Lead source and Lead source activity field dependency

[shweta_k]

Hi all,

For the Marketo instance I inherited, I see there are field dependency rules set between Lead source and Lead source activity in Salesforce. This rule results in sync errors when the lead source and activity values don't match and gets difficult to debug. I wanted to know if this is common practice, and if yes what's the real benefit of doing this? I need to rework the dependencies as a lot of them do not make sense, but before I start that exercise wanted to check if it makes sense to have these rules setup in the first place. Any help is appreciated. 

Thanks,

Shweta.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Not clear exactly what dependency you’re referring to. Do you mean the Lead Source Activity is limited to a specific set of values based on the Lead Source? Please provide more detail here.

[shweta_k]

Hi Sanford,

Yes, that's what I meant .. sorry if it wasn't clear. So we have specific values for Lead source e.g. Sales, Marketing, Partner, Data Import etc. and the lead source activity values are set up as a dependent picklist. E.g. Lead source activity of Events is currently allowed only if the Lead source is Marketing. So if a lead added with Lead source as 'Data import' later attends a webinar, this triggers Lead source activity to be updated to Events, and Marketo throws a sync error. Additionally, I see integrations with Marketo such as ON24 tend to add a lead source value of ON24 when pushing leads in Marketo. This setup predates my time in the company and I'm trying to figure out what's the best approach here. Do I keep the dependency rules and clean them up? Or does it make sense not to have these rules.. ? Any thoughts or ideas appreciated. 

Thanks again,

Shweta.

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

That rule sounds fine at a business level.

Only some master-detail combos make sense; if you allowed any combo, you’d end up with ambiguity. Similar to not letting somebody change their State unless the Country supports that State.

The problem is that the rule isn’t enforced enough! You need to ensure the values can’t be set independently on the Marketo side.

[shweta_k]

Hi Sanford,

Yes, I agree. The current combinations are definitely not setup correctly, and I understand only some will make sense. Looking at cleaning that up. Thanks again for the response. This really helps.

Best,

Shweta.

[Darshil_Shah1]

Well, field dependency rules make sense if your business needs them (basically, if you need data in a field to be from a particular set of values of other fields). If such constraints amongst fields aren't required, I don't think there's a reasonable reason you should keep them in place, and even if you need them, you should have a proper process in place to ensure marketers and sales users know the field mappings and constraints in place. Based on your description, it feels like your existing processes and operations aren't in line with the dependency rules you have in place, so either your data operation campaigns or dependency rules need to be changed or you'd keep running into such sync errors. 

[shweta_k]

Hi Darshil,

I completely agree with your response. The rules definitely need changing and good callout on fixing the processes around it as well. Will look at that as I go about fixing these. Thanks again.

Best,

Shweta.