Later, I bought some 60 retail food brokerage companies, representing hundreds of different companies to supermarkets and mass merchandisers. But not one of my large company clients ever got its full potential from my company. They lost billions in sales because they failed to understand the mind-set of the people who own sales companies. Realize that almost all third-party representatives are entrepreneurs. Whether they have one employee or hundreds, the owner is, like you, an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs love entrepreneurs.
That's your first edge, so use it. That's something they'll never get from the CEOs of the large companies they represent. Most successful representatives have three or four large company clients whose commission checks make up a good portion of their monthly income. The nightmare for all representatives is to wake up one morning and find that they've just lost one of their majors. That's another edge for you.