on LinkedIn, not only by email.
• Include a source column (for example the Apollo list name) so you can tell later where each lead came from. That is also your answer if someone asks how you got their details. See how did you get my data.
• Split by audience. One file per list makes it easier to give each its own segment and message.

What do you clean before you import?

1. Opt outs. Everyone who unsubscribed, replied STOP or complained, in Apollo or anywhere else.
2. Bounces. Addresses that bounced. They hurt your sender reputation if you send to them again.
3. People in active conversation. Anyone who replied in the last month. Decide whether a person finishes those threads.
4. Duplicates. Sellinger skips rows already in your pipeline and counts them, but a clean file is easier to read.
5. Customers and partners. Remove them unless you mean to contact them.

For the opt outs, Sellinger's help guide says suppression is automatic when a contact replies, and to ask support to add a contact by hand. Send support your list before you start, and keep your own copy of it.

How do you import into Sellinger?

Open Add Leads and choose the CSV tab. Upload the file, map the columns (at least one of email, LinkedIn URL or phone is required for each row, and extra columns can map to your team's custom fields), review the summary, choose the segment and destination, and click Import. Files up to 50MB are accepted, duplicates are skipped and counted, and the import report lists failed rows so you can fix and retry them. Every lead needs an agent to be contacted, so choosing the destination attaches the leads to the right campaign. The full steps are in the CSV import guide.

What do you rebuild?

Apollo sequences are step by step: day 1 email, day 3 email, day 6 task. In Sellinger you describe who you are, what you offer and how to talk, then add rules the agent follows, and the agent writes each message from the lead's own data. Start from the template library, keep the first message short, and run the campaign in approval mode so you read every message before it sends. Our onboarding checklist and guide to setting up your first AI SDR cover this.

Then reconnect your channels. Email connects as Gmail, Outlook or IMAP, with a default of 50 sends a day per mailbox and an optional warm up. LinkedIn connects through a hosted login, and Sellinger does not store your LinkedIn password.

What about the data you used Apollo for?

If you used Apollo mostly to find people, you will want a replacement for the search. Sellinger includes a database of 700M+ contacts. You open Add Leads, choose the People Database tab, filter by job title, location, company and more, check the search cost, and import the people you want with optional email and phone lookup. Searches bill from an enrichment wallet, and new accounts get a $10 starter credit on usage modules. Our post on lead enrichment explains what you pay for. Do not assume a match: run the same search in both tools for one audience and compare how many of the people you would actually contact each returns. Count them yourself, because neither tool's own coverage claim settles your case.

The other route is signals. Instead of a static list, Sellinger's intent signals turn LinkedIn activity, such as a post asking for a tool, into leads. That is a different way of building a list, covered in our post on signal based versus database prospecting.

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Importing everyone. A list is a liability, not an asset, if half of it should not be contacted.
• Running both tools on the same person. Pause the Apollo steps for anyone you move.
• Skipping the opt outs. The person who unsubscribed last month and hears from you again will complain.
• Judging in the first week. Follow ups are where a large share of replies come from. Give a sequence time to complete.
• Copying sequences word for word into rules. Describe the intent and let the agent write.

A two week cutover plan

• Days 1 to 2. Export, clean, import to a test segment of 50 leads. Connect one mailbox.
• Days 3 to 5. Run approval mode. Read every message. Adjust the persona.
• Days 6 to 10. Widen to the full list in batches. Stop new Apollo steps for people now in Sellinger, so nobody gets both.
• Days 11 to 14. Compare reply rate and meetings per 100 people messaged with your Apollo baseline, counted the same way. See how we define reply rate.

Sellinger offers 30 days free on messaging modules and bundles, no card, so you can test before you commit. The 30 day pilot guide sets the decision rule. This is general information, and each team's data protection duties are their own.