SFDC/Marketo sync without the Lead object?

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to fully utilize Marketo + SFDC without enabling the SFDC Lead object or is it absolutely critical?  e.g. could I sync all Marketo "Leads" as SFDC "Contacts?"

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi Rachelle,

Here's a workaround off the top of my head--haven't vetted this at all, so may not be incredibly helpful.

• Only allow access to the SFDC lead object for the Marketo sync user.
• In Marketo, whenver you use Sync Lead, immediately follow it with Convert Lead.

Yeah, you're still technically using the lead object, but if it's restricted from all users save the sync user, there should be minimal impact for your team.  

Love to hear how this ends up--interesting problem!

Josh

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi Rachelle,

In short answer to your question:  No, you do not need to use SFDC Leads for Marketo to work.

In long answer to your question:  Its going to be a pain if you don't.

So before we get into why its going to be such a pain, maybe you can walk through the scenario you're thinking about and why you don't want to use Leads?

To give you a very quick run down on the reasons its going to be a pain:
1.  SFDC inherently uses all Web to Lead captures and enters them as Leads.
2.  Marketo works similarly to this above process and thus enters their net new records as leads as well.
3.  If you use the "Convert to Lead" flow step in Marketo it will also create a new opportunity associated to every net new account, which I'd imagine is not your wish.  ALSO, if you're working in B2B, it will create a heck of a mess for you when you have 4 contacts come through from "Acme" company, but they all submit it 4 different ways (Acme, Acme Inc., Acme Company, Acme Pty Ltd.).  This would create 4 different accounts with 4 different contacts.

Now are there ways to work around some of these above?  Sure...but we're entering a very big world of pain when it comes to process, reporting, and the amount of custom code necessary to accomplish this.  

So let's start back at what your scenario is and we can diagnose just how painful it may (or maynot) be. ;).

[Jep_Castelein2]

Marketo can only create Leads in SFDC, not Contacts. There are tools on the AppExchange that make it easy to mass-convert Leads to Contacts and Accounts. 

Please also note that the Marketo-SFDC sync will only work if there is access to Lead, Contact, Account and Opportunity objects. If you revoke access to any of these objects through Object permissions, the entire sync will fail.

I have customers who use criteria-based sharing rules to give Marketo access to only Leads that have been created by Marketo. Those Leads are being converted shortly after creation, so the net result is that there are very few Leads in the system. 

Best, 
Jep

[Anonymous]

I really appreciate the responses, Josh, Michael and Jep--

A client isn't currently using the Lead object and was wondering if it was absolutely necessary (Marketo and SFDC are not currently sync'd).  Glad we now have this discussion documented in the community.  I will certainly advise them to roll it out.

Michael - agreed that those are some pretty big gotchas and the Accounts are already a bit out of control in SFDC anyway.  Associating the Contact with the right Account is the fun part when converting a Lead anyway, right?  🙂 

Many thanks for the insights!
- Rachelle