FOUNDER’S GUIDE TO B2B SALES FOUR PIPELINE SOURCES There are generally four sources of pipeline. You should set opportunity generation targets for each of them. MARKETING SDR OUTBOUND ALLIANCES SALES OUTBOUND STAGE 1 OPPTY STAGE 2 OPPTY As SaaS companies, marketing usually generates between 50% and 90% of the sales pipeline. With account-based sales and marketing, outbound SDRs typically generate between and 10% and 30%. Alliances can generate highly-qualified opportunities, usually accounting for between 10% and 30%. Most sales managers want sellers, particularly in enterprise models, generating between and 10% and 20%. Note that while it’s fine for executives to think in terms of percentages, it’s important to assign quarterly OKRs based on actual targets (i.e. generate 225 Stage-1 opportunities). This focuses people on a more tangible goal (opportunity count) rather than percent mix or pipeline dollars and avoids corner cases (e.g. when the target is missed but the mix is correct). PIPELINE PROGRESSION MICROSOFT EXCEL SPRING 2023 .43