Should I add leads in Marketo or in Salesforce first?

Darren,

Most Marketo users choose to add leads in Marketo first rather than SFDC. This is especially helpful if you don't sync all of your marketing leads over to SFDC.

Marketo does not sync leads over to SFDC unless you tell it to.

To sync leads over, you'll need to create a campaign that has a flow step of "Sync Lead to SFDC," and the lead needs to have values for last name and email address.

The other reason to add them to Marketo first is that it dedupes based on email address.  Salesforce has problems with this, especially if an email address exists in a Contact record, but you are importing leads and vice-versa.

We keep them in Marketo first for lead nurturing and for making sure that the lead info is not bogus then we sync them later on to SFDC. 

Charlie - it does synch leads over if it is a synched program and there is a status progression I believe.

Agree with Elliot and Michelle - make sure they are SF worthy/ready.

Thanks guys! We're just getting started and your comments were most helpful.