If leadership still asks whether outbound “works,” you probably report the wrong numbers. Opens and replies are diagnostics. Attribution is a chain from contacts to held meetings to opportunities to revenue that a CFO can audit.
The metric ladder
| Stage | Definition | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts reached | Unique people emailed/connected in period | Ops / SDR |
| Replies (human) | Non-auto human responses | Ops |
| Positive replies | Interest / curiosity / timing openness | Ops |
| Booked meetings | Calendar events created | Ops |
| Held meetings | Prospect attended | Ops + AE |
| Opportunities | Pipeline records created from those meetings | AE / RevOps |
| Sourced revenue | Closed-won credited to outbound | RevOps |
Open rate does not appear. For unit economics of held meetings, see Cost per Qualified B2B Sales Meeting Benchmarks.
Sourced vs influenced
| Model | Use when |
|---|---|
| Sourced | Outbound created the first meaningful sales conversation / opportunity |
| Influenced | Outbound touched an account that also had inbound/other touches |
Pick one primary model for team goals. Report the other as secondary. Mixing them in one KPI without labels starts political wars.
Account-level rollups matter in B2B: multiple contacts, one company. Credit the account journey, not a single email open.
Minimum CRM fields
Without these, attribution is fan fiction:
- Outbound campaign / sequence ID
- Channel (email, LinkedIn, omnichannel)
- SDR / operator owner
- Meeting disposition: booked / held / no-show / canceled
- Opportunity source = Outbound (or Influence flag)
- Created timestamps that survive handoffs
For make-vs-buy context on who should own this machine, see In-House SDR vs Outbound Agency Cost Breakdown.
A simple weekly scoreboard
| KPI | Why |
|---|---|
| Held meetings | Primary throughput |
| Show rate (held ÷ booked) | Calendar quality |
| Positive → held % | Inbox conversion |
| Held → opportunity % | AE acceptance / fit |
| Pipeline $ sourced | Commercial output |
If you pay an agency on meetings, contract language should say held and ICP-fit—see Agency Pricing Models.
How agencies should be held accountable
Good outbound partners accept:
- Clear ICP definition
- Held-meeting SLAs
- Visible bounce/complaint constraints
- Shared CRM truth
Vanity dashboards without held meetings are not accountability.
For CRM attribution concepts in mainstream platforms, start from vendor documentation such as HubSpot’s reporting/attribution guides (verify the current docs when you implement)—the principle is the same: define stages before you debate credit.
Bottom line
Define held. Instrument the ladder. Separate sourced from influenced. Report weekly. Then decide whether to scale domains—or fix the offer.
Measurement Framework: Review cross-channel conversion attribution models in the Google Analytics Attribution Models Documentation.
People Also Ask
The system that credits outbound activities for held meetings, opportunities, and revenue in a way that can be audited in the CRM.
Sourced means outbound created the opportunity path. Influenced means outbound touched a deal that also had other channels involved.
Held meetings, show rate, positive-to-held conversion, opportunity creation, and sourced revenue.
A held meeting means the prospect attended the scheduled conversation. Booked-but-absent should be no-shows, not wins.