Use Design Thinking to Identify Your Diamond Accounts

In partnership with

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

This is the easiest way for a busy person wanting to learn AI in as little time as possible:

1. Sign up for The Rundown AI newsletter

2. They send you 5-minute email updates on the latest AI news and how to use it

3. You learn how to become 2x more productive by leveraging AI

Sign up to start learning.

Welcome to Lesson 28 of The Purposeful Performer!

Today, we'll make your account list clearer and easier to understand. Use Design Thinking and the Diamond Hunter Framework—inspired by the Japanese concept of Ikigai—to identify accounts that align with your unique strengths, passions, and purpose.

Transform your account list from random to strategic.

Total points up for grabs: 25

Your account list isn’t just a list of targets—it’s your portfolio. Design it intentionally.

Most sellers treat their account list like a lottery ticket. They work blindly through territories assigned by someone else, hoping something will stick. This reactive approach leads to burnout, inconsistent results, and a nagging feeling that you're always chasing the wrong opportunities.

The top 1% of strategic sellers think differently. They understand that not all accounts are created equal, and they use Design Thinking to transform their sales territory into a thoughtfully curated portfolio—one intentionally aligned to your key assets.

Design Thinking is a human-centered methodology focused on empathy, definition, ideation, and prototyping. When applied to account selection, this powerful method helps you identify which opportunities deserve your finite time, energy, and attention, and equally important, which ones you should intentionally avoid.

Enter The Diamond Hunter Framework—a strategic tool based on the Japanese concept of Ikigai (meaning "reason for being") that helps you find accounts at the intersection of elements you define for yourself. For reference, Ikigai is found at the harmony of these four components:

1. What you love - This refers to activities that bring you joy, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose. It's what you're naturally drawn to and what excites you.

2. What you're good at - This involves your skills and talents, both innate and developed through learning and experience. It's what you naturally excel at or have the potential to become proficient in.

3. What the world needs - This component focuses on making a positive impact on society or others. It's about identifying needs and contributing to solutions, even on a small scale.

4. What you can be paid for - This is about the practical aspect of turning your passions and talents into a sustainable way of living. It involves identifying marketable skills and services that can provide financial stability.

As you learned in Lesson 7, finding your Ikigai is a great place to start defining clarity for the year and becoming more intentional in your craft. But this model can also be applied to how you select your accounts and begin working on ones that have more meaning to you.

Slow down to speed up

Back in 2018, I was guilty of the same mistake that plagues 98% of sellers today. After receiving my list of 50 strategic accounts at LivePerson, I thought I was invincible. Coming off an MVP year, I believed I could win every account I pursued.

My default was to say "yes" to everything and everyone. Every inbound lead looked promising. Every account seemed worth pursuing. I was spreading myself too thin, and my manager noticed.

During a trip to visit a prospect in Chicago, Sean gave me some direct feedback: "I've seen the best of you and the not-so-great in you. You're incredible in front of accounts you care about, but you're flat in front of accounts that don't have meaning to you."

He was right. Saying yes to every account was hurting my win rate, draining my energy, and capping my earnings at around $200K. I needed to slow down in order to speed up.

That's when I discovered Ikigai and applied Design Thinking to my account selection. Instead of working blindly through my territory, I developed five specific criteria that mattered to me personally:

Interesting (to me): Well-known companies that were impactful, changing the world, "cool" brands, and fast-growing
Industry First: Companies in grocery, major hotel brands, direct-to-consumer, CPG, entertainment, and media—all industries our company hadn’t broken into yet
Domain Expertise: Accounts where I could leverage my knowledge in QSR, travel, retail, hospitality, tech, and big deals
Fast: Opportunities that could move to Stage 3 and close within 9 months with minimal headwinds
Big: Fortune 50 companies with $2M+ deal potential and the largest deals in the organization

Using this framework, I plotted every account on a Venn diagram. Accounts touching all five criteria became my Diamond Accounts—the precious handful that deserved my primary focus.

The results were transformative. I went from closing $2.4M ARR in year one (the old way) to $8.7M ARR in year two (the new way). More importantly, work became energizing instead of draining. I wasn't just chasing deals; I was pursuing opportunities that aligned with who I was and what I valued.

The biggest transformation wasn't in my earnings—it was in my approach. I stopped trying to be everything to everyone and started being exceptional for the right accounts.

Earlier this year, I ran a strategic account team through this framework at their SKO. A month later at their QBRs, every seller on the team refined their top 10 list to align with their own personal criteria. In addition to that, their CRO had everyone make a case for three new accounts they wanted in their territory based on the individual seller’s analysis on why they deserved to be on their last, reinforcing the power of treating sellers as mini-entrepreneurs and not just employees who should blindly follow a playbook.

Fast forward to today, and I was pleased to hear from the CRO that they have exceeded their H125 target and closing in on a lofty annual target.

Let’s break down The Diamond Hunter Framework so you can adopt it and fill it in with your own criteria.

[⬥Pro Tip: If you work existing accounts, get strategic and smart about tapping into low-hanging fruit using specific criteria as “buying signals.” I share some ideas in the mission below.]

To access, you must be a member