How we work · Reporting
Every result reported as “X from Y”, including the ones that miss.
Updated 18 October 2026
- Every figure with its denominator
- Misses reported first
- No open rates
Synthetic demonstration — not client work or achieved results.
Weekly report · Six weeks, 3 August to 11 September 2026
The counts, with denominators.
- Attempted sends204Start
- Delivered200200 from 204
- Human replies1818 from 200
- Positive replies66 from 18
- Met the written definition44 from 6
- Conversations actually held33 from 4
- Opportunity11 from 3
Threshold 6, qualified 4. The decision: do not scale yet.
Why most outbound reports mislead
- Cause 01
A rate with no base
Per email sent or per person contacted: the same campaign can look ten times better or worse depending on the count.
- Cause 02
Only the good news
A report that shows booked meetings and hides the replies and misses cannot tell you whether the targeting is right.
- Cause 03
Success defined afterwards
Without a threshold agreed in writing first, any result can be described as a win.
Four rules for every report
- 01
Every number has a denominator
A rate without a base invites comparison with a benchmark it cannot be compared to. We write “6 from 18”, and show what the 18 is.
- 02
Definitions come before sending
What counts as a qualified conversation, and how many the pilot should produce, are agreed in writing before the first message goes out.
- 03
A miss is reported first
If a threshold is missed, the report says so on its first page, and the at-risk part of the fee is refunded. Nothing else in the report changes that.
- 04
Uncertainty is stated
Where a judgement was ours rather than a fact we observed, the report says so and shows how the numbers would read the other way.
The funnel, drawn
Seven counts from the sample pilot, each with the number it came from.
What each figure means, and what it does not
The counts below are the invented data from our sample report. They show the form: the figure, its denominator, and the limit of what it tells you.
-
204
Attempted sends
The start of the funnel
Means: Messages the system tried to send.
Does not mean: Not people: a few accounts received a follow-up in the same window.
-
200
Delivered
200 from 204
Means: Accepted by the receiving server.
Does not mean: Not "reached an inbox". We cannot see a spam folder, and we do not claim to. Three failed at rejected addresses; one domain no longer resolved.
-
18
Human replies
18 from 200
Means: A reply written by a person.
Does not mean: Not opens. We do not report opens: image-proxy prefetching makes them unreadable, and reporting a number we cannot interpret is worse than reporting none.
-
6
Positive replies
6 from 18
Means: A reply that invites a next step.
Does not mean: Not qualified. A positive reply is interest; it says nothing yet about budget or fit.
-
4
Met the written definition
4 from 6
Means: All three parts of the written definition, evidenced in the thread or the call.
Does not mean: Not opportunities. This is the number the threshold was set against.
-
3
Conversations actually held
3 from 4
Means: A scheduled call that happened.
Does not mean: The fourth was booked inside the window and sat outside it; it is counted as qualified and not as held. It is not counted twice.
-
1
Opportunity
1 from 3
Means: Stannary recorded an active deal with a next step and a date.
Does not mean: Not revenue, not a forecast, and not a win. It is one deal at the earliest stage.
What we do not report
- Open rates. Image-proxy prefetching makes them unreadable, and a number we cannot interpret is worse than none.
- Revenue we cannot trace. A report states what happened in the funnel. It does not claim what caused a sale.
- Significance we cannot support. At small counts, a difference between two messages is a prompt to look closer, and we say so.
See it applied, on an invented company: the sample results report, in full. The terms on publishing figures are in §7.