glossary
Pipeline
The total value of open opportunities in the sales process; the demand-gen target that converts into bookings over time.
By The Marketinque TeamReviewed June 2026
Pipeline is the inventory of revenue: every open opportunity, weighted by its deal size, summed. For a demand-gen team it is the primary output metric, because unlike MQL counts it survives contact with the sales team — pipeline either closes or it does not.
The working number is coverage: how much open pipeline you hold per dollar of target. Most B2B teams plan for 3–4x coverage, because not everything closes. Coverage below 3x predicts a missed quarter long before the quarter ends, which makes pipeline the best early-warning metric marketing owns.
Pipeline is also where sourcing arguments live: marketing-sourced (the opportunity began with a marketing touch) versus marketing-influenced (marketing touched it somewhere along the way). Both matter; the definitions just need to be agreed in writing. To turn a revenue goal into the SQLs and MQLs it implies, work backward with the pipeline goal calculator, and see the metrics guide for the full measurement stack.
formula
pipeline coverage = open pipeline ÷ revenue target
worked example
A team with a $1M quarterly target and a 25% win rate needs $4M of qualified pipeline entering the quarter. At a $40,000 average deal, that is 100 open opportunities — and the backward math continues up through SQLs, MQLs, and traffic.
Related terms
Sources
- Forrester (SiriusDecisions), The Demand Unit Waterfall
- David Skok, SaaS Metrics 2.0 (forEntrepreneurs)
Compiled by The Marketinque Team to our editorial standards.