Research
Four papers. One market map. All free to read.
Tenbound has tracked sales development for a decade. The papers carry their figures,
methods, and references. Everything reads in the browser, and nothing asks for an email.
Full research papers with figures, methods, and references. Everything reads online, nothing downloads, no gate. The one ask is a citation when you build on it.
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.
Insights holds 45 shorter pieces: the market map, the KPI definitions, the tool breakdowns. Open to everyone, no email asked.
The research is open to every reader, free. Join the live community call every Tuesday and get the weekly magazine the morning it ships. Tenbound charges nothing.
Programmable Revenue connects the formal evidence to the decisions teams make this week. Every article names its sources, states what the evidence does not cover, and ends with the change to make.
Where the function stands in 2026: smaller teams, signal-based targeting, a consolidating stack. Anchored on The Bridge Group 2025, 351 companies, $3.78M median pipeline per SDR.
Read the 2026 analysisHow teams split the SDR job between AI and humans, and where each side actually wins.
Read the delegation paperFrameworks for designing the system that creates qualified pipeline: the standard, the maturity model, the papers.
Read the standardThe category map Tenbound has maintained for a decade, updated for the consolidated 2026 stack.
Read the 2026 mapOperator lessons from live graph8 workflows. First entries publish alongside the 2026 benchmark release.
Lessons from real outbound programs, client names removed. First entries publish once the de-identification review clears.
Four peer-referenced papers with figures, methods and full reference lists, the annual sales tech market map, and the State of Sales Development. The papers cover the division of labour between humans and AI in pipeline work, pipeline arithmetic, pipeline maturity measurement, and a taxonomy of buying signals.
Yes, and ungated. There is no form. The research is free to read, share and build on, and the one ask is attribution: cite Tenbound and link the issue. Publishing openly is the point, because research nobody can reach does not set a standard.
Each paper states its method and its references in full, so a reader can check the reasoning rather than take the conclusion. Where a figure is illustrative rather than measured, the caption says so. Numbers carry the date and the source they came from.
Yes, that is what it is for. Cite Tenbound and link the source page. No permission request is needed.
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