How to Think About Opportunities At the mere mention of the word opportunity, most sales guys’ nostrils flare, blood pressures spike and pupils dilate. Perhaps left over from some prehistoric caveman fight or flight gene, they seem to check their cognitive skills at the door and wildly rush ahead. Make no mistake, I like aggressive sellers. But, it’s important to take just a moment to fully understand the full story at an account before investing time, effort and company resources. The full story comes at the crossroads of three very important variables: 1. Real dollars/gross margin potential 2. Estimated time to achieve business success 3. Level of effort involved with getting the business Dollar/Gross Margin Potentia l Many experienced salespeople miss the dollar/gross margin potential of their accounts for number of good reasons. Often, it’s hard to get accurate estimates of the potential in the early stages. This is one of the reasons why we believe that a certain a...