Specifying what account a token pulls from with a one-to-many contact to account relationship.

[b_lee_popmenu]

Hello! We use Marketo + SFDC and our SF contacts can have a one-to-many-relationship with accounts. This causes problems when adding account-based email tokens as it will only pull fields from the primary account related to the contact, not the account that qualifies for the smart list filters. This is understandable behavior but I am not sure how to get past it.

Is there a way to tell Marketo to pull the token from a field on the object that caused someone to qualify for the smart list? I've used the $TriggerObject reference before but obviously that won't work for batch campaigns. Is there something similar for batch sends?

An example: A contact in Salesforce may own 3 restaurants, have the same role at all three, and therefore be related to all three accounts. Let's say one of those is an Italian restaurant. So when we are trying to segment emails, if we only want to send to contacts with restaurants that serve Italian food and pull that account name in as a token, if that contact's primary relationship is with the restaurant that serves Sushi, the wrong name will be pulled in. 

Any advice is much appreciated as this is a common issue for us!

[SanfordWhiteman · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to reference fields on secondary Accounts. You’d have to use a custom junction object in SFDC, rather than the built-in SFDC feature(s), for this.

[b_lee_popmenu]

Got it, thanks for the quick reply Sanford! 

[b_lee_popmenu]

Let's say we did create a custom junction object or even were trying to use a token from an existing custom object with a one-to-many relationship, is there a way to pull a token from a field on the object that meets the smart list filters?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Well, not directly (unless it’s a trigger campaign in which case you use $TriggerObject). But you can mirror the SL criteria in Velocity to find the same object.

[b_lee_popmenu]

That's what I was hoping for! Would it be pretty silly for me to try to figure out how to do that as someone who does not know velocity at all? Thanks for all of your help!

[SanfordWhiteman]

It depends on how complex your Smart List constraints are, but you do have to know some Velocity.

[b_lee_popmenu]

Gotcha, I will try to enlist the help of one of our devs. Thanks for the advice! I've been able to get past a lot of roadblocks reading your answers to others' questions in the community, I definitely consider you a Marketo legend! 

[SanfordWhiteman]

Thanks, that’s nice to hear!