Incentivizing Self-Sourced Pipeline in Your Closing Reps

Pipeline Creation Deserves Recognition

Sales compensation programs are typically based on just one thing: closed revenue. But while revenue is always going to be the key performance indicator, ignoring another very important factor of development would be quite a mistake, the factor of pipeline development. Especially in startup settings.

As Full Cycle Mavericks are responsible for not just closing deals, but generating demand, qualifying buyers, and managing deals from top to bottom, their skill in creating a pipeline plays a very decisive role in having something to close in the first place. But this contribution is often ignored by companies.

If companies expect their employees to think like owners, they must be willing to reward them accordingly. Because incentives determine behavior, and companies that recognize the value of self-sourced pipeline foster the right attitude towards entrepreneurship.

Good sales cultures know that opportunities don't just show up. Someone has to make them happen.

Why a Self-Sourced Pipeline Is Important

Pipeline is the basis for predictable revenue. Building a healthy pipeline is only the first step—success ultimately depends on progressing opportunities through each stage of the sales cycle, as explored in our article on Why Pipeline Is Meaningless If You Can't Push Deals Across the Finish Line.

If there are no sufficient prospects, the best closers will find themselves in trouble after some time. For the growth of the company, not only closing but also creating new deals is needed.

This is the reason why a self-sourced pipeline should get more attention.

Sales reps who create opportunities for themselves can bring additional value to their companies. These sales reps increase their independence from external circumstances and help to build additional resilience for companies. Their actions lower the dependence of organizations on budget spending on marketing.

The power of incentives is enormous when it comes to behavior changes. Everyone pays attention to those things that are measured and rewarded. If closed deals are all that matter, prospecting is left behind. If the importance of creating opportunities is seen, ownership appears in the organization.

Full-Cycle Mavericks know about it inherently. They know that today's outreach leads to tomorrow's revenue.

The Hidden Value of Self-Generated Opportunities

Opportunities you create for yourself provide you with many hidden benefits besides your individual quota goals.

Perhaps the first benefit would be a decreased dependency on marketing. Inbound marketing is very important, but its outcomes are rather unpredictable; economic conditions, budgetary constraints, and competitive pressure might affect the number of leads.

Sales reps who work solely on marketing opportunities are highly dependent on the above conditions. In turn, Full-Cycle reps who consistently generate new pipeline have much higher leverage over the results they get since they don't depend on waiting for opportunities to come by.

Secondly, a self-sourced pipeline helps you create greater revenue predictability. Organizations with several sources of demand are much more resilient compared to companies relying on only one way of getting new customers. A blend of inbound and outbound approaches makes a business resilient.

Finally, self-generated opportunities make an organization more resilient. Businesses whose sales teams are owners themselves are much better at managing uncertain situations since they don't need perfect conditions to thrive.

Why Traditional Compensation Models Fall Short

Many compensation structures inadvertently discourage full-cycle behavior. In compensating reps only for closed revenue, the organization disproportionately focuses on the last step in the funnel. The activities of prospecting, account mapping, and creating opportunities go underappreciated.

This overemphasis on closing generates negative effects. It is only natural that sales professionals will prioritize tasks that affect their paycheck. Prospecting activities are often neglected during busy quarters, when most attention is devoted to closing deals. This leads to dependency. Reps will start to expect marketing professionals to do this work for them. They will lose the ownership and entrepreneurial spirit that drove the business at the beginning.

The traditional models of compensation underestimate the hard work that goes into building the pipeline. Developing valuable opportunities involves persistence, discipline, and creativity. All of those efforts bring enormous value much earlier than closing.

Disregarding them sends the wrong signal. It tells the reps that closing alone is all that matters. For full-cycle organizations, such an approach can be an expensive mistake.

Rewarding Pipeline Ownership

The best sales teams make sure to reward pipeline development. One way this can be done is by providing larger commissions to self-sourced leads. It creates a clear link between ownership and reward, encouraging salespeople to engage in outreach.

Every startup structures compensation differently, but many reward both revenue generation and pipeline creation. For example:

Desired Behavior	Example Reward
Prospect consistently	Pipeline bonus
Generate qualified opportunities	Opportunity creation incentive
Close self-sourced business	Higher commission rate or ownership bonus
Consistently exceed self-sourced pipeline targets	Quarterly performance incentive

Sometimes companies reward their teams with a bonus for generating opportunities.

The incentive takes into consideration the fact that generating leads requires a set of skills different from closing them. By rewarding both processes, companies emphasize the value of maintaining balance within the sales process.

Incentives facilitate continuous prospecting. Salespeople are far more likely to stay disciplined in their daily activities when they feel their efforts are recognized by the company.

Another benefit is that the process encourages accountability. As opposed to simply responding to external demand, salespeople become active agents in the process of generating growth. They feel accountable for the outcomes because they understand that success begins long before the contract is signed.

Finally, an appropriate compensation system motivates salespeople in desired behavior. And for startup companies, ownership is among the most desirable behaviors.

Creating a Culture of Full-Cycle Selling

Incentives have more than an individual impact. They create cultures. Companies that incentivize self-sourced pipelines create a culture of ownership. It means their salespeople need to deliver results throughout the full sales cycle, rather than just close deals.

Accountability increases. Full-Cycle sellers know they are not accountable only for closing the deals but for sourcing them too. Such a mindset is highly likely to encourage initiative and entrepreneurial thinking. As a result, companies become proactive and resilient.

Their teams learn to be independent from any external factors and gain the ability to create new opportunities even in unfavorable conditions. But maybe the biggest advantage of incentives for pipelines is that they breed builders.

Passengers don't build anything. Passengers wait until something happens to them. But builders make things happen.

Why Ownership Creates Competitive Advantage

Ownership is an attribute that distinguishes top-performing sales organizations.

Those who recognize initiative create organizational environments wherein everyone thinks and acts like a business owner, not an employee. They innovate, take responsibility, and continuously improve.

This is especially true as organizations grow. The environment changes, competition heats up, and customer needs shift. Those teams that depend on outside help find it difficult to cope. Teams with Full-Cycle Mavericks are flexible because they know how to make things happen independently.

Ownership breeds confidence. Confidence breeds consistency. And consistency breeds success. That is why self-sourced pipeline recognition is more than just a reward system. It is a strategy.

Conclusion: Ownership Should Be Rewarded

Full-Cycle Mavericks do not just wait around for opportunities to come their way. They make them. The ability of Full-Cycle Mavericks to make opportunities and grow is extremely valuable to any company. But many companies' incentive structures fail to account for that value.

Any intelligent company recognizes how important incentives can be to influence behavior. Incenting self-generated pipeline and closed revenue creates a culture of responsibility, entrepreneurial spirit, and ownership. But even more, it creates a culture of initiative. Because growth does not consist solely of closing deals.

Growth consists of generating those deals first.

Businesses that incentivize such behaviors get better pipelines, greater resilience, and healthier business environments. Many sales organizations also review their compensation strategies regularly to ensure incentives remain aligned with evolving business objectives and market conditions, a practice frequently recommended by Gartner. In the end, ownership gives organizations a competitive edge. And competitive edges are created by initiatives, not by waiting for them to arrive.