Confusion about data syncing between SFDC and Marketo

[Anonymous]

So I'm setting up a new SFDC and Marketo intergration, but even after reading all the different documentation, I'm still confused about some of the details. Here's some background:

Currently, we have our Marketo database, which we send all marketing correspondence and nurturing from, and a SFDC database with only contact and account information. We're looking to push leads from Marketo to SFDC once they've reached a certain point in our nurture campaigns or lead scores. This is simple enough with the Marketo "Push lead to SFDC". Where it gets confusing is on the initial set-up.

If I just follow the step-by-step guide (Professional Edition - Marketo Docs - Product Docs) then it will create duplicates of all the contacts in Marketo that are already in SFDC, and sync all leads to SFDC, correct? Or will instead just sync the contacts in SFDC to Marketo, creating duplicates in Marketo? Supposedly, Marketo dedups leads, but several threads have talked about duplications being an issue.

Also, from the documentation, if a lead is converted and made into a contact in SFDC, it will update it in Marketo without duplicating the record, correct?

[Grégoire_Miche2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike,

The initial sync will push everything in SFDC into Marketo. But by default, it will not push everything in Marketo to SFDC.

As you point out, Marketo does not deduplicate what comes from SFDC, so the result is that it may indeed create duplicates in Marketo if the same people are already there, from your previous campaigns or manual imports.

So the first thing you may want to do in Marketo after the initial sync is to cleanse these duplicates and merge the non sync'ed leads with the leads /contacts coming from SFDC. You might want to consider services such a Marketo's Easy Merge of Marketo Apps | Leadonance (contact Paul Trushin).

Then, if a lead in SFDC is converted, Marketo will automatically map with the existing contact and from there will continue sync'ing with the contact.

-Greg

[Anonymous]

Thanks this was really helpful!