90% of opening more doors is about prioritizing the right accounts. Most Account Executives/Managers don't do this.

Here are the top 3 mistakes I've seen thousands of times.

3 of the top reasons for prioritizing accounts that are still used now as they were in 2014 are as follows:

1. Targeting accounts because "it's a whale" or a well-known brand.

Choosing an account based on size is FINE but not sufficient to prioritize. Especially if you don't know anyone in the account and have to lay the groundwork from scratch.

Work, research, prod and pull the account but don't prioritize it (just yet).

2. The account was pre-selected for them in CRM.

By who and for what reason? They didn't bother to check. Many times, account selection is handled centrally at the RevOps or SalesOps level.

3. Based on criteria like geography, industry or similar preference.

Again, this is simply a search filter, not a reason to prioritize accounts.

4. Random account selection.

This is especially true with AEs/AMs with named account lists who just pick an account to check a box, walk into pipeline meetings and talk about their activity.

Overall, these reasons for account prioritization work once in a while. But the downside is that positive results aren't repeatable or consistent.

If you want more open doors, you must prioritize for RELATIONSHIP PROBABILITY.

There are hundreds of people in your accounts right now waiting to take your call, answer your messages and learn more about you. Some may even be researching or evaluating solutions like yours.

Find and PRIORITIZE the relationships. There's gold there.

How do you select accounts to prospect now? Comment below and be sure to follow/connect if you like content about prospecting.