“The reason most people don’t recognize an opportunity when they meet it is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like Hard Work.”

Carlos had a small training and consulting firm that was doing all right.

He had 6 consultants on staff and another 4–5 that were part-timers, but he hadn’t seen growth in a few years.

His firm was well-positioned; he assisted large IT organizations who wanted to implement a certain best practices framework. They had solid case studies, and he knew who his ideal client was, but leads were still hard to come by. The CIOs at these large companies were well guarded, and he didn’t have the sales horsepower to get in.

It was just going too slowly, picking off one or two new clients a year.

What else might work?

We started talking about partnerships to find leads, and he mentioned a new software company that had asked him to provide some webinars for their sales staff. The software utilized the same framework, and Carlos’ experience with it was valuable to them, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to get tied down to just one vendor. Who knew if they’d grow or succeed?

What should he do? How would he find the leads and grow?

Given the situation, what do you want to create?

I suggested that he approach the software company and train their sales team if they would be willing to send him leads.

The software company needed to educate potential clients on the framework to sell their software. Carlos knew that training was a way into creating a consulting engagement, and a win-win partnership was born!

By training the sales force, Carlos gained instant credibility with them and built trust relationships so that they would bring his firm into their deals.

The software firm grew quickly and went public about 4 years later. A year after that, the software firm bought Carlos’ consulting and training business for over $50M!

Where are the opportunities that are walking around, unrecognized, in your life and business?

If you need help finding them, hit reply, and let’s get on the phone!