The Tactics Behind the Metrics: How to Actually Measure Your Government Sales Performance

June 6, 2025 | Government

In government sales, it’s easy to say: “Know your numbers.”
Revenue targets. Pipeline size. Prospect touches. Conversion rates.

You’ve heard them all before. But most companies don’t just struggle with what to measure; they struggle with how to get those measurements in the first place.

So let’s get tactical. Today, we’re not talking theory, we’re talking tools, habits, and processes you can implement to finally get your hands on data that drives your sales strategy forward.

1. Don’t Just Use CRM, Design CRM

Most companies think buying a CRM tool is the answer. It’s not.
The answer is building a simple, actionable structure inside that CRM.

At minimum:

• Leads: Any agency or buyer who could use what you sell.

• Contacts Made: You’ve initiated first outreach (email, phone, LinkedIn, in-person).

• Meetings Held: A live conversation or capabilities brief has taken place.

• Opportunities: You have a real opportunity identified (RFI submitted, RFQ in process, forecasted requirement discovered, etc.)

• Closed-Won / Closed-Lost

Every single one of those stages tells you something. And now you have real, trackable numbers:

• How many touches lead to meetings?

• How many meetings lead to opportunities?

• How many opportunities convert to wins?

That’s how you begin measuring conversion, by actually defining stages that reflect real activity.

2. Build Your Prospect Universe the Right Way

You cannot measure agency engagement if you don’t even know who your buyers are.
Start with:

• USA Spending & FPDS: Who buys what you sell? Which contracting officers sign those deals?

• SAM.gov: Find the award history, solicitation patterns, and set-aside utilization.

• Google Filetype Searches: Use advanced searches like:
  site:.gov “directory” filetype:xlsx “Agency Name”
  You’d be surprised how many internal directories are public.

Once you know your agency list, you can track:

• How many agencies you’ve identified.

• How many have you actually reached.

• How many you’ve booked meetings with.

That becomes your coverage metric.

3. Implement a Weekly Metrics Habit

Measuring sales isn’t complicated. It’s about discipline.
Set aside 15-30 minutes every week. Review:

• Prospect Touches: How many emails, calls, meetings, briefings?

• Pipeline Health: Are opportunities moving forward or stalling?

• Conversion Rates: Are your meetings turning into real opportunities?

This is not a quarterly exercise. You don’t fix weak metrics after Q4, you fix them after week one.

4. Build Pricing and Past Performance Tools

Part of your measurement is knowing your pricing position and your past performance value.

• Build pricing templates that let you quickly model margins and profit scenarios, especially for product sales where P-Card transactions require net pricing calculations.

• Build past performance trackers so you know:
  • Agency served

  • Award amount

  • Period of performance

  • What solution you delivered

Every time you submit an RFI or capabilities brief, you should be able to pull metrics like:
“We’ve delivered 30 solutions to 7 agencies supporting 20,000 end users.”

That’s measurable. And that’s what buyers respond to.

5. Tie Activity to Revenue Goals

You can’t control award decisions. But you can control activity.
That’s why every metric you track should flow up to your revenue model:

• Revenue Target ÷ Average Contract Size ÷ Win Rate = Pipeline Volume Needed

For example:

• Goal: $1M

• Average deal: $100K

• Win rate: 20%

• You need $5M worth of pipeline to hit your number.

Now your activity metrics fuel your pipeline metrics, which fuel your revenue metrics. And you know exactly where you stand.

Bottom Line

Measuring government sales isn’t just pulling reports.
It’s building simple systems, developing weekly habits, and forcing your sales activity into structured buckets that tell you exactly where to focus next.

The companies who win consistently aren’t necessarily better at sales; they’re better at measuring how well they’re selling.

That’s the game. That’s the Summit.

If you’re serious about building a system that actually grows your government sales:

• Start by signing up for my Government Sales Game Plan newsletter, subscribers get access to our top strategy tools, templates, and training guides that go deeper on everything we talk about here.
  https://mailchi.mp/betteryourcompany.com/sign-up-for-newsletter

• And if you’re ready to really accelerate, check out our Advisor Group Coaching. We work directly with companies every week to implement these strategies and build pipelines that actually convert.
  https://federal-access.com/richearnest/

If you like what you see in this article and are ready to get to work on increasing your product sales margins, click here to schedule a call with me. Let’s put together a plan that works

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