Does this Marketo to Salesforce sync scenario sound familiar? Despite setting up your Marketo instance to filter data, you notice errors with dirty data cropping up every now and then and you suspect that Marketo to SFDC sync errors are to blame. Of course, this scenario is often worse for high volume instances and complex SFDC setups. But luckily there are ways to alleviate this.
A periodic check of the “Notifications” in your instance can help you spot these errors and rectify them before major damage is done. Here are the three most common sync errors and how you can fix them.
1. Field Validation
When Marketo attempts to send data values that do not conform to the validation rules set up in SFDC, a sync error shows up. All fields will be synced except the field that does not meet SFDC’s expectations.
The first step in solving this would be to investigate the source of bad data in Marketo. Possible causes would be incorrect form fills and list imports. You might need to manually edit the lead record. Another point to consider is whether the SFDC validation rule is still important. If it’s not, you could just turn it off.
2. APEX CPU Limit
Sometimes SFDC is unable to process incoming data from Marketo. Older and complex SFDC instances are more prone to this. Often the reason for this is that too many records were pushed to SFDC and SFDC was overwhelmed by the large number of triggers it had to process.
While some errors can be fixed in Marketo, errors like this would need to be reviewed with your SFDC admins and developers. Consider moving some workflows from triggers to batches.
3. Change in SFDC Picklist Values
If you are a Marketo user, you should receive an email notifying you that an SFDC field has a new picklist. Make sure your workflows and Marketo forms are in compliance with this change. In the absence of validation rules, Marketo will accept ANY value into that field and sync it to SFDC. This will not be added as a picklist option within SFDC but show up as the lead’s current value.
To be one step ahead, always stay in touch with your CRM team regarding data changes. In order to fix data issues arising from this error, map the old values to the new values in a sheet, update Marketo forms to only display new values, and run a smart campaign to correct data or perform a list upload to remap the old values to the new ones.
While these are the errors I often come across, there have been times when I had to solve more complicated sync issues. Not all issues are visible, and the key is to spot and fix them before damage is done. Feel free to connect or contact us if you need our help with SFDC sync errors or a health audit of your Marketo instance. I am happy to help!
