Syncing an entire program to Salesforce, how to assign contacts and leads.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Salesforce admin, but a new Marketo user and am looking for help on best practices for assignment of leads and contacts in Salesforce. The current implementation of the two systems is setup to where Marketo syncs a new lead to SFDC every time a lead exceeds a point threshold, so my assignment rules are simple, every-time a new lead was created I had assignment rules based on certain criteria. Now we're looking to use Marketo and SFDC like we believe they were originally intended to be used, where there is only 1 lead/contact per email address so we can track the lifecycle and all the marketing touch points. So this introduces many new situations that I don't know how to handle, mainly around how to assign contacts as "leads", and how to reassign perviously disqualified leads that might be "leads" again. Please forgive me if I'm not using the correct terminology, but I have some questions and was hoping someone could either help me answer them, or point me in the direction of relevant training materials, or possibly even showing me how their system works if it's setup similar to how we're attempting to use it:

So we're ready to sync an entire Program to Salesforce and here are three scenarios I can't seem to wrap my head around:

1) If a contact already exists in Salesforce and is in the program, therefore attached to the SFDC campaign, how do I assign a contact to be contacted as if it was a lead? Or is there a way for Marketo to create a lead attached to the contact record? I feel a little lost on how this is supposed to work.

2) If a previously disqualified lead is part of the campaign/program and scores to become a viable lead again, how does it get assigned?

3) If an open, currently being worked lead, is part of the campagin, I'm assuming Marketo will just update it, but should other wise leave it alone.

I hope this makes sense, I'm fully aware of the possibility I might not understand how it's supposed to work, any help or guidance is much appreciated!

Thanks,

AJ

[Josh_Hill13 · Accepted solution]

1. If SFDC Type=Contact, then assign a Task. This assumes that the Contact is owned by the right person.
2. Recycled lead assignment may depend alot on what you do with the lead when it is disqualified or recycled. Usually, I reassign Leads to a Queue and then Change Owner or use LARs to reassign.
3. Yes, marketo should just update any lead's data as appropriate. It should only get assigned at MQL or when you decide.

There are quite a few issues to consider and it will be difficult to write it all out here.

• Consider the full lifecycle process and when a lead is first assigned and what record type it will be.
• make the sync central
• be careful with Program to SFDC Campaign sync if you want to hold back leads
• consider Lead Queues for holding records before assignment
• consider leveraging lead assignment rules in SFDC if you have complex rules.

[Anonymous]

What happens if an existing SFDC contact is used in a new Campaign in Marketo and they respond positively? Will the contact be pushed to SFDC as a Lead?