Best Practices for Managing Possible Duplicate Leads

[Tom_Kerlin2]

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could share their process for handling possible duplicate leads. I currently have 6,500+ leads in my Possible Duplicates system smart list (using just the default Duplicate Field Name is Email Address) and wasn't sure if there was a better way to merge lead records aside from going through the list manually or using a third party service. Is there a certain number figure or percentage (of total database) for when duplicates should be considered a major issue? Do you manage these leads on a monthly or annual basis and if so, how?

I found a Product Docs article that relates: Automate an Alert for Possible Duplicate Leads - Marketo Docs - Product Docs

Has anybody tried implementing this approach? If so, please share your thoughts!

Thanks for your help,

Tom

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Tom,

You are reaching a volume where the help of a third party tool might make sense. Look into Ringlead or Leadonnace, both are available in the launchpoint.

I am afraid that an automated alert is going to overwhelm your mailbox...

-Greg

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Axel,

AFAIK, Ring lead is more a tool to use in a Marketo + SFDC environment, while Marketo's merge service or leadonnace are designed to work in Marketo only.

One of the key question is whether or not the records you want to sync are both synchronized with the CRM or not. If this is the case, then it's better to perform the merge in SFFC and then RingLead is the right tool.

On the other end, if at least one of the 2 merged records is not sync'ed, then Marketo's Merge Service or Leadonnace will be a better choice.

-Greg

[Leanne_Persang]

Data quality assurance is essential. Why is yet another third party tool required for Marketo? We also have a large amount of duplicates, but I find it hard to justify additional spend on something that should be built into Marketo. Tom, did you explore the costs for the third party tool or Marketo's Merge Service?

[Tom_Kerlin2]

Hi Leanne,

Actually we are looking at a third party add-on for MS CRM called AutoMerge (it's supposed to perform automatic merges for duplicates), but we have yet to explore costs. If anybody has experience or feedback on using AutoMerge, or has any other third party recommendations please share!

[Raymond_Russell]

We have MS Dynamics and are working on the sync with Marketo.  We will have twice as many records in CRM as we will in Marketo, but would like to have leads come over to CRM from Marketo.  Did you find a tool you were happy with that allowed you to control for incoming duplicates inside of MSCRM?

[Wyatt_Bales4]

The functionality is built into Marketo to merge up to 5 records together at a time. Given the fact merging records has several criteria (e.g. choosing which record should remain as parent vs child and which fields survive being overwritten), it makes more sense to do these changes in the system of record--not Marketing Automation. Thus, it doesn't make sense for Marketo to develop a tool when the source of most duplicate issues reside in CRM.

[Anonymous]

Tom, as others have suggested, look at a 3rd party tool to help you with this one-time merge. But this could just be like putting a bandaid on the problem. Your 6,500 dups suggest there is a bigger picture problem that's happening on an ongoing basis.

Once you get the dups gone/reduced, consider evaluating your lead input processes. A few areas to look at:

- Make sure all lead forms flow into Marketo first. This will auto dedup on email address. If you have any APIs or SF Web-to-lead forms, those can create dups

- Make sure that your CRM and Marketo are in sync as much as possible. Otherwise, a new lead can enter one system and populate to the other as a dup.

- Enforce best practices with the Sales team. Before they enter a person into SF, they should check to see if the record already exists. 3rd party apps like Ring Lead help with this process.

- Stop the madness of importing people into Salesforce.....that can create dup.

- Look for 3rd party apps (Zoom info, Data.com, etc) that populate SF w dups when names are brought in automatically.

Good luck and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Hi Jeff - to keep entry into CRM to a minimum (at the lead entity level), is it realistic to potentially prohibit the entry of leads by Sales and everything flow through Marketo?  We're throwing this idea around and getting some resistance (since Marketing isn't the source of all leads as Sales runs their own "sales campaigns" without Marketing involvement). We too have a duplicates issue that we are trying to get under control. Getting creative with the custom sync filter is another area we're focusing on (and will be the basis for my Summit session in April).

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Dan

This is good question. We have many customer that do exactly what you suggest: prohibiting the sales to enter leads and have them to entre only contacts as they are supposed to know enough to be able to create also an account if necessary. It really depends on the roles you assign to the sales in the lead management process, and more precisely in the prospection tasks: If the sales are supposed to do cold call prospection, then letting them entering leads so that they can start logging info from the early beginning of their prospection work will be necessary.

-Greg