4.1 · Build a Sourcing Pipeline

A good offer formula is useless without suitable inventory. A crowded inbox is no better if every lead is outside your lane, above your ceiling, or too vague to evaluate. Sourcing should produce enough qualified opportunities to support a chosen acquisition target inside Chapter 3.2’s lane cap and current work capacity.

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Define what moves through the pipeline

A lead is not inventory, and an accepted offer is not yet stock you can list. Give each stage one entry condition so the counts mean the same thing from week to week. The sequence depends on the channel. Before agreement, define what inventory and condition must match and the delivery, verification, funds, and mismatch checkpoints. Communicate the sequence and follow current platform or payment rules.

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Use a small portfolio of sources

Any one source can slow down or stop fitting the lane. Build a small portfolio whose members serve different roles: steady outbound work through local outreach or direct contact; opportunistic marketplace or event leads; and inbound from referrals or an audience. A supplier or distribution relationship belongs only when its actual access, commitments, and economics fit the business. It is an optional model, not the final level of a universal ladder. Every source still enters the same qualification process. Record where each lead came from so you can later distinguish source quality from the separate work of creating demand. Start narrow enough to learn why leads succeed or fail. Adding several untested sources at once makes it harder to tell which source, message, or rule produced the result.

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Qualify before doing full valuation work

Write the minimum information required for your lane. A card collection may use an itemized list plus clear identity, quantity, and condition evidence. Sealed inventory may use exact product, quantity, and package condition. The fields differ; the purpose is the same. You need enough information to decide whether detailed comping is worth the time. A qualified lead should clear five gates:

1. The inventory fits the primary or named supporting lane.
2. Identity, quantity, and condition are clear enough to model an offer.
3. The Chapter 2.1 ceiling can support the seller’s expectation or a credible counter.
4. Cash remains inside the lane allocation and current acquisition budget.
5. Incoming work stays inside the current intake boundary.

Until the intake workflow has a measured capacity and backlog rule, use a provisional boundary: the maximum number of units or consistent batches you can receive, verify, label, and store before the next review. Passing is valid. Record outside lane, insufficient detail, expectation above ceiling, cash unavailable, or capacity paused. The pattern shows whether a source is weak, the message attracts the wrong inventory, or the business is full. Repeat one response path: acknowledge, request missing information, qualify or pass, calculate the ceiling, send written terms using the transaction checkpoints above, and record the outcome. A template may carry the policy; it does not replace it.

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Work backward from the acquisition budget

Choose a target for deployed acquisition cash that stays at or below the weekly cash cap. Once the business has relevant history, use its own pipeline rates to estimate the activity needed to reach that target: Planned deployed buys = target deployed cash ÷ average deployed-buy size Planned offers = planned deployed buys ÷ trailing offer-to-deployment rate Planned qualified leads = planned offers ÷ trailing offer rate Offer-to-deployment rate is buys that reached the deployed-cash stage divided by offers sent. Offer rate is offers sent divided by qualified leads. Average deployed-buy size is deployed cash divided by buys that reached that stage. Use one relevant trailing period and source-and-lane mix; every denominator must exceed zero. An accepted buy that never reaches deployed cash remains in the accepted stage and is excluded from both deployed-buy inputs. For an invented illustration, a $2,400 deployment target inside a larger cash cap and a $600 average deployed buy produce four planned buys. If half of sent offers reach deployed cash, the plan needs eight offers. If offers are sent on 80 percent of qualified leads, it needs ten qualified leads. These are teaching inputs, not benchmarks. Round each required count up before using it in the next step: deployed buys first, then offers, then qualified leads. These are outreach targets, not permission to fill a quota. Every buy still has to pass the gates, and leaving part of the cash cap unused is valid. If a denominator is zero, missing, or drawn from an irrelevant source or lane, do not force the calculation. Set source-specific activity targets for an initial review period, record every stage, and establish the baseline first.

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Review sources, not just total spending

Once a month, compare each source on stage counts, deployed cash, time per accepted buy, and pass reasons. Increase effort where fit justifies the time; repair or drop volume without fit. Pause acquisition when accepted inventory arrives faster than the operation can process it. Write the first sourcing plan in four short blocks: Lane and cash: Primary lane ; weekly spending cap $; target deployed cash $___. Qualification and transaction: A lead qualifies when ___. I pass when ___. My provisional intake boundary is ___ units or batches. I respond within ___. Verification, delivery, and payment expectations: ___. Weekly source activity: Sources and actions ___; target ___ leads, ___ qualified leads, ___ offers, ___ accepted buys, and ___ buys reaching deployed cash. Review controls: Review source quality on ___. Pause buying if ___. The pipeline now defines how acceptable inventory reaches the business. Chapter 4.2 decides where that inventory should sell first.