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reference · checked 31 Oct 2026

numbers.

Every external figure the guides rely on, checked again at its source: who published it, what sample it rests on, what it measures and what it doesn't. Below them, the figures that circulate in the industry and did not hold up when I looked.

118 figures, by kind of source

  • vendor survey29
  • official statistics27
  • vendor documentation20
  • law or regulation19
  • analyst survey14
  • media report8
  • industry body1
A vendor survey is a survey run or paid for by a company that sells something related. It is labelled as such everywhere it is used.
  1. 1a number with its sourcenamed in the sentence with the year, linked at the end of the guide, listed here.
  2. 2an observation from practicelabelled as mine in the guide, never shown here as a statistic.
  3. 3a hypotheticalmarked as illustrative, with inputs you replace with your own. Not listed here.

numbers I don't use.

These figures turn up in decks, posts and vendor reports. I looked for the original and either did not find it or found that it says something narrower. If you know a primary source for any of them, write to dawid@dawid.xyz and I will check it.

  1. not usedA 22-point indecision threshold attributed to The JOLT EffectThe 22-point threshold was looked for on The JOLT Effect's own page, the Dixon and McKenna HBR article and Dixon's CustomerThink interview, and none of them mentions it or any numeric indecision threshold.more in your biggest competitor in security deals is "no decision"
  2. not usedResponding fast to an inbound lead makes it 21 times more likely to qualifyThe 2011 HBR study the figure is usually attributed to reports factors of nearly seven and over 60, and the guide traces the 21 times figure to a separate earlier industry study that is quoted beyond what it measured.more in the first hour after a demo request
  3. not usedSecurity POCs convert to closed deals at 60% to 80% when done rightRework states the range without citing any study or data, and no independent benchmark of sales-assisted POC conversion was found.more in how to run a security POC that ends in a decision
  4. not usedPOC-anchored demos close at a median of 41% against 15% for scripted demosPreSales Pulse aggregates practitioner surveys and CRM data from 38 SaaS companies without giving deal counts per approach, and POCs run on deals that are already qualified, so the gap cannot be read as an effect of the POC.more in how to run a security POC that ends in a decision
  5. not used60% of market development funds go unused every quarterThe trade article cites a LinkedIn post and ZINFI cites its own unnamed survey, both without sample or method, and Technology Match traced the figure to a single vendor blog post from about a decade ago.more in content your channel partners will actually send
  6. not usedBillions of dollars in channel marketing funds go unclaimed each yearTechnology Match found that the USD 14 to 35 billion figures come from studies of US local retail co-op advertising, which is a different business from B2B technology MDF.more in content your channel partners will actually send
  7. not used80% of channel revenue comes from 20% of partners.Quoted by Channelnomics and The Channel Company as a rule of thumb, and neither page cites a dataset, sample or method behind it.more in a signed partner is a logo, not pipeline: the first 90 days after signature
  8. not usedPartner revenue is closer to 90/10 or even 95/5 than 80/20.Channelnomics (Larry Walsh, June 2025) states this as its finding, but the public part of the article gives no dataset or method to check it against.more in a signed partner is a logo, not pipeline: the first 90 days after signature
  9. not used90% of indirect revenue comes from 10% of partners, or from fewer than 5%.The 2018 CRN UK article quoting analysts returned 403, and the guide itself notes that none of the analysts quoted published a dataset.more in an ideal partner profile fits on one page
  10. not usedFour out of five new partners leave a programme without selling anything.The Channel Company's 2024 blog states it as an average but names no study, sample or period, and its title's '80% underperforming' does not appear in the text.more in a signed partner is a logo, not pipeline: the first 90 days after signature
  11. not usedOnly 11% of partners reach the goals that pay out meaningful incentives.The same Channel Company blog gives the number without any source, survey or definition of a meaningful incentive.more in a signed partner is a logo, not pipeline: the first 90 days after signature
  12. not usedPOCs run through partners convert at a known benchmark rate.No independent public benchmark for POC conversion through partners was found, and the figures in circulation come from vendors describing their own POCs.more in co-selling with a partner: who owns what in the deal
  13. not usedPlatform consolidation figures: 75% of organisations pursuing vendor consolidation, 81% rationalising security tools.The Gartner page behind the 75% returned an error and the 81% from Omdia appeared only in trade press, so neither could be read at the source.more in competing with the bundle the customer already owns
  14. not usedEvent benchmarks for attendance, no-show and conversion rates of webinars, seminars and CISO dinners.The figures in circulation come from event platform vendors and agencies describing their own customers, with no method published.more in a partner roadshow that ends in registered deals

Terms used with these numbers are defined in the glossary. How I handle sources and corrections is on the about page.