The Few, The Proud.. The Top 1%

Are there ways to calculate just how many of us are out there? Not just sales and BD people, but true BDP's? According to the last census, in the United States alone there were 14,592,699 people in in"revenue-centric" (business development and sales related) occupations.

As you know it can be difficult to separate wheat from chaff at this high level. However, applying the typical distribution curve of sales organizations for high performers, 10% to 15% that would result in approximately 1.3 million candidates. Our criteria for defining BDPs are even more stringent, we expect a 1% number to accurately estimate the market size to be 146,000 true BDPs in the US. (Source: 2000 US Census)

Due to the nature of their employers, BDPs are very often global in scope and territory, so the above number does not include the large number internationally-based companies.