Auto-Identify Bad Phone Numbers

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for a Salesforce and/or Marketo application that automatically identifies bad phone numbers upon lead creation. About 15% of all of our leads (tens of thousands per month) have bad phone numbers, so we would like a product to identify the bad number and populate a value in Salesforce that triggers an email in Marketo.

Suggestions? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

When you say bad phone number, do you mean it isn't valid at all or just doesn't match the lead?

It is a pretty hard problem to solve as there isn't really a way to know who a number belongs to without calling it. That said, I've seen companies take an alternative approach and buy numbers for their leads with Data.com.

[Anonymous]

Hey Erik! We met at summit last year, and you helped talk us through how to use the API on non-Marketo forms to direct the information into Marketo before it enters Salesforce.

We're looking for the former. We receive a ton of bad numbers like (123) 456-7890. Despite being visibily invalid, our sales reps will still call these leads, as we have some top-line performance metrics based on dials and talk time. This makes up about 15% of all leads, so we would like to automate invalid lead data collection process as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

Hey Matt, I thought that was you.

If the invalid ones form a consistent pattern you might be able to create some data management Smart Campaigns or Javascript validation on forms. Alternatively, someone may know of a webservice that does phone validation which you could possibly call with a webhook.

Just ideas- I don't have a great service to point you at.

-Erik

[Anonymous]

Hi Matt,

Were you able to find a solution for this issue? We are running into the same problem and unfortunately the pattern is not consistent when people enter invalid phone numbers.

Thanks!
Carlyn

[Anonymous]

Not with Marketo. Two reasonable options:

1.  Create workflow in Salesforce that 1) reads the number of digits in a number and marks as a defect if it is more or less than 10; and 2) reads the first three digits in a number and marks as a defect if it does not match a separate lookup table of approved US phone numbers.

2.  Use a third-party company like Experian. This is the route we're taking.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Matt!