A deleted value in the Salesforce Lead suddenly reappears? Welcome to the “Field Sync Pain” in Account Engagement. We explain why this happens – and how we solved the issue with a smart workaround.
Salesforce has changed some of its product names over time.
A brief note beforehand: What used to be called “Pardot” is now officially known as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE). For easier reading, we’ll continue to use the name MCAE throughout this article.
When Deleted Values Reappear
In one of our client projects, we observed something curious: A field value was deleted in a Salesforce lead – only to reappear shortly after via MCAE.
What initially seemed like a technical bug quickly turned out to be expected behavior within the standard synchronization logic of Salesforce and MCAE.
The Problem: Delete ≠ Delete
When configuring field sync behavior between Salesforce and MCAE, you can define which system “wins” in case of a conflict:
Salesforce
Account Engagement
The most recently updated value
However: If a field is cleared (not overwritten) in Salesforce, these rules don’t work as expected.
Without an active update on the MCAE side, the old value remains there – and is written back into Salesforce during the next sync.
This behavior is intentional and helps prevent unwanted data loss in many cases. In some scenarios – such as targeted data cleaning – it can be undesirable.
Why This Is Especially Relevant in Digital Sales
In sales-driven setups with Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and regular data maintenance, this mechanism poses a potential risk:
Outdated data remains
Sales teams work with no longer valid information
There is no native option for full deletion across both systems
Standard Workarounds and Their Limits
Within the Salesforce community, several approaches are discussed – including:
Manually clearing fields in both systems
Campaign-based field overwrites
Automated sync rules with complex logic
However, these options are often either:
Not scalable
Prone to errors
Not automated – and therefore inefficient for productive environments
Our Solution: The “Stay-Deleted” Trigger
To resolve the issue sustainably, we developed a smart workaround:
A specially built Apex trigger detects when a field is cleared in Salesforce. It then uses the MCAE API to remove the corresponding value there as well – automatically and securely.
The trigger checks:
Whether the field was previously populated
Whether it was truly cleared
Whether the field is marked for synchronization
The result:
Both systems are cleanly synced
Deleted values stay deleted
Data quality in sales remains high
No more manual cleanup
Who Will Benefit from This?
Salesforce admins managing Account Engagement
Marketing automation specialists focused on data hygiene
CRM managers regularly consolidating leads
In short: Anyone looking for a reliable solution to this specific sync behavior.
Conclusion: Consistent Data for Reliable Processes
The interaction between Salesforce and MCAE is powerful – but in certain areas, complex. Our approach ensures that targeted deletions truly take effect across systems.
Have the same issue? Save yourself hours of research – and reach out to us directly. We’ll help develop a working workaround for your setup – or a long-term solution tailored to your system.
