A question about Marketo user and leads

[Nurture_Ninja]

Hello! We are trying to set up a lead lifecycle within Marketo. On a high level, the leads that are not MQL'd will remain in a recycle bucket and owned by the Marketing team. What is the best practice in terms of who these leads should be assigned to in Marketo & in Salesforce? Thanks

[Darshil_Shah1]

Well, to add some color, in most cases, the Recycle stage is used to park people who have been MQLed and then sent back/turned back by the LDR team as they didn't show the requisite interest. I haven't seen users assigning people who are flowing through the lifecycle model for the first time to the Recycle stage. Additionally, in most cases, this is a temporary stage before adding people back to the lead nurturing. To answer your question, it really is a process question as to whom you assign the recycled leads, you can either keep them assigned to the sales user who recycled those or even better and cleaner re-assign them to the generic Marketo Sync user. IMO whichever route you follow, it's important to have your marketing and sales team aligned and in agreement with it and follow the same consistent process for all the applicable Recycle records.

[Nurture_Ninja]

I apologize for the initial lack of clarity in my question. I'm seeking clarification on the use of a generic user in Marketo and SF. This pertains not only to recycled leads but also to any leads that have not yet reached the MQL status and are unassigned to specific sales teams. Should assigning them to a generic user be considered a best practice?

[Darshil_Shah1]

I think so, yes, assigning people to the generic user until they're MQLed should be the preferred way to go here. Some organizations have a BU or Geography specific lead queue to which people are initially assigned when they're synced from Marketo over to Salesforce. Additionally, I usually prefer all the routing and further assignments to be done and taken care of at Salesforce's end instead of housing that logic in Marketo. SFDC's assignment rules and triggers allow much more granular possibilities and can run more complex situations.

[SanfordWhiteman]

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What is the best practice in terms of who these leads should be assigned to in Marketo & in Salesforce? Thanks

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I find it very confusing for cleanup processes when someone was rejected by sales but still owned by that same human salesperson’s account. Creates more back-and-forth when determining if someone can be purged. So I would reassign them to a generic User (e.g. the Marketo API User) for sure.

[Nurture_Ninja]

Thank you for your response. I concur with the approach you've recommended. Additionally, do you advise that leads not yet meeting the MQL criteria due to an insufficient score should also be assigned to the generic user in both Marketo and SF? Thanks for your input.