Need a way for Sales to pitch a lead back to marketing for nurturing

[Anonymous]

We’ve created stages for leads/contacts, and once they are accepted by a sales person, we don’t ever contact them again.
 
But the sales team has requested that there be a way that they can put contacts “back” into marketing, so we can nurture them, etc. For example, they've tried to get this person on the phone but come up dry, or they talk to them for awhile but then the contact goes "dark." 
 
What’s the best way to do this? 

[Anonymous]

If you assign leads to sales reps based on lead score, you can try this method which I've used in the past:

Add a picklist value to the Lead Status Field called "Recycle to Marketing". Instruct your sales reps to change the status to this when they talk to a lead who isn't unqualified, but also isn't ready for future sales qualification or an opportunity.

On the Marketo end, build a trigger that watches for this value change, and then have it zero out the lead score, and change the owner of the record to a marketing user (we used the Marketo sync account user). Reassigning the owner then takes the lead out of the sales rep's lead view and sales insight dashboard. I don't recommend deleting the lead from the CRM (though its certanly possible to do so), because you'll lose any activity history logged by the sales rep in doing so.

Then, when the lead eventually reaches the assignment threshold again, adjust your assignment rules or build a new one that reassigns this lead back to the sales person and changes the lead status back to "Open".

Hope this helps,

Jeff

[Josh_Hill13]

Yes, that is the way to do it!

If you can also setup a separate Last Status Change Timestamp and Last Status field, you can start tracking how leads move through the funnel.

I would also add a Recycle Reason code which you could place in a separate field visible to Marketing or as Lead Status Detail. This way you can route the leads based on why it was Recycled. If it was a competitor, not ready, etc...

Usually I have a Trash status for truly poor leads, but you could also do this via the Recycle Reason.