1. The Funnel Is Broken and It’s Not Just Attribution’s Fault
The traditional B2B funnel is breaking down. Legacy models like the SiriusDecisions (Forrester) waterfall promised clarity and predictability. But in today’s reality, they often deliver finger-pointing and frustration.
Attribution models were supposed to solve the measurement challenge, but they’ve become a new kind of battleground. Marketers fight for credit. Sales pushes back. Finance makes its own model. Meanwhile, everyone loses sight of the real goal: growing the business.
As evidence, a recent Align BI poll of 25 B2B marketing leaders found that measurement, not AI, was the top pain point. Despite the buzz around generative tools, what keeps B2B marketing leaders up at night most isn’t adoption of new tech, it’s the lack of trusted, actionable insights to guide decisions.
As Jon Miller put it, “We’re stuck in 2006 while our buyers live in 2025.”
The issue isn’t just attribution or MQLs. It’s the structure of ownership itself. Marketing creates one forecast. Sales builds another. Partners may be off doing something entirely different. So when pipeline or revenue falls short, there’s no shared accountability, only blame.
2. Why Shared Pipeline Targets Create Alignment
The solution? A shared pipeline number.
This isn’t a radical new concept but it’s rarely executed well. In the shared pipeline model, marketing, sales, and partners all align around a single pipeline creation goal. They aren’t siloed into separate sourcing targets. They work together toward one shared outcome.
After all, marketing should be increasing the likelihood that all accounts who talk to sales will be more likely to purchase, not just the deals “sourced” based on an attribution model.
A marketing leader featured at our recent event embodies this shift. Her variable comp is tied to total ARR, not just marketing-sourced pipeline. And her team has shared pipeline targets by region, built collaboratively with sales and channel leaders.
This approach has three big benefits:
- It aligns everyone to the same outcome.
- It reduces sourcing battles.
- It builds trust across the revenue team.
3. How It Works: A Shared Pipeline Framework
Here’s a practical breakdown of how shared pipeline planning can work:
Top KPI:
- A unified pipeline creation goal shared by marketing, sales, and partners.
Marketing indicators examples:
- Share of voice (SOV)
- Branded search volume
- Target account engagement
Sales indicators examples:
- Outbound meetings booked
- Stage progression rates
- Engagement from the same target accounts
Partner indicators examples:
- Deal registration volume
- Sales activity tied to key channel partners
These indicators aren’t about assigning credit. They’re about confidence. When they move together, they give everyone faith that pipeline is on track, even before the results show up.
4. “What Happens If We Miss?”
The biggest hesitation we hear about shared goals is this: “What if we miss? What do we blame? Where do we fix?”
Marketers worry about being held accountable for sales execution. Sales worries about being tied to marketing investments. Everyone fears losing their ability to defend their number.
But here’s the truth: marketing can hit its MQL target and still lose credibility if the business misses its number.
The inverse is better. A shared target invites collaboration. If pipeline is short, you solve it together. You don’t get caught proving your part was fine while the company struggles.
If we miss, we look at our leading indicators for trends that could help explain the miss. For example, if pipeline is down but SOV, branded search, and engagement are up, it signals that demand is building, even if the timing or conversion path is delayed.
5. Why This Works Now, When It Didn’t Before
So why is this shift possible now?
Because several key things have changed:
- Attribution hit a wall. Everyone sees its limits.
- Planning is becoming more important than proving.
- Marketing mix modeling (MMM) makes it easier to understand key drivers of all pipeline and identify optimal investment scenarios.
- RevOps is rising. GTM leaders now have a common operating model.
- The buyer journey has shifted. Most buyers already have a shortlist before they ever fill out a form. So focusing on MQLs is focusing too late in the buying process.
- Marketing-source pipeline isn’t a metric CEOs and CFOs care about. To them, it’s “marketing-AND-sales.” One word. Most of their financial ratios are based on those teams together.
We’re not in the land of lead capture anymore. We’re in the land of buyer enablement. Shared pipeline goals match the way buying really happens.
6. Getting Started: How to Pitch It Internally
If you want to pilot shared pipeline goals, here’s how to pitch it:
- Start with the pain. Point out the misalignment between departments and the gap between individual metrics and business outcomes.
- Propose a pilot. Try it in one region, segment, or go-to-market motion.
- Focus on planning, not credit. Use MMM or other forecasting tools to align on what needs to happen, not just what already happened.
- Use indicators as conversation starters. Instead of defending numbers, talk about the health of pipeline inputs across all teams.
It doesn’t have to be a massive shift overnight. But starting somewhere gives your team a foundation to build from.
7. Final Thought: One Number, One Team
Marketing, sales, and partners don’t win separately. And they definitely don’t plan effectively in silos.
A shared pipeline number turns a fractured go-to-market team into a coordinated one. It shifts the focus from sourcing to success. From credit to confidence.
In a world where buyers are harder to reach and budgets are under more scrutiny, shared pipeline goals might just be the most important alignment decision your team can make.