Bill Canady says grade your accounts on data first, then let sales challenge specific cases with evidence. Salespeople are too good at persuasion to let them influence the initial ranking.
You cannot ask the lion to grade the antelope. Every account will come back strategic. Everyone will have a reason. Long relationship. It's going to grow next year. Heard that's going to be a rocket ship. It gets us into a vertical. The parent company is enormous. Grade the accounts on the data first in a room without the account owners in it, and then bring in sales to challenge specific cases with evidence. The order matters. Data first, argument second. And the argument has to move a number to win. It's going to be hard. These guys are sales folks. They're good at it. They're going to convince you. Resist, resist.
