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TG3 SaaS/Glossary/Marketing-sourced pipeline
SaaS metrics glossary

Marketing-sourced pipeline.

The number that decides how much credit marketing gets and the one most often inflated. Here is what marketing-sourced pipeline really measures.

Definition
Marketing-sourced pipeline is the portion of pipeline where marketing created the first touch that started the opportunity, measured as a percentage of total pipeline.

Sourced means marketing started it. That is different from influenced, where marketing touched a deal somewhere along the way. The two get blurred constantly, usually to make marketing look bigger than it is.

How to calculate it

How to calculate marketing-sourced pipeline.

Marketing-sourced pipeline % = pipeline first-touched by marketing ÷ total pipeline
First-touched by marketingopportunities where the originating contact came from a marketing channel
Total pipelineall open and won pipeline in the period

The honest version of this number lives in your warehouse, not a platform report, see rebuilding attribution the CFO will sign off.

Benchmarks

Sourced versus influenced.

A common healthy split sees marketing sourcing a meaningful minority of pipeline directly and influencing a much larger share. The exact ratio depends heavily on whether you run a sales-led or product-led motion.

Beware any report where marketing-sourced plus sales-sourced adds up to more than 100%. That is double counting and it is the fastest way to lose a CFO's trust.

How to improve it

How to grow marketing-sourced pipeline.

01

Define sourced strictly

One opportunity, one source. Loose rules inflate the number and get caught.

02

Measure in the warehouse

Platform reports over-credit themselves. A single source of record de-duplicates.

03

Fund the sourcing channels

Find which channels actually originate pipeline, then put budget there.

04

Report sourced and influenced separately

Show both honestly. Conflating them is the classic attribution lie.

Common questions

Questions about marketing-sourced pipeline.

What is marketing-sourced pipeline?+

The share of pipeline where marketing generated the first touch that created the opportunity.

What is the difference between sourced and influenced pipeline?+

Sourced means marketing started the opportunity. Influenced means marketing touched it at some point. Sourced is a subset of influenced.

How do you calculate marketing-sourced pipeline?+

Divide the pipeline value of opportunities first-touched by marketing by total pipeline value for the period.

Why is marketing-sourced pipeline often inflated?+

Because platform reports each claim credit and definitions are loose. Measuring in a warehouse with one strict rule fixes it.

Pipeline coverage ratioMarketing qualified leadRebuild attributionHow we run analytics

Pipeline numbers that reconcile?

The 30-minute audit includes where your sourced and influenced numbers are over-counting. No sales sequence.

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