The Attribution Blind Spot: Why B2B Marketers Must Treat Conversations as Revenue Events

The modern B2B buyer journey is defined less by static form fills and more by dynamic, real-time interactions. Prospects expect immediacy, context, and personalized guidance, long before they’re willing to talk to sales. Platforms like Intercom, Drift, and HubSpot Conversations have emerged as the engagement hubs that deliver exactly that.

The numbers tell the story: buyers now touch more than 60 distinct points before making a decision, and nearly 75% say they prefer a rep-free experience for much of the journey. Yet they also expect subject-matter expertise and one-to-one consultation when the time is right. Conversational platforms bridge this tension, offering immediacy while preserving human context. And still, despite the clear buyer preference, conversations remain under-credited in revenue attribution.

‍

The Blind Spot in Funnel Attribution

The gap exists because most attribution systems were built for a pre-chat world. Multi-touch models credit ads, emails, and events, but conversational engagement falls through the cracks. A buyer might click a LinkedIn ad, download a whitepaper, engage in a Drift chat, and then speak to a rep. In most dashboards, that conversation is invisible.

This blind spot has three consequences. First, marketing leaders underinvest in conversational platforms, even though they are some of the highest-intent signals available. Second, revenue teams lack visibility into how chats accelerate deal cycles or increase conversion rates. And finally, at the boardroom level, CMOs struggle to demonstrate the real pipeline and revenue contribution of conversational marketing.

‍

Why Now? The Rising Stakes of Conversational Marketing

Treating chat as an afterthought is no longer viable. A study from Gorgias found that visitors who engage via chat are 2.8× more likely to convert, and companies report an average 79% lift in sales and loyalty from offering live chat. Drift’s own research shows conversational marketing can lift conversion rates by as much as 45%, while intent-informed routing can drive ROI multiples of 18× or more.

These aren’t marginal improvements; they are funnel-changing outcomes. And yet, without attribution, their impact is largely anecdotal.

‍

From Engagement to Revenue: Making Conversations Count

To close the gap, GTM organizations are beginning to reframe conversational platforms as revenue engines rather than peripheral support tools. This requires two shifts: recognizing conversations as funnel milestones and building the infrastructure to capture and act on their impact.

• Conversations must be treated on par with campaign responses, demo requests, or event registrations. A qualified interaction in Intercom or Drift is not a “nice engagement metric”; it is a revenue signal.
• Chat transcripts, meeting bookings, and engagement scores need to flow seamlessly into CRM and MAP systems. Without normalization across Salesforce, Marketo, and HubSpot, attribution remains fragmented.

Once conversations are integrated, AI and advanced analytics can uncover how they influence pipeline velocity, win rates, and deal progression. Instead of anecdotal SDR stories, leaders can quantify how mid-funnel Drift interactions shorten cycles or how Intercom nurtures expand opportunities.

‍

How RevSure Closes the Loop

RevSure makes conversational engagement measurable by integrating directly with platforms like Intercom and Drift.

With the Intercom integration, RevSure connects chat and engagement data across the funnel, attributing those conversational touchpoints to pipeline and revenue. What was once anecdotal now becomes actionable; conversations are tied directly to opportunity creation, powered further by AI-driven lead scoring and automated follow-up actions.

The Drift integration provides similar clarity. By pulling real-time conversational data into the attribution framework, RevSure shows precisely how these interactions contribute to engagement, pipeline progression, and eventual revenue outcomes. Leaders gain a unified, end-to-end view of how conversational marketing shapes business impact, rather than relying on isolated metrics.

Together, these integrations ensure that conversations aren’t lost in silos; they become recognized, attributed, and activated as core revenue signals.

‍

The Future of Funnel Attribution Is Conversational

The B2B landscape is shifting fast. Buyers are moving toward self-service, real-time interactions, and asynchronous engagement. Conversational platforms are no longer peripheral; they’re central. But until attribution catches up, their value will remain obscured.

The organizations that win will be those that treat conversations as attributable, measurable, and actionable funnel events. With integrations across platforms like Intercom, Drift, and HubSpot Conversations, and attribution engines like RevSure turning signals into shared truth, conversations finally become what they’ve always been: the clearest signals of revenue intent.