At one point, someone built an automation rule to sync every Prospect from MCAE into Salesforce. This has resulted in many Leads who are not actually Leads and the Go-to-Market team would like them removed from Salesforce.
Is there any way to restore the Prospects to MCAE records that are:
- unassigned
- do not include CRM IDs
- in the unlikely event that they do become leads, could then be assigned and sync'd into Salesforce
We don't want to delete them from MCAE, or make it nearly impossible for one of them to actually sync if they show signs of interest, increased score, complete a form, etc.
Thank you.
,
Yes, this is possible, but it takes a bit of careful handling because once a Prospect has previously synced to Salesforce as a Lead, MCAE/Pardot remembers that relationship even after the Salesforce Lead is deleted.
A workable approach would be:
Download a CSV export of the Prospects/Leads you want to retain in MCAE but remove from Salesforce. This gives you a clean reference point if you need to troubleshoot or identify records later.
Delete the Leads from Salesforce. Depending on your connector sync settings, this should automatically send the related Prospects in MCAE to the recycle bin sync state / remove the CRM association. Your CSV export will help validate what was removed.
Re-import those records into MCAE as standalone Prospects. This is where things become slightly imperfect:
MCAE will still know these Prospects were previously associated with Salesforce Leads.
On import, they will typically show a sync error indicating the CRM record was previously deleted and cannot automatically resync.
For admins who prefer a completely clean sync error queue, this can be frustrating. One way to manage it is to apply a tag such as previously deleted lead during import so these records are easily identifiable and separated from genuine sync issues requiring investigation.
Build automation to determine when these Prospects should become Salesforce Leads again.
For example: score threshold reached, form submission, hand-raiser activity, specific grading/profile criteria, etc.
Once those criteria are met, your automation can update fields in a way that allows the Prospect to be recreated/synced back into Salesforce.
A couple of additional recommendations based on experience:
Before deleting the Leads from Salesforce, move them all under a single queue (not an individual owner). If the records are spread across multiple users, re-establishing ownership later becomes much harder to manage consistently.
MCAE cannot directly reassign once a Prospect was historically assigned. Because the Prospect previously existed as a Salesforce Lead, MCAE will often attempt to recreate it under the original owner.
To work around this:
Use a Lead Status value before deletion such as Lost, Dead, or similar.
Then, when your MCAE automation determines the Prospect should become a Lead again, update the status to something like Unqualified or another “active” status appropriate for your process.
Since MCAE can drive field updates based on connector sync behaviour, this status change can become the trigger point for downstream Salesforce automation.
From there, you have two options:
Send an internal notification email when a Prospect qualifies to be re-established.
Or fully automate reassignment in Salesforce using Flow:
Example logic:
Owner = Queue X
Lead Status changed from Dead → Unqualified
Reassign to the correct SDR queue/user/team
This approach allows you to:
Keep the records in MCAE
Remove unwanted “non-lead” records from Salesforce
Prevent unnecessary CRM clutter
Still allow genuine engagement to recreate Leads later when appropriate
The main compromise is accepting that these Prospects will likely retain a historical sync error state until they are intentionally re-established in Salesforce.
