I don't want my "subscribers" to become leads in my CRM (SugarCRM) until they perform certain actions (form fills). Is this possible?

[Anonymous]

I have a question: Is it possible to distinguish between leads based on the action(s) they have or haven't taken? We have a subscribe option that allows visitors to the site to sign up to our newsletter, but we don't consider these to be 'proper' leads yet, as they haven't made a specific enquiry (via submitting a form). Ideally these subscriber leads will not be pulled across to SugarCRM yet - they will exist in Marketo only until they submit an enquiry.

We have built our own connector so we can control what data is synced back and forth between Marketo and SugarCRM, but we need an easy way to identify these subscribers in Marketo.

Any suggestions?

[Dan_Stevens_]

That's purely up to you.  Leads don't automatically sync to CRM from Marketo (like they do from CRM to Marketo - although, now you can control that flow as well with the custom sync filter - by that's off-topic).  For example, we don't sync leads until they become a potential MQL (lead stage: EVALUATION) or fast-tracked MQL.  So in our case we are triggering off of lead lifecycle stages.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dan. Where do I find these custom sync filters?

Can you take me through the flows/triggers you've used for yours as an example?

Thanks for your help!

[Paul_Drago]

First, I am going to caution-- it doesn't sound like you have really worked out a strategy here yet-- and I am concerned that you are sort of jumping in head first.

Do you have a lead lifecycle?  What is the criteria you are using in your lifecycle?  Do you have a scoring model?

Are you using the Prospect - MQL - SAL - SQL - Customer lead model?   Have you imported a basic lead lifecycle from the Marketo library?

This is an incredibly complex topic and something that people spend a lot of time tweaking--

but if you start with the Marketo Lead Lifecycle 2 (from the marketo program library)

Take the 1 - Sync New Lead .  Remove the trigger and add in the following:

Lead is Created

Score is Changed  (if you have a scoring model)

Data Change (For whatever fields you are looking for activity on)  or Program Status change

Set a filter on it for whatever actions you want them to take (programs, data change-- these should match the last two triggers above)

Next Click Flow

There is a Sync Lead to SFDC --  I don't know the SugarCRM mechanism but I would suspect there is a Sync Lead to Sugar

I want to stress here again-- if you want to take full advantage of your marketo instance you really need to make sure that you have a lifecycle that makes sense for your business and that you are moving test leads through the system-- tracking them to make sure that you are getting everything you need out of it.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Couldn't agree more, Paul.  Adi, just to give you a sense on how complex this could be - and why you need to take some time to carefully plan this out - here are all of the workflows associated with our lead lifecycle (some of the campaign flows are upwards of 25 separate flow steps, all doing something different - including setting the appropriate values of lead lifecycle status, revenue stage, CRM status reason, MQL date/channel/program; syncing to CRM; grabbing the CRM lead ID so that direct links can be included in the alerts; assigning the lead to the appropriate country marketer; sending out marketing/sales alerts; etc.):

[Anonymous]

Thanks Paul and Dan for your help on this.