This week, under internal pressure, Ford agreed to abandon its worker-grading system.

ECONOMIST: Corporate downsizing in America

The letter-grading system is popular with the public.

FORBES: Restaurant Letter Grades Make Your Food Worse

Mr Andrews ordered that papers be regraded and he has since set a new Wales-only grading system for the subject to avoid a repeat of the row.

BBC: Exams in progress sign

Before other publications did, FORBES developed an increasingly sophisticated system of grading the long-term performance of funds, in both up and down markets.

FORBES: James W. Michaels

Or, on a school grading system, a "D" --- the same grade as in 2007.

CNN: King: Waterman finds Chesapeake Bay 'dying daily'

With no evaluation deal in place, the city will revert to its previous system of grading teachers on the up-or-down scale.

WSJ: State Warns School Aid Is at Stake

The book is especially obtuse when Koch describes his system for grading employees, a four-box "virtue and talents matrix" that balances "values and beliefs" against the skills needed to run the business.

FORBES: Koch's Laws

If you have a good lead grading system, and are trained how to use it, you will find ways to keep building your market-wide reputation without wasting too much live selling time on such deadbeats.

FORBES: Prospect Service: Applying a Great Customer Servicing Mindset to Lead Nurturing