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. New leads sit with no real owner
Check firstOwnerRun by your CRM adminabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “Everything goes to one default owner first”; “Yes, someone checks it now and then”.
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.
2. The owner has left or been switched off
Check firstOwnerRun by your CRM adminabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “Someone reassigns them, eventually”; “Yes, someone checks it now and then”.
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
3. 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”; “Someone would tell us”.
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)
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 “There is no set process”; “It doesn't get back”.
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 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”; “Yes, someone checks it now and then”.
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
6. 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”; “Yes, someone checks it now and then”.
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
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7. A lead from an existing customer is routed as a stranger
Check firstMatchRun by your CRM adminabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “Everything goes to one default owner first”; “Yes, someone checks it now and then”.
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.
8. The CRM refuses a lead because of one answer
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “The forms write straight into the CRM”; “I'm not sure, to: How would you find out if a lead never arrived in the CRM?”.
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
9. The connection hits a daily cap and the rest of the leads are delayed or refused
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “The forms write straight into the CRM”; “I'm not sure, to: How would you find out if a lead never arrived in the CRM?”.
How to check, and why it happens
A busy day (a webinar, an ad burst, an import) uses up a daily limit on form posts or on calls between tools. What comes after the limit can be delayed or refused, and the gap shows up as a hole in the CRM.
Why it happens. Daily limits are built into the tools, and the connection does not warn anyone before it hits them.
Usually fixed by: Marketing operations with the CRM admin (limits and batching).
Kind of break, one of six: Arrival: did it show up in the next tool in time?
Sources: Vendor documentation · Vendor documentation
10. Lead volume falls quietly and nobody is alerted
Check firstCaptureYou can run thisabout 45 min
Shown because you answered “Someone would tell us”.
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
11. The connection runs on one person's login
Check firstCaptureRun by your CRM adminabout 15 min
Shown because you answered “Someone would tell us”.
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.
12. The person is enrolled, but no step is going out
Check firstFollow-upRun by sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “Someone would tell us”.
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
13. Replies and meetings do not come back to marketing
Check firstRepliesRun by sales opsabout 20 min
Shown because you answered “It doesn't get back”.
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
14. Someone opted out or bounced in one tool, and the other keeps emailing
Check firstRepliesYou can run thisabout 30 min
Shown because you answered “It doesn't get back”.
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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