Leads are deleted in Salesforce, but remain in Marketo

Anonymous
Not applicable

I just realized that leads that have been deleted in Salesforce (such as duplicates), continue to live in Marketo. Is this a default rule? What are the best practices for this?

I don't see a scenario where I would need leads that have been deleted from Salesforce in Marketo... How can I set up the delete sync? Thanks!

Tags (2)
14 REPLIES 14
Dory_Viscoglio
Level 10

Yes, as the others have mentioned... you might not want to delete these due to valuable history associated. But, if you want to have a campaign that will continuously clean them up, then you want to have a batch campaign:

Smart list: Deleted from SFDC = true

Flow: Delete from Marketo

Anonymous
Not applicable

Ok got it! Thanks.

I guess we have to decide internally if these leads need to be deleted. I would like to keep the system clean; this issue has been noticed when looking at the "Possible Duplicates" list. This list has a lot of duplicate leads that have been deleted in Salesforce.

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Hi Anastasia,

Dan is right on this.

I would question the idea of deleting them in SFDC instead of merging them. If you had it merged in SFDC, they would also merge automatically in Marketo.

-Greg

Dan_Stevens_
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

To be safe, you're probably better off just merging the deleted one with the active one; and making sure that your active one is considered the master record.  Marketo always considers the record updated most recently as the active record that will be used for all future capturing of activity (and things like comparing against list imports).

Abaran
Level 5

Hi everyone.

I confirm this works. I just did it today. Sales deleted a record in SFDC but it was not deleted in Marketo. In this case, I am glad the record was still in Marketo as some key information was on it that was lost in SFDC.

Merging the two records allows au to retrieve the missing information.

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

Hi Axel,

Unlike Marketo, SFDC has a recycle bin from which you can retrieve a record 15 days after it has been deleted, (excepted if some has emptied the bin).

-Greg

Abaran
Level 5

Thanks Gregoire. Yes i was aware.

The issues is that for GDPR reason we could be in trouble if the record gets deleted in SFDC but not in Marketo.

Grégoire_Miche2
Level 10

HI Axel,

You are correct, this has to be tackled.

You need to have a smart campaign that detects SFDC deletions and remove them from Marketo.

I recommend this smart campaign wait a few days before actually deleting the data from Marketo. As Marketo has no recycle bin, deletion is immediate and cannot be rolled back. So wait a few days and if after that delay, the person is still deleted from SFDC, delete it in Marketo.

-Greg

Uday_Bhaskar
Level 1

Hi Michel,

From how long Marketo keeps Salesforce deleted records in Marketo ??

We have "Deleted in Sales" system smart list in Marketo. Which holds all deleted salesforce records in Marketo.

Could you please let me know time frame of this system smart list. (ex: 1 years, 2 years ect..)

Floyd_Alvares2
Level 8

Hi Uday,

Salesforce deleted records will always remain in Marketo unless specifically deleted in Marketo.

The record will remain with SFDC is Deleted = True.

If you need to delete the records that have been deleted in SFDC, you will need to run a smart campaign (batch or trigger) to delete these records.

Hope this helps

Thanks

Floyd

Uday_Bhaskar
Level 1

Hi Floyd,

Thanks.

regards

Uday

Dan_Stevens_
Level 10 - Champion Alumni

I do know that this is expected behavior for MS Dynamics CRM - not sure about SFDC.  Essentially, when a lead/contact is deleted in CRM, it updates the Marketo record with "Microsoft is Deleted" = TRUE.  Then it's up to us to have the trigger/batch campaigns active to automatically remove these same records from Marketo.  In fact, this is preferred functionality since someone on the CRM side could inadvertently delete an active record that contains a bunch of behavioral data.  So you really wouldn't want that record to be deleted in Marketo.  Most often, deleting a record should be avoided.  Instead, duplicates should be merged to retain all combined activity.

Roxann_McGlump1
Community Manager

This is also true with Salesforce.  When a synced record is deleted in Salesforce, Marketo keeps the lead but flags it with "is Deleted in SFDC = True".

Anonymous
Not applicable

Does it mean I have to run a smart list "Deleted in Salesforce = true", and then remove those leads from Marketo? Do you have a any scenarios when you would keep these leads in Marketo?