When you merge leads, does it create a new record?

[Jessica_Kao3]

We've been using Ringlead to do a batch merge and found that when we ran the merge, all the records are now showing as the create date both on the SFDC and Marketo record as being on the day of the merge?  Is there any way around this?  When you merge a record in Marketo manually does this also happen?

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Jessica,

Unfortunately, Marketo decides on which value to keep, and it will keep the most recent one. I've actually created an idea so that this can be fixed in Marketo, so that we can define if we want to keep the most recent or the oldest value for some cases (i.e. creation date of the lead).

In the meantime, I created a new field (Mkto Created on) and a smart list to push the first Created date to this field (using a token). I made sure to block field updates for any source, so that once set, it cannot be modified, even inadvertently. When I merge two leads together, it asks me which value in this specific field I want to keep. That's my way to go around this in the meantime.

Here's my flow:

Hope this helps

Emma

[Jessica_Kao3]

How do you get around the reporting issue that these were not leads created, can I manually restate Mkto Created on and push that value back into the created date because this will throw off all my reports in RCE. 

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Jessica,

Hmm Not sure you can manually restate Mkto Created on and push that value back to created date, as this field is not editable manually. Maybe by creating a smart list and a flow to force this update (we need to make sure this field is not blocked for updates) and maybe this could work. I never tried to do this modification, but maybe that could done!

I export all my leads to an Excel file and define which columns to use. So as for me, I only "trust" the new field I created Mkto Created On which has the oldest date.

[Iryna_Zhuravel4]

We also use Ringlead, and I ran into this issue a lot.

You cannot restate mrkt created date, but you can update acquisition date. I use acquisition date in most of my reports and quite often run batch updates like this:

SFDC will keep the created date of the master record, and in our case, it is usually the original record

[ChristinaZuniga]

Emmanuelle Bissuel​, I have Salesforce and no mass merge / dedupe 3rd party like RingLead. Based on this information, do you recommend that I merge records in SFDC so that I have more control over what fields remain?

[Iryna_Zhuravel4]

The best practice is to keep your CRM database as the master source of your data, therefore it is usually advisable to merge records in the CRM.

[Dan_Stevens_]

If the leads exist in both CRM and Marketo, you have no choice but to do the merge in CRM (for MS Dynamics).  And then the merge is automatically reflected in Marketo.

[Iryna_Zhuravel4]

You are of course right, Dan, you have no choice but to merge in the CRM.

I am stuck with the set up where a part of the marketo database doesn't sync to sfdc, and part of the sfdc db does not sync to Marketo for no good reason, and I am being constantly abused by the salesforce folks making me create workarounds in Marketo to solve data issues they are having in SFDC, so "the best practice is to keep your CRM database as the master source of your data" is the mantra that comes out automatically at this point

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hey Christina Zuniga,

We do not have a mass merge tool either - we're just using Marketo and Microsoft Dynamics CRM for our lead database. If you have duplicate records in SFDC, I do not see why you would not want to merge them together. The cleaner the data in both your CRM and Marketo, the better it is

Emma

[ChristinaZuniga]

Emmanuelle Bissuel​, thanks for the quick response! My company's database structure is...unique. We have contacts at many different accounts and frankly it's hard to determine which account to put people at. I did a deduplicate project last year to try to clean it up but some contacts cannot be placed at just one account based on how we sell .

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Hi Christina,

We also have some contacts that have two or more accounts with the same email address. We addressed this issue by creating a field in Marketo that can be checked or unchecked "Not a Duplicate". This means that, although two contacts have the same email address, these two contacts are not duplicates and do not need to be merged as they are in two different accounts in our CRM.

Here's our list for the Duplicates Leads:

Hope that helps you

[ChristinaZuniga]

Great idea! Thank you

[Emmanuelle_Biss]

Great You're welcome!