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.
1 check first
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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 “Admins just change it; people hear later, if at all”; “We wouldn't”.
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. 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”; “It is a rule on paper only”.
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”; “It is a rule on paper only”.
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. The same person becomes two (or five) records
Check firstMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “Duplicate rules exist, but imports and integrations skip them”; “It is a rule on paper only”.
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
5. 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 is a rule on paper only”; “Duplicate rules exist, but imports and integrations skip them”.
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
6. 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”; “It is a rule on paper only”.
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)
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7. Two systems keep undoing each other's changes
Check firstMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “We wouldn't”; “An automation tool or a custom integration someone built”.
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
8. Leads from imports and integrations skip your assignment rules
Check firstOwnerRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “It is a rule on paper only”; “An automation tool or a custom integration someone built”.
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.
9. A lead from an existing customer is routed as a stranger
Check firstMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “It is a rule on paper only”; “It goes to a shared queue and reps pick it up”.
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.
10. 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 “It is a rule on paper only”; “The rep decides and starts it by hand”.
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.
11. The CRM refuses a lead because of one answer
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “An automation tool or a custom integration someone built”; “Admins just change it; people hear later, if at all”.
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
12. Lead volume falls quietly and nobody is alerted
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 45 min
Shown because you answered “Never”; “An automation tool or a custom integration someone built”.
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
13. The two systems disagree on stage or source
Check firstReportingYou can run thisabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “Never”; “Admins just change it; people hear later, if at all”.
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
14. 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
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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