Adding contact records to Microsoft Dynamics CRM

[Chelsea_Stinnet]

Our Marketo instance syncs with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which uses both lead and contact records for prospects. The way my sales team works out of CRM is the ISRs handle leads and the Sales Directors handle contacts. When I'm entering in trade show leads I need to have them sync over to CRM as contacts so the SDs can work them. When I'm importing a list in Marketo, I set the Contact Type field as Contact and it shows that it's a contact record in Marketo, but it enters CRM as a lead record. Has anyone found a solution to this lead vs contact record issue in CRM? I'd love to hear about it! Thanks.

[Chris_Johnston]

You can select to sync as a Contact or a Lead.

Create a Contact in Microsoft Dynamics - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

[Chelsea_Stinnet]

Thanks! If I perform this action and the contact already exists in CRM, will it add the activity to the existing record? It's been adding duplicate lead records when the contact record already exists. Even when I selected the Contact Type as Contact.

[Chris_Johnston]

This should either update or create based on email address when run through to Dynamics.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Does the record you're syncing over from Marketo have a direct link to the contact in CRM (meaning, does the ParentContactID exist):

If so, and you try to sync it, the sync will fail.  But any changes made on either side, will be reflected on the other side - due to the bi-directional sync.  If ParentContactID does not exist, you're dealing with a separate record - even though the email address is the same.  And therefore, another contact record should be created (alongside of the other contact record).  But that doesn't appear to be happening here.  We always sync people from Marketo to LEADS in CRM - so unfortunately, I can't share any real world experience here.  But I will direct you to a detailed reply of mine, where I share some of our pain points that we're currently dealing with between Marketo/Dynamics CRM.  See my post at the end of this thread: Re: Lead Process Updating

[Dan_Stevens_]

BTW, you should move this discussion to the "Product Discussions" area of the community.  It will get much more visibility and potential responses.