Can Marketo create new contact records in Salesforce directly? We don't use the lead object.

[Amanda_Giacobas]

We're a new Marketo customer and about to set up our Salesforce sync. We don't use the Salesforce lead object at all. When a new contact is created in HubSpot today, Salesforce creates a new contact record, not lead record. This setting is controlled in HubSpot. Looking for ways to make sure Marketo can push new "people" to the Salesforce contact object as well (we already use code in Salesforce to create a new account if the new contact has an email domain that doesn't match an existing account email domain).

Help and ideas much appreciated!

[SanfordWhiteman]

Wrong space. Please move the thread to Products​ (Move link at the right). This isn't a support space.

[Veronica_Holme4]

Not from Marketo, no.

Even though you say you do not use the leads object, everyone has it, and you have to use it to pull off what you're wanting with the native sync (note there are many different ways of doing this with a custom API, but I try not to build stuff if I don't have to).

The reaosn this can't be done is that there's no way for Marketo to figure out what objects you want the Contact associated with when it gets to SFDC.

What I have done with many clients in this situation is to create an apex trigger in SFDC that "converts" the lead directly into a Contact when a lead is created. Then you can use all the contact/account matching tools within SFDC that can help you ensure duplicates aren't created and the right records are created.

[Amanda_Giacobas]

Veronica,

Thanks for the response. Do you have any information on what kind of apex trigger is needed to convert a lead into a contact in salesforce? We already have sales territory and account mapping triggers on the contact object. So I think we are looking at creating a lead and converting immediately into a contact where routing and account assignment triggers can fire (they are set to fire on contact create).

[Casey_Grimes · Accepted solution]

Hi Amanda,

Like Veronica, I also recommend creating a small Apex trigger to handle this conversion (Auto convert Lead using Process Builder is a good template to start with and tweak from there), but it is worth remembering that when you auto-convert a lead, it does not de-duplicate the Account that's created with the Contact, so you'd need to have some sort of process to clean that up. This could cause some havoc with your Account Assignment triggers, so you may need to map your order of operations for this behavior and make sure everything flows in the correct order.

[Veronica_Holme4]

Use Courtney's suggestion here, she's the best at this