Marketing Influenced Pipeline

Influenced pipeline is the most contested number in marketing reporting: the credit marketing claims after the fact for deals it touched but didn't necessarily originate. The definition is usually silent, and it sits somewhere between "any marketing touch ever," almost always too generous, and "marketing touched the deal inside the selling window," more defensible.

What this skill answers

The dashboard shows the same set of deals under three defensible definitions of "influenced," side by side:

• Any-touch — any marketing touch is associated with the deal, at any point.
• Lookback — a marketing touch occurred within a window of the close date (default around 90 days).
• Pre-sales — a marketing touch occurred before sales' first activity on the account.

The gap between the three tells you how stretchable your influence claim is. You pick the one you're willing to defend and lock it. Like Marketing Sourced Pipeline, this is a definition comparison: it makes the choice explicit instead of telling you which one is right.

What you'll see

A dashboard with two parts, built in about 15 minutes:

• The three definitions, side by side, with the gap between them called out and a Pick one to lock action. Once it's built, you can switch between the three without re-running.
• The deals behind it — an audit table, one row per opportunity, showing which of the three definitions it qualifies under.

Once it's live, it answers in one traceable place: your influenced percentage under each definition, the gap between the loosest and the strictest, which one you're locking, and which deals count under the definition you picked.

Before you run it

Required:

• A CRM (Salesforce or HubSpot) with opportunity records and opportunity-contact roles
• Marketing automation (HubSpot) feeding marketing touches

Recommended:

• Ad platforms (Google, LinkedIn, Meta) and sales engagement (Salesloft, Outreach), which deepen the touch graph

The pre-sales definition needs sales activity tagged in your data. Without it, that column shows a dash and the other two still render. If a required source isn't connected, the agent stops before running and names it. See Sales Activity Integrations for setup.

What the agent asks you

You can set the period if you want, and a lookback-window question appears only when your sales cycle is long enough for the window to matter.

Nothing runs until you confirm.

How to read the result

The three numbers tell different stories:

• Any-touch is the most generous and almost always the highest. It's defensible only if your marketing engine touches accounts continuously. Most teams should not lead with it.
• Lookback is the balanced middle. "Marketing touched this deal within X days of close" holds up across most CFO conversations, as long as the window matches your sales cycle.
• Pre-sales is the most disciplined: marketing got there first, then sales took over. Lead with this when you want the claim to survive scrutiny.

The gap is the signal. A wide gap between Any-touch and Pre-sales means much of your "influence" is touches that landed after sales had already engaged — real as supporting activity, but not the same as marketing driving the deal. Be precise about which you're claiming.

The audit table shows which definitions include each deal. Deals that qualify under all three are unambiguous. Deals that qualify under only Any-touch are the contested ones, worth a look before you commit.

Known limits you'll see:

"The pre-sales definition can't compute because sales activity isn't tagged in your data." Surfaces when sales activity is missing; Any-touch and Lookback still render.

"You picked [Lookback]. The other two definitions would have produced [Any-touch: X%] and [Pre-sales: Y%]." Surfaces after you lock a choice.