What does this merge leads error mean?

[Lauren_Beth]

Hello - anyone come across this error message before when merging leads? Failed to merge leads [53683] My guess is its a permissions issue with Salesforce but we can't seem to figure out which particular one is causing this and have tried several iterations.

Thank you!

[Josh_Hill13]

Sounds like Marketo is not allowed to merge leads or certain records. Did you test this from the Marketo AND the SFDC side?

[Lauren_Beth]

We have but can't seem to find the specific permission in SFDC that will fix this.

[Jeff_Smith3]

Have other lead merges been successful? Is one of the records a contact in SFDC?

[Lauren_Beth]

We did have a user with the capability to merge leads in Marketo but they have since left.  We've matched their permissions and it appears we have done everything correctly but we still cannot merge leads.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Lauren,

Go the lead activity logs and click the "merge lead" activity to see whether it gives you more details.

-Greg

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Lauren,

One common mistake one can do when trying to merge leads in Marketo is that one tries to merge 2 entries which are a lead and a contact in salesforce, or 2 contacts that actually belong to 2 different accounts in salesforce. these 2 actions (merging a lead and a contact or merging 2 contacts from 2 distinct accounts) are forbidden in salesforce.

When you merge leads in Marketo, it will try merge them in Salesforce. If Salesforce refuses the action, then the error will be raised and the action cancelled in Marketo.

Please check you are not in 1 of these 2 cases. for the first case, look in Marketo at the lead.SFDC type field". Detecting the second case (2 contacts from) can be tricky if the 2 distinct accounts have the same name.

Hope this helps,

Greg

[Lauren_Beth]

Thank you!  This seems to have solved our issue.

[Ramon_Vawda]

Does this not go against what this article mentions in regards to merging leads and contacts?

Understanding Merges in Marketo

The section notes that merging leads and contacts will cause an error if the Marketo sync user doesn't have the Convert Leads permission.

Wouldn't that suggest that Leads and Contacts can be merged if that permission is set?

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Ramon,

Unlike what the doc says, sincerely, over 40 projects, I have never seen merge between a lead and contact work. There too many factors and constaints on SFDC side, usually and we always get an error.

But always worth giving a try.

-Greg