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Recipe for Landing the Big Customer Let’s review the steps to landing a big customer.1) Identify companies who are spending a lot.2) Get those companies to interact with you.3) Set up meetings with these companies.4) In the meeting rigorously ask questions so you...

Growth is There for the Taking! One of our success stories is our work with a local injection molding company. The market for injection molding around the world in 2021 was estimated to be $268 Billion dollars and for North America, $110 Billion. For the sake of this...

To Grow or Not To Grow? In privately held businesses the need/desire to grow is complicated. Successful and established small business owners have a lot of freedom. They report to themselves and get to call the shots. They have a lot of flexibility in their schedule....

What’s Missing in Your Sales Effort? Great Effort! Getting great prospects is very difficult but not the most difficult thing about closing new business. The biggest challenge is for the seller in a relatively short time to understand the current situation of the...

Why is it that Small Businesses do not Like to Compete? In the 40+ companies I have helped with business development, I have learned that the reason small businesses do not like to compete is because they are not entirely sure they want to know if in fact they are...

Good Sales = Good Business Whenever I start working with a company and they want to grow their sales, we first focus on what markets we want to grow in and which customers we want to target. We identify 3 – 5 characteristics of their best customers, or aspirational...

Finding Right Opportunities When we discuss prospecting with entrepreneurial companies and small businesses, we frequently get a lot of enthusiasm for the topic tinged with angst over the lack of real hunting being done in their organization. Sales people are hired to...

The Art of Persistence A couple of years ago, I was sitting in a meeting with a large French aerospace company right outside of Paris. (I made a note to myself: This is a pretty sweet sentence—” I am sitting in a meeting right outside of Paris”—how could you not love...

It is the Process, Dude! I was just involved with one of my long-term clients bidding on a huge annual contract from one of our relatively new customers. We lost. It was a contract we fully expected to land, so it was a huge disappointment. This customer has enormous...

Opening the Door to New Markets This article by Dennis Sweeny was originally published in the KC Small Business Magazine. Moving into a new market for a small business is a difficult proposition. It is similar to starting a new business and will take time, resources,...

Persistence A couple of years ago, I was sitting in a meeting with a large French aerospace company right outside of Paris. (I made a note to myself: This is a pretty sweet sentence—”I am sitting in a meeting right outside of Paris”—how could you not love this job?)...

The Value of Persistence We hired an experienced salesperson about a year ago. Lori started off selling our services, which include helping our clients land new customers and grow their business. Below is a summary of her sales activity for a particular prospect. Lori...