Fatal Mistake 2: Thinking Account Executives Should Prospect (Making Account Executives Jacks-Of-All Trades) Your need your Account Executives (quotacarrying salespeople) to spend most of their time fulfilling deals or calling on customers, and a minimum of time prospecting for brand new accounts. Prospecting doesn’t bring in revenue— closing brings in revenue. The bulk of prospecting into new accounts should be owned by a separate, dedicated prospecting role. Account Executives should prospect for new clients less than 20% of the time, and only to a Top 10 Strategic Accounts list, with partners, or to current customers. The bulk of prospecting into new accounts should be owned by a separate, dedicated prospecting role. Even for businesses such as consulting that depend highly on relationships, much of the early work of new account research, development, and qualification can be handled by cost-effective, focused Sales Development Reps. Solution: Specialize sales roles. You only need two salespeople to begin specializing. This is so important that I discuss this in multiple places in the book.