Small or big

Ford Harding in his latest blog entry, Why Peter Couldn't Bag an Elephant, describes the challenge of a rainmaker accustomed to selling small projects, going after 'big game' (or elephants). In composite story he describes the challenges of someone being pigeonholed into the little jobs -- and finding it difficult to break out for the bigger ones. The biggest challenge: The number of successful sales, and the time between sales, is much higher for larger jobs -- you might need to go six months before you get a commitment -- and that is too long for the person accustomed to closing a deal or two a week.

Frankly, I'd be happy with someone bringing in a steady stream of 'small work' and am not sure why small jobs cannot lead to bigger ones for the firm -- if the rep who brings in the small jobs is typecast in that role, presumably someone else could help or work with the rep on a transitional/business development scheme to bring in the larger jobs while the company is working with clients on the small projects.

Heck, if one of my reps is consistently successful in bringing in small jobs to the volume cited in Harding's blog (and they are profitable jobs), I'd make him partner, in an instant!