Marketing-Sourced Pipeline
Marketing-sourced pipeline measures the pipeline value originating from marketing activities — content marketing, paid media, events, partner programs — the primary metric for marketing team accountability in B2B SaaS.
Why This Matters
Marketing-sourced calculation: opportunities originally sourced from marketing-controlled activities (vs outbound sales prospecting), aggregated by program, channel, or campaign. Healthy B2B SaaS marketing organizations source 30-50% of pipeline (varies by motion — PLG higher, ABM-heavy lower). Sourced pipeline metric drives marketing investment decisions, channel mix optimization, and team accountability. Sometimes contentious in sales-marketing relations — attribution debates common when sales claims credit for marketing-sourced opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of pipeline should marketing source?
30-50% in mature B2B SaaS organizations. PLG-heavy companies source higher percentages (sometimes 60-80%); ABM-heavy companies source lower percentages (sometimes 20-40%). Industry context matters more than absolute benchmark.
How are marketing-sourced and sales-sourced opportunities differentiated?
First-touch attribution: opportunity sourced by activity that initially generated lead. Inbound contact form submission = marketing-sourced (lead came through marketing). Cold outbound by SDR = sales-sourced. Borderline cases (referral, cross-team collaboration) require defined rules.