Research
Research that defines the practice.
Tenbound has tracked sales development for years. The research turns that history into
benchmarks, frameworks, and market maps the whole category uses.
Full research papers with figures, methods, and references. Everything reads online, nothing downloads. One work email opens every paper, current and future.
Maturity models fail when they are badges rather than instruments. This paper specifies the Tenbound Pipeline Maturity Model as a measurement framework: four levels (Manual, Assisted, Orchestrated, Autonomous) scored independently across six pillars (Market, Signal, Message, Motion, Mastery, Measurement), with observable descriptors per cell, a scoring protocol, and known failure modes of self-assessment. The instrument is designed so two trained assessors reach the same placement from the same evidence.
Pipeline creation is a multiplicative system: a target number of qualified meetings divided through a chain of conversion rates yields the required activity volume. This paper formalizes the arithmetic, derives its central managerial consequence (improving the weakest rate compounds while adding volume is linear and bounded by hours), works the sensitivity analysis, and specifies the measurement conditions under which the math holds, chiefly honest stage definitions.
Field experiments establish that generative AI raises novice performance most and that its capability frontier is jagged: quality rises sharply on tasks inside the frontier and judgment degrades on tasks just outside it. This paper translates those findings into an operating instrument for sales development: the delegation map, which assigns every task in the pipeline motion to one of three lanes (delegate, direct, own), attaches a named review point to the first two, and versions as the frontier moves. We specify the construction protocol, the review-point design rules, and the audit cadence.
Signal-led outbound outperforms list-order outbound because signals mark the destabilization of a buyer's status quo, but signal is an umbrella term covering events with very different evidential value and very different half-lives. This paper proposes a six-family taxonomy (hiring, funding, leadership change, launch, technology motion, and behavioral intent), characterizes each family's typical decay profile and failure modes, and specifies the signal-to-play mapping that turns a detected signal into a prioritized, relevant motion.
Looking for the shorter reads? Insights publishes the reviews and archive notes, open to everyone, no email asked.
The papers are open to every reader. Members get what readers do not: the benchmark data cuts, the working documentation our engagements run on, and two inquiry calls per quarter with the Institute.
Benchmarks on teams, structure, systems, people, and pipeline. Built on 900+ companies historically.
How teams apply AI to research, messaging, and workflows, and where it actually pays off.
Frameworks for designing the system that creates qualified pipeline.
The category map for the tools and platforms that run pipeline creation.
Operator lessons from real graph8 workflows and AI execution data.
De-identified lessons from real outbound campaigns across years of programs.
Benchmarks are most useful next to your own numbers. Talk to a GTM expert to see where you stand against the practice.
The Briefing is one research summary per issue: the finding, the evidence, and the practice change, with citations you can check. Written by the Institute, not by a marketing calendar.
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