How to Shift from ‘Marketing-Sourced Pipeline’ to Real Visibility

Sep 26, 2025

Carolyn and Amber tackle the pitfalls of relying solely on marketing-sourced data for pipeline health. They reveal the hidden dynamics of the prospecting stage, exposing the 'black box' where prospects can either thrive or falter. The duo shares insights on identifying effective prospecting sequences, leading to streamlined activities and improved win rates—jumping from 13% to 24%. Listeners gain practical questions to analyze their current systems and learn how to present compelling data to leadership for better budget approvals.

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INSIGHT

Marketing Source Is A Limited Lens

Marketing-sourced pipeline is a legacy lens that hides the real mechanics of pipeline creation.
The true leverage is the prospecting engine and what happens after marketing hands off leads.

INSIGHT

The Pipeline Black Box Matters Most

The pipeline black box is the prospecting activity between engagement and opportunity.
That unmeasured factory floor determines speed, conversion and eventual win rates.

ANECDOTE

Event Leads Reappearing As 'Sales Source'

An exec found event leads often became 'sales source' only after SDRs independently rediscovered them.
They realized missing visibility into the intermediate prospecting steps created incorrect source credit and wasted effort.

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If your board asks “Why is pipeline down?” and your opportunity dashboards only say marketing-sourced vs. SDR-sourced (AKA the four-funnel model), you’re stuck with surface-level data and left guessing at fixes instead of diagnosing the problem.

The real story lives between engagement and opportunity, the unmeasured factory floor where prospecting happens (or dies). In this episode, Carolyn and Amber show how to rip the lid off that black box, swap vanity volume for "causal" metrics, and find the repeatable patterns that actually manufacture pipeline.

Expect blunt takes, practical questions to bring to RevOps tomorrow, and real outcomes from teams who’ve made the shift (e.g., win rates jumping from ~13% to ~24% and easier budget approvals once the black box is illuminated).

What You’ll Learn:

[02:20] Why “source” reporting hides the truth (and fuels misalignment)
[08:00] The Pipeline Black Box: measuring the in-between (triggers → first meeting → opp)
[15:00] Pattern-spotting: sequences that create pipeline vs. waste
[17:30] Visual walkthrough: opening the black box
[20:55] Prospecting as its own lifecycle: timing, activity load, DQs, velocity
[26:10] From more leads to more lift (conversion, speed, win rate 13%→24%)
[36:00] Turning visibility into stronger board stories & budget wins
[38:25] 3 questions to expose your black box this week

Who This Episode For

CROs, CMOs, Demand leaders, and RevOps owners ready to graduate from MQLs/last-touch to a factory-style measurement system.

🔗 LINKS

Register for our Oct 8 Pipeline KPI Workshop https://www.passetto.com/events/pipeline-visibility-workshop
Follow GTM Live on Spotify
Subscribe to the GTM Live YouTube Channel
Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn
Connect with Amber on LinkedIn

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This episode is powered by ⁠Passetto⁠, a GTM advisory and instrumentation software company with a solution that eliminates the Pipeline Black Box™, the critical data hidden inside every GTM engine where leaders are flying blind when it matters most.