How to Send IndiaMART Leads to Your CRM Automatically

If you sell on IndiaMART, you already know the routine. Enquiries land in the Lead Manager, someone copies them into Excel or the CRM, and a salesperson calls back when they get to it. On a busy day, leads wait hours. On a holiday, they wait days, and the buyer has already spoken to three other suppliers.

IndiaMART offers two official ways to get leads out automatically: the Pull API and the Push API. This guide explains both, their real limits, and the workflow we use to put every lead into a CRM with an instant alert to sales.

Option 1: the Pull API (your system asks for new leads)

With the Pull API, your automation calls IndiaMART every few minutes and asks for any leads received in a time window. Here is how it works, according to IndiaMART's own documentation (source):

• Getting your key: in the seller panel, open Lead Manager, click the three-dot menu, then Import/Export Leads, then Pull API, and click Generate Key.
• Time window: each request can cover at most 7 days. Without a start and end time, it returns the last 24 hours.
• Frequency: wait at least 5 minutes between requests. More than 5 hits in one minute blocks the key for 15 minutes.
• History: only the last 365 days of leads are available.
• Key expiry: the key expires if there's no user activity on the account for 7 days, so an integration can stop quietly during a long break.

Each lead comes back with a unique query ID, the lead type (for example a direct enquiry, a buy-lead or a phone enquiry), the time, the buyer's name, mobile or email, and their message.

Option 2: the Push API (IndiaMART sends leads to you)

The Push API works the other way round: the moment a lead arrives, IndiaMART sends it to a web address (a webhook) you provide. According to IndiaMART (source):

• It's available only to paid sellers, as an add-on.
• You set it up in Lead Manager under Import/Export Leads, then Push API, and confirm the webhook with an OTP.
• The webhook must use https, accept JSON, and reply with a 200 status.
• Failed deliveries are retried, but the Push API switches itself off if your endpoint doesn't accept leads for 48 hours straight.
• It only sends new leads from the moment it's switched on, not past ones.

Which should you use?

• Push API if you're a paid seller and want leads in seconds. It's the better option for fast follow-up.
• Pull API if you're not eligible for Push, or you also want to backfill leads from the last few months. A 5 to 10 minute delay is still far better than waiting for someone to copy leads by hand.
• Both for reliability: Push for speed, plus a Pull check every hour to catch anything that was missed.

If you use Zoho CRM, IndiaMART also documents a direct integration. For HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Google Sheets or anything custom, you'll need an automation tool in between.

A workflow that works: IndiaMART to CRM in minutes

Here is the setup we build most often, using n8n, Make or Zapier:

• 1. Receive the lead. A webhook for the Push API, or a schedule that calls the Pull API every 10 minutes.
• 2. Skip duplicates. Check the unique query ID against leads already processed, and match the phone number against existing contacts so a repeat buyer isn't created twice.
• 3. Create or update the CRM record. Map name, mobile, email, company, product and message into the right fields, and tag the source as IndiaMART.
• 4. Assign an owner. Round-robin, by product line or by region.
• 5. Alert the salesperson. A WhatsApp or Slack message with the buyer's name, product and a tap-to-call link.
• 6. Acknowledge the buyer. An approved WhatsApp template thanking them and saying when to expect a call. See WhatsApp automation.
• 7. Watch for failures. If IndiaMART returns an error, such as an expired key or a rate limit, send an alert to a person instead of failing silently.

Step 7 matters more than it looks. Most home-made integrations break the same way: the key expires or the rate limit kicks in, and nobody notices for a week.

Common mistakes

• Polling too often. Calling the Pull API every minute gets the key blocked. Every 5 to 10 minutes is enough.
• No duplicate check. The same buyer often enquires about several products. Without matching on phone number, your CRM fills up with copies.
• Losing the message. The buyer's message often includes quantity, location and budget. Map it into the CRM, don't drop it.
• Relying on one channel. If Push goes down for 48 hours it switches off. A backup Pull check catches the gap.

Do the same for your other lead sources

IndiaMART is usually just one of several sources. The same pattern works for JustDial, website forms, Meta and Google ads, and WhatsApp enquiries, so every lead lands in one place with one owner. That's what CRM automation is about. If you'd rather not build it yourself, book a free audit and we'll map your lead sources and set it up for you.

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