Your Measuring Stick

Performance Enabler: 

 Your pipeline is the measuring stick of your performance.  You carry it around, review it often, show others and periodically let others borrow it, validate it and report to some group of higher-ups how well you are doing.  It shows opportunities closed this year, won or lost, yet to be closed, and the entire bandwidth of your performance.

I evaluate my measuring stick often as it is the sole determinant of my performance bonus, as in did I meet the sales metrics I was assigned?  My goal, and that of the vast majority of business development directors, is to close a predetermined dollar volume of business and have a pipeline in place the first day of the new fiscal year that is probability adjusted to satisfy then current fiscal year sales goals.  Global Exchange figures a probability-adjusted pipeline of slightly better than the acknowledged industry average of one win in three pursuits, as the goal is adjusted to address sole source awards and the increased award probability of re-competes.  In other words, you need a probability-adjusted pipeline 2.5 times your sales goal to net your sales forecast.