Whether it’s the beginning of the year and you’re staring at your new list of net new target accounts or you’re midway through the year and simply need a pipeline boost, prioritizing which accounts to target first is an essential part of attaining quota. This should be an objective and systematic process. For us, it all begins with getting the no-brainers out of the way. These will be the list of the ones you know, for sure, you don’t want to touch and the ones you know, for sure, are ripe for the taking this fiscal year.

No-Brainer Eliminations:

1. Former customer with recent churn. They’re probably not buying from your company again anytime soon.
2. Recently-lost opportunity: If the previous rep just went through a cycle there and lost, they’re probably not looking again this year. You could always set a little touchpoint with the previous stakeholders to see how the winning competitor is performing, but it’s not an account you want to spend a lot of time, or any time, prospecting into.

    

No-Brainer Keepers:

This is always going to be specific to your company, so be sure you know what your ideal customer profile looks like. If you’re not aware, and marketing or sales enablement doesn’t have these answers, then I recommend speaking with a highly-successful and proven sales person within your company to learn from them. Try to keep it to 30 minutes. But if they offer more, take it: 

1. When prioritizing which accounts to target, what do you personally look for?
2. What characteristics of a prospective account get you excited and why? 
3. What kind of accounts/situations frustrate you or are more difficult than others, if any? 
4. Are there any situations you just flat-out avoid?
5. What have been your best points of entry into a net new account? 
6. What roles typically have the most influence in your deals and why?
7. If you were in my shoes, what are the top 3-5 things you would be doing and what are the top 2-3 things you would be avoiding (time wasters/distractions)?

    

Be sure to send a nice “thank you” gift afterwards as well – $50-$100 of value…don’t be cheap. Great sales people value their time, so show them how much you valued it. This gesture will also help you establish a relationship with a top performer which can pay meaningful dividends down the road. Maybe ping their manager with something like, “Hi, Jocelyn. Brandon helped me out quite a bit the other day and I wanted to send him a thank you. Do you know what he enjoys?” Could be dinner, a bottle of something, Top Golf, etc.. 

So, not only did you learn a ton from a top performer, you established positive relationships with both a top performer and his manager, plus Brandon got a cool gift and his manager was made aware of how he helped you, which looks good on him. All for $100. Easy decision.