Marketing reports more inquiries. Sales reports too few buyers worth pursuing. Three shared measures can show where the gap is.
The argument about lead quality usually goes on because each side is counting something different. For industrial and supply chain technology teams, a form submission can mean a service request, a student researching a project, or a supplier pitching you. The useful question is how many real buying conversations marketing helped start, how quickly someone answered, and what paid acquisition cost.
Why form counts mislead in 2026
The 6sense 2026 B2B Buyer Experience Report found that only 35.2% of surveyed buyers reported using their own contact information on forms. That does not mean only 35.2% submitted forms, or that everyone else was a poor-quality lead. A contact record and the buying group behind it are different things.
The report summary also says the buyer’s team initiated about 82% of first conversations. These are vendor-sponsored, cross-industry survey findings, not a lead-quality benchmark for your company.
A raw form count cannot tell you which inquiries sales accepted or why. Sales sees the inquiries that don't fit, marketing sees the volume, and neither has an agreed answer to the question both teams care about: how many real buying conversations did we get this week?
The three numbers
This is the weekly report we recommend for a small industrial sales team. Send it Monday morning as a plain email, with no attachment. Keep the same reporting period and qualification rules each week.
- Qualified inquiries, by source. Count an inquiry when a rep confirms it is a real buyer with a need your company can serve. Aim to record that decision within five business days. Split search into paid and organic, then show referral or distributor, trade show, direct and unknown sources separately. Keep unreviewed inquiries in a pending bucket; they are not automatically junk.
- Median time to first human reply, in hours. Measure from inquiry receipt to the first personal reply or attempted call, excluding automated confirmations. Choose elapsed hours or business hours and use that basis consistently. Report unanswered inquiries separately so they do not disappear from the number.
- Cost per qualified inquiry. Divide paid media spend by qualified inquiries attributed to paid sources for the same reporting period. Label this as media cost; it excludes agency fees and other costs unless you deliberately include them. If no paid inquiries qualify, show “no qualified inquiries” rather than a zero-dollar cost.
A faster reply does not create demand on its own. We track response time because a slow reply can put an existing opportunity at risk. The buyer may already have a preferred vendor, as we explain in the research on industrial buyer shortlists.
Impressions, click-through rate and sessions stay in the marketing report, where they help tune campaigns. They do not need to crowd the weekly sales email.
The definitions are the hard part
The report only works if “qualified” means the same thing to everyone. Start with a 20-minute meeting with sales: agree what your company can serve, which buying needs count, and what evidence a rep needs before marking an inquiry qualified.
For example, a heavy-equipment service company might require a serviceable machine type, a location inside its coverage area and a stated repair or rebuild need. That is an illustrative definition, not a universal rule. Job applicants, duplicate submissions and supplier pitches should have their own rejection reasons.
- Store qualification status, decision date and rejection reason in fields reps can update.
- Count one inquiry once; agree how repeat contacts about the same project are handled.
- Use one source-attribution rule, and leave uncertain sources as unknown.
- Review rejected and pending inquiries monthly. The reasons can guide negative keywords, page copy, form changes or sales follow-up.
Qualification takes time. Group inquiries by the week they arrived, let reps review them, and refresh that week’s result after the five-business-day window. Do not compare this week’s spend with a pile of older inquiries qualified this week.
The same definition can inform Google Ads bidding when you have a supported conversion import, enough usable volume, consent where required, and timely uploads. A custom field alone does not send outcomes to Google. Read what changed in Google Ads conversion setup before making a qualified stage your primary bidding action.
Automating it
Pulling these numbers from an ad account, website analytics and a customer relationship system every Monday takes several logins. With one or two people in marketing, a manual weekly report can be the first task to slip. At Algorithm, we use Databox to bring sources together and share reports on a schedule.
Databox offers integrations for Google Ads, GA4, Search Console and HubSpot. Scheduled reporting can reduce the Monday assembly work, but check the supported metrics, delivery options and current plan limits before building around it.
What to check first
- It reports what your sources say. If Google Ads counts PDF downloads as conversions, a board using that conversion metric will show downloads. It cannot decide they were qualified inquiries.
- Qualification needs to be recorded. Confirm that your CRM’s qualification field and dates are available through the integration; a custom field may need extra setup.
- The median may need calculation elsewhere. Confirm that first-response timestamps and the required calculation are supported. If not, calculate it in your CRM or a spreadsheet before adding it to the report.
- Do not assume the free plan covers this. Required sources, custom calculations and scheduled delivery depend on the plan and your setup. Check them together before committing.
If you run one channel and the existing report already answers sales’ questions, you do not need another login. Prove the three-number email is useful first.
Explore Databox. Algorithm Digital Marketing is a Databox affiliate partner and may earn a commission if you sign up through this link.
What to do this week
Send last week’s three numbers to sales by hand, and ask which inquiry they would call first. Their answer tells you whether your definition of qualified matches theirs.
List anything still pending and ask who will review it. Keep the first email short: qualified inquiries by source, median reply time with unanswered inquiries noted, and paid media cost per qualified inquiry. Fix the definition before automating the report.