What is pipeline sourced?
Pipeline sourced is pipeline created directly by a channel, such as marketing, partners or sellers, as opposed to pipeline that channel only touched. Forrester defines marketing-sourced pipeline as the portion of the overall sales pipeline that marketing uniquely initiated. Influenced pipeline is the broader measure: every opportunity where the channel played some part, wherever it started.
Why it matters to a revenue leader
Sourced numbers drive budgets, so they also start arguments. Forrester's 2020 B2B metrics study found sourced pipeline or revenue on 47% of B2B marketing leadership dashboards, and its analysts argue that sourcing understates marketing's role in long purchases involving several people. For a revenue leader, the practical answer is one agreed definition, a source field that cannot be rewritten later, and sourced and influenced pipeline reviewed side by side.
How to calculate it
A channel's sourced share equals the value of new pipeline that channel originated in the period divided by all new pipeline created in that period.
Common mistake: letting the source field change after the opportunity is created, so credit drifts to whoever touched it last.
Example
Fictitious numbersA facility services company creates $12 million in new pipeline in a year. Marketing sourced $3 million, partners $1.5 million and sellers $7.5 million. Marketing also touched $5 million of the seller-sourced pipeline through events and site-walk invitations, which shows up only in the influenced view.
"Who decides the source on a new opportunity, and can anyone change it afterward?"
Sources
- Does Measuring Marketing Sourcing Still Matter? (Forrester) checked 9 Oct 2026
- B2B Marketers: It's Time To Ditch Sourcing Metrics (Forrester) checked 9 Oct 2026