For businesses, a pipeline is a targeted list of potential buyers who might have an interest in your products or services. Many companies face the challenge of capturing the attention of potential buyers and moving as many of these potential buyers as possible through the pipeline stages of contact, connection, conversation, consideration, consumption, and community. Companies rely on Marketing to continuously and effectively grow their organization’s opportunity pipeline.

Potential buyers who are not converted into customers are often referred to as leaks or pipeline leakage. Our role, as marketers, is to “plug the leak” and improve conversion rates. If the Marketing and Sales aspects of the pipeline are not connected and aligned properly, the potential pipeline leakage can be very large. Therefore a crucial step is ensuring Marketing is properly aligned with Sales. Marketing and Sales alignment allows for the creation and implementation of strategies, programs, and tactics that will facilitate pipeline opportunity development and movement. Once your company achieves this alignment, the next important step is for Marketing to focus on marketing initiative that will effectively and efficiently contribute to pipeline performance and the generation of customers. We must be able to clearly demonstrate and measure our contribution to the pipeline.

Faster buying cycles and heightened customer expectations are forcing Marketing and Sales organizations to leverage data better to uncover customer insights that will improve opportunity management, pipeline conversion rates, and reduce churn and leakage. This keen focus on pipeline movement requires Sales and Marketing to have better data and analytical capabilities.

Sales and Marketing professionals have more systems and tools available today than ever before. These tools provide the foundation for becoming more intelligent about customers and prospects.  However, despite the tools and data, marketers are still only looking at qualified leads as their key metric for pipeline contribution. In a Pardot study most marketers stated that MQLs are the most important metric to measure, followed by new leads generated  and then marketing opportunity value. Unfortunately, a Forrester Research study, “Redefining B2B Marketing Measurement,” found that “the metrics most often used by Marketing, such as number of leads generated and cost per lead” — rank in the lower half of the effectiveness list.”

In fact, number of leads generated and cost per lead may actually work against us if we don’t look further into the buying process. At first blush, one program may produce more “leads” than another at a lower cost and therefore appear more efficient. What is really important, however, is how many of the opportunities convert (don’t leak) to the next stage in the buying process. If there is a higher conversion rate from the more expensive program, than it is actually more effective. If we only look at a Marketing program in terms of qualified leads generated and cost, we could potentially be eliminating programs that actually help build the pipeline.

Therefore, we need to move beyond the lead as THE Marketing metric. Marketing needs to leverage metrics more meaningful to the organization — metrics that are more closely tied to customer deals. Customer deals– that is, sales — is for most organizations one of the most important business outcomes. Every company establishes a revenue goal. This revenue target is generated by some number of deals and dollars from existing customers and some number of deals and dollars from net new customers.

This brings up the question of what metrics should CMOs and their teams use to measure Marketing’s contribution to the pipeline?

Four Metrics Beyond Leads for Measuring Marketing’s Contribution to the Pipeline

These four metrics offer Marketers a way to measure contribution to the pipeline beyond leads.

1. Pipeline contribution which measures the number of opportunities generated by Marketing that convert into sales opportunities and ultimately into new deals. This metric helps ascertain to what extent marketing programs and investments are positively effecting the win rate and reducing the number of qualified leads that wither and die or are rejected by Sales.
2. Pipeline movement which measures the rate at which opportunities move through the pipeline and convert to wins. This metric helps assess the degree to which marketing programs and investments accelerate the sales cycle.
3. Pipeline value which measures the aggregate value of all active marketing opportunities at each stage within the pipeline. This helps determine what increase in potential business marketing investments may generate.
4. Pipeline velocity which measures the rate of change within your pipeline-both in speed and direction. This enables you to determine whether your sales are accelerating, decelerating, or remaining constant.

When examining each of these metrics it is important to compare the marketing generated opportunities compared to non-marketing generated opportunities. This means we need to understand what is the difference in the win rate, average order value, conversion rate, and velocity between marketing generated opportunities compared to non-marketing generated opportunities.

Marketing must ultimately create financial value. Think beyond pipeline metrics and determine how you can integrate the work of Marketing with these three metrics:

1. Net new sales leads generated from marketing qualified leads- this is the number of new sales leads added to the sales automation system that were a result of marketing programs and initiatives. This will require two things. First, only when opportunities accepted by sales are they added to the sales system. Second, all opportunities will need to have a source code and be tagged into a marketing automation system.
2. Win rate of marketing generated opportunities – this is the number of deals closed that were a result of marketing generated opportunities.
3. The revenue of marketing generated opportunities- this is the value of the closed deals generated from marketing opportunities.

Ideally, over time, by monitoring results and analyzing the data related to these metrics, Marketing can begin to create more predictable results in terms of contribution, conversion, and value. Learn more about metrics beyond leads in the white paper Don’t Waste Your Bullets: Customer Engagement To Accelerate Revenue And Improve Alignment.

FAQ:

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: Why do companies struggle with pipeline management?
A: Marketing and Sales must move potential buyers through pipeline stages (contact, connection, conversation, consideration, consumption, community). Without alignment, pipeline leakage is large—and conversion rates suffer.

Q2: What is “pipeline leakage”—and who is responsible for plugging it?
A: Leakage is potential buyers who don’t convert to customers. Marketing must continuously grow the pipeline and improve conversion rates by ensuring alignment with Sales and demonstrating clear contribution.

Q3: Why are traditional lead metrics (MQLs, cost-per-lead) insufficient?
A: Forrester research found these metrics rank in the lower half of effectiveness. A program may generate more leads at lower cost but convert poorly—making it less effective than a higher-cost program with stronger conversion.

Q4: What is the core problem with measuring only “leads generated”?
A: You can’t see whether a program actually moves opportunities forward or reduces leakage. You need conversion and movement measures—not just volume and cost.

Q5: What four pipeline metrics should Marketing track beyond leads?
A: (1) Pipeline contribution (opportunities that convert to deals), (2) pipeline movement (rate opportunities advance through stages), (3) pipeline value (aggregate value of active opportunities), and (4) pipeline velocity (speed and direction of change).

Q6: Why compare marketing-generated vs. non-marketing-generated opportunities?
A: To prove value. Compare win rate, average order value, conversion rate, and velocity between the two groups.

Q7: What three financial metrics should Marketing ultimately own?
A: (1) Net new sales leads from marketing-qualified leads, (2) win rate of marketing-generated opportunities, and (3) revenue from marketing-generated opportunities (closed deal value).

Q8: What infrastructure is required to track these metrics effectively?
A: Source coding and tagging in marketing automation, clear sales acceptance criteria (only accepted opportunities count), and ongoing analysis to improve predictability over time.

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