Workflow break check · your result
Where your lead hand-off from marketing to sales typically breaks
These are the places setups like yours usually fail; they are not findings about your systems, since nothing here looked at them. Each one comes with a way to check it yourself. Navceed is being built to run checks of these six kinds; today it runs them on an example company, and connecting your own tools is coming next.
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1. The same person becomes two (or five) records
Check firstMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “It creates a new record and someone cleans up later”; “A person exports a file and imports it”.
How to check, and why it happens
One person fills two forms, or attends a webinar with a different email, and the CRM creates a second record. Two reps may call them, or neither does because each thinks the other owns it.
Why it happens. Automated writes and file imports may skip the duplicate warning a person typing in the CRM would see, and matching on exact email misses typos and second addresses.
Usually fixed by: CRM admin (matching rules) with marketing operations (what the connection may create).
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
Sources: Data-quality report
2. New leads sit with no real owner
Check firstOwnerRun by your CRM adminabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “It goes to a shared queue and reps pick it up”; “I'm not sure, to: Is there a rule that should always hold (for example, every lead has an owner within a day), and does anything check it?”.
How to check, and why it happens
The lead exists but belongs to a shared queue, a catch-all user, or nobody. No rep sees it in their list, so the response-time clock runs with no one watching.
Why it happens. The assignment rule has no branch for this lead (a new country, a new product, a blank field), so it falls to a default.
Usually fixed by: Sales or revenue operations (routing rules).
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
No public source found for this one: it is our reading of how these hand-offs usually work.
3. The owner has left or been switched off
Check firstOwnerRun by your CRM adminabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “Someone reassigns them, eventually”; “I'm not sure, to: Is there a rule that should always hold (for example, every lead has an owner within a day), and does anything check it?”.
How to check, and why it happens
A lead or account is owned by someone who is deactivated. Updates to it can be refused, and no one is following up.
Why it happens. When people leave, their records are not reassigned and the routing still names them.
Usually fixed by: CRM admin and sales operations (an offboarding checklist).
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
Sources: Vendor documentation
4. One person exists as a lead and as a customer contact, owned by different people
Check firstMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “It creates a new record and someone cleans up later”; “I'm not sure, to: Is there a rule that should always hold (for example, every lead has an owner within a day), and does anything check it?”.
How to check, and why it happens
After a conversion or an import, the same person can exist twice: an early-stage record and an account record, or a second record in the other tool. Each has its own owner, its own history and its own emails.
Why it happens. The conversion or the sync creates a new record instead of linking to the existing one, usually when the owner or queue setup is unusual.
Usually fixed by: CRM admin, with sales operations (who wins ownership).
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
Sources: Community thread
5. The lead reaches sales and nothing happens
Check firstFollow-upRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “There is no set process”; “I'm not sure, to: Is there a rule that should always hold (for example, every lead has an owner within a day), and does anything check it?”.
How to check, and why it happens
The lead is in the CRM with an owner, but no call, email or task follows within the agreed time. It cools while reports show it as handed off.
Why it happens. Nothing links "lead created" to "first action due", so it depends on the rep's habit.
Usually fixed by: The sales leader (the agreed time) with sales operations (alerts, automatic follow-up).
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold? Freshness: is the step still running, and on time?
Sources: Research article (2011)
6. Leads that sales rejects or stops working never go back to marketing
Check firstFollow-upRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “There is no set process”; “Automatically, but nobody checks”.
How to check, and why it happens
A lead sales declines or abandons stays with the rep or is closed, and never returns to nurture. It drops out of both teams' view.
Why it happens. Nobody owns the step from "sales said no" to "marketing keeps nurturing".
Usually fixed by: Revenue operations (the status and the recycle rule).
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first? Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
No public source found for this one: it is our reading of how these hand-offs usually work.
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7. Leads from imports and integrations skip your assignment rules
Check firstOwnerRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “A person exports a file and imports it”; “I'm not sure, to: Is there a rule that should always hold (for example, every lead has an owner within a day), and does anything check it?”.
How to check, and why it happens
Rules assign owners to leads created one way (a form, a person typing), but leads created by an import or an integration arrive with the default owner, or none.
Why it happens. In some tools, assignment rules run only when each import or call asks for them.
Usually fixed by: Sales operations and the CRM admin.
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
No public source found for this one: it is our reading of how these hand-offs usually work.
8. A lead from an existing customer is routed as a stranger
Check firstMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “It goes to a shared queue and reps pick it up”; “I'm not sure, to: Is there a rule that should always hold (for example, every lead has an owner within a day), and does anything check it?”.
How to check, and why it happens
A new lead from a company you already sell to goes round-robin to whoever is next, not to the account's owner. The customer gets a second rep, or a cold sequence.
Why it happens. Routing looks at the lead's own fields and does not look the company up first.
Usually fixed by: Sales operations (routing rules).
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
No public source found for this one: it is our reading of how these hand-offs usually work.
9. The sequence is tied to a record that was merged, converted or deleted
Worth a quick lookFollow-upRun by sales opsabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “I'm not sure, to: Is there a rule that should always hold (for example, every lead has an owner within a day), and does anything check it?”.
How to check, and why it happens
A person was enrolled, then the CRM record was merged, converted or deleted. The sales tool keeps pointing at the old one and activity cannot be written back.
Why it happens. Record changes in the CRM are not always carried into the sales tool.
Usually fixed by: CRM admin and sales operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Condition: does a rule that should always hold, hold?
Sources: Vendor documentation
10. Replies and meetings do not come back to marketing
Worth a quick lookRepliesRun by sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Automatically, but nobody checks”.
How to check, and why it happens
A prospect replies or books a meeting, but the CRM shows no activity. Marketing sees a lead that never engaged, sales sees a hot reply in their inbox, and campaign results undercount.
Why it happens. In many tools, activity is logged only when the reply's address matches a person in both systems, so a second email address, a missing record or an auto-reply breaks the link.
Usually fixed by: Sales operations (activity capture) and the CRM admin (email fields).
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first?
Sources: Vendor documentation
11. Someone opted out or bounced in one tool, and the other keeps emailing
Worth a quick lookRepliesYou can run thisabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “Automatically, but nobody checks”.
How to check, and why it happens
An unsubscribe or a bounce is recorded where it happened but not in the other system. The next campaign or sequence mails the person anyway, which hurts deliverability and ignores their choice.
Why it happens. Opt-out may be mapped one way only, a re-subscribe does not always travel back, and nothing syncs before a person's first sync.
Usually fixed by: Marketing operations (consent) with whoever owns privacy.
Kind of break, one of six: Return path: does what the next tool did get back to the first?
Sources: Vendor documentation
The common questions follow six kinds of check: Arrival (did it show up in the next tool in time?), Return path (does what the next tool did get back to the first?), Count (do the numbers at each end agree?), Freshness (is the step still running, and on time?), Field landed (did each field arrive with a value, in the right place?), Condition (does a rule that should always hold, hold?).
Checking by hand does not last
Everything above is a one-off look. The breaks that cost you are the ones that start next Tuesday, when someone changes a field.
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