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. A field or list value was changed, so a step now writes into nothing
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “Anyone with access can change it”; “Someone would spot it in a report”.
How to check, and why it happens
Someone renames, retypes or recreates a field, or renames a list value, in one tool. The connection between your marketing tool and the CRM keeps pointing at the old definition, so new answers land in a dead field or are dropped, while records still look like they arrive. Which changes break what differs by tool: a label-only rename often breaks nothing, while a type change, a deleted-and-recreated field or a renamed list value is the usual culprit (our reading).
Why it happens. A connection records a field's name and type once, at first sync, and does not always follow later changes.
Usually fixed by: Marketing operations (the mapping) with the CRM admin (change control).
Kind of break, one of six: Field landed: did each field arrive with a value, in the right place?
Sources: Vendor documentation
2. The lead reaches sales and nothing happens
Check firstFollow-upRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “The rep decides and starts it by hand”; “I'm not sure, to: How would you notice that a step has stopped running, or is running hours or days late?”.
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)
3. The two systems disagree on stage or source
Check firstReportingYou can run thisabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “Never”; “Anyone with access can change it”.
How to check, and why it happens
The same person is a lead in one tool and qualified in the other, or has a different lead source. Reports from each tool tell a different story, and a rule that depends on the value never fires.
Why it happens. Stage and source lists were changed in one tool only, or the sync rules are one-way and never move a value backwards.
Usually fixed by: Revenue operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Field landed: did each field arrive with a value, in the right place? Count: do the numbers at each end agree?
Sources: Vendor documentation · Vendor documentation
4. 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 “The rep decides and starts it by hand”; “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.
5. The CRM refuses a lead because of one answer
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Anyone with access can change it”; “A person exports a file and imports it”.
How to check, and why it happens
A form answer does not fit a CRM rule: a required field is empty, a list value is not allowed, a validation rule fires. The record can be refused, so the person never appears in the CRM although the form said thank you.
Why it happens. The form was edited, or an admin tightened a rule, and nobody re-tested the path between them.
Usually fixed by: CRM admin (the rules) with marketing operations (the form options).
Kind of break, one of six: Arrival: did it show up in the next tool in time?
Sources: Integration vendor guide · Vendor staff reply in a forum
6. Lead volume falls quietly and nobody is alerted
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 45 min
Shown because you answered “Never”.
How to check, and why it happens
New leads fall sharply. A broken form, a removed tracking script, a consent change or a browser change cuts the count, and the weekly report just shows a slow week.
Why it happens. Counts are looked at when they are reported, not compared with traffic and spend as they happen.
Usually fixed by: Web or marketing operations, with whoever changed the site that week.
Kind of break, one of six: Count: do the numbers at each end agree? Freshness: is the step still running, and on time?
Sources: Vendor documentation
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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”; “Rules assign it (by region, company size, round robin)”.
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. The person is enrolled, but no step is going out
Check firstFollow-upRun by sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “I'm not sure, to: How would you notice that a step has stopped running, or is running hours or days late?”; “The rep decides and starts it by hand”.
How to check, and why it happens
The enrolment shows active, yet the next step never fires. The lead looks worked in reports and is not being worked.
Why it happens. The rep's inbox lost its connection, a send limit was reached, or a send failed, and nobody checks the error list.
Usually fixed by: Sales operations, with the rep.
Kind of break, one of six: Freshness: is the step still running, and on time?
Sources: Vendor documentation
9. The campaign that created the lead is lost
Check firstReportingYou can run thisabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Someone would spot it in a report”; “A person exports a file and imports it”.
How to check, and why it happens
The lead is credited to "direct", "unknown" or a later touch. Campaign reports undercount, and budget goes to the wrong channel.
Why it happens. The source is read from a browser identifier. If a visitor refuses it, switches device or returns after it expires, the form cannot be tied to the earlier visit.
Usually fixed by: Marketing operations and web analytics.
Kind of break, one of six: Field landed: did each field arrive with a value, in the right place?
Sources: Vendor documentation
10. Dates and times land on the wrong day
Check firstReportingYou can run thisabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Someone would spot it in a report”; “A person exports a file and imports it”.
How to check, and why it happens
A lead created late in the evening is counted on the next day, or a weekly report is a day off from the other tool. Response times and "created this week" counts differ between tools.
Why it happens. Some fields store only a date, some a date and time, and tools show them in different time zones.
Usually fixed by: Revenue operations (report definitions).
Kind of break, one of six: Field landed: did each field arrive with a value, in the right place?
Sources: Vendor documentation
11. The same person becomes two (or five) records
Worth a quick lookMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “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
12. Two systems keep undoing each other's changes
Worth a quick lookMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “Someone would spot it in a report”.
How to check, and why it happens
A value flips back and forth (a checkbox, a status, an owner) because each system's change triggers the other's update. History gets noisy and rules that fire on "changed" fire again and again.
Why it happens. Two-way sync that cannot tell a person's edit from the connection's own edit.
Usually fixed by: CRM admin and marketing operations together.
Kind of break, one of six: Field landed: did each field arrive with a value, in the right place?
Sources: Integration vendor guide · Community thread
13. The owner has left or been switched off
Worth a quick lookOwnerRun by your CRM adminabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “Rules assign it (by region, company size, round robin)”.
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
14. The connection runs on one person's login
Worth a quick lookCaptureRun by your CRM adminabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “I'm not sure, to: How would you notice that a step has stopped running, or is running hours or days late?”.
How to check, and why it happens
The integration signs in as a named person. When that person leaves, changes role or their password expires, the connection stops or loses permissions, and nothing new moves.
Why it happens. Connections are often set up under whoever built them, and nobody lists them in the leaver checklist.
Usually fixed by: CRM admin and marketing operations.
Kind of break, one of six: Freshness: is the step still running, and on time? Arrival: did it show up in the next tool in time?
No public source found for this one: it is our reading of how these hand-offs usually work.
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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