Automate clearance inventory updates to unlock hidden value with Marketo and Make.com
Challenge
Thyssenkrupp Materials North America faced a persistent challenge managing Clearance Inventory. This stock was no longer viable for regular sales, but it still carried residual value. The process for updating and publishing the Clearance list was fully manual. Sales would notify marketing when items changed. That kicked off a time-consuming chain of tasks: updating spreadsheets, cleaning and reformatting data, exporting PDFs, and uploading files to the website. The result was predictable. Updates were delayed, entries were inconsistent, and the public-facing list was often out of date. When the list is not current, it stops working as a revenue lever. Potential buyers lose trust in what they see, and the organization leaves value on the table. Marketing also had limited capacity to actively promote Clearance offers because so much time was spent on basic list maintenance. This was not a demand problem. It was a system problem. Without structure and automation, any sale from Clearance Inventory became a fortunate exception instead of a repeatable outcome. For organizations with fluctuating or surplus stock, this type of manual workflow creates avoidable friction, operational risk, and missed opportunities.
Solution
We designed and implemented an automated workflow that centralizes and streamlines the full Clearance Inventory update process. Now, when Sales confirms a change, updates are captured in a structured source, such as a shared file or database. That update triggers an automated process built with Make.com. The automation generates the latest Clearance content and synchronizes it with Marketo via API, so the website and email communications consistently reflect the current inventory. To reduce manual effort further and improve the customer experience, we replaced the reliance on static PDFs with a dynamic table in emails. Customers can view the latest Clearance items directly in their inbox, which reduces the risk of someone downloading an outdated file. This solution was chosen because it is scalable, operationally simple, and fits cleanly into the existing marketing technology stack. It is also modular, so the same pattern can be extended to other inventory types or future automation initiatives. By designing a structured data flow and integrating systems directly, we removed the bottlenecks and risks created by manual updates and created a foundation for ongoing process improvement.
Impact
The automated process delivers immediate time savings for both marketing and sales by removing repetitive updates and file management. That time can now be redirected toward higher-value work, such as targeted promotion and customer engagement. Accuracy and timeliness improved, which lowers the risk of customer frustration caused by outdated inventory. Operationally, the workflow is now more scalable and less error-prone, supporting future growth and additional automation. Data quality also improved through structured entries, enabling clearer tracking and reporting. While sales from Clearance Inventory are naturally sporadic, each transaction can now be captured and executed with minimal overhead. The cost of automation can be justified by even a small number of incremental sales. Overall, the organization benefits from lower operational complexity, more reliable data, and a practical way to unlock hidden value from inventory that was previously difficult to monetize.