Attribution
Why Marketing-Sourced Pipeline Is the Wrong North Star
Sourced pipeline rewards marketing for owning the form fill and ignores marketing's influence on every other deal. Use influenced.
Marketing-sourced pipeline is the most commonly cited marketing KPI in B2B. It is also the wrong one to optimize against. Sourced pipeline only credits marketing when marketing owns the very first touch on a deal. In modern B2B, the first touch is almost never a form fill. It is a podcast, a peer recommendation, an AI assistant.
Marketing-influenced pipeline is closer to the truth. It credits marketing for every deal where marketing touched any stage of the buying journey. In a healthy B2B company, influenced pipeline is 80 to 95 percent of total pipeline. That number tells the board what marketing actually contributes.
The reason most marketing leaders avoid influenced pipeline is fear: if marketing is influencing 90 percent of pipeline, the CRO might ask 'why do we need a sales team?' That fear is misplaced. The honest answer is that marketing creates the conditions for sales to close. Both functions are necessary. Influenced pipeline is not a turf war. It is a fact pattern.
Move the dashboard from 'sourced pipeline' to 'sourced + influenced pipeline' with both numbers visible. Optimize for influenced. Hold marketing accountable to a sourced number too (typically 30-50 percent of total pipeline) because that is where marketing programs (vs sales prospecting) own the first touch. The two numbers together tell the truth.