Hot Tip: It Never Hurts to Ask
This oil service increased revenues 30% by purchasing small-scale businesses that large companies wanted to get out of.
CEO's Notebook
It doesn't hurt to ask, says Thomas Langston, president of Pittsburgh's Oil Service Inc. Langston has increased his company's revenues 30% by getting into small-scale businesses that larger companies wanted to get out of, he says. Last year Langston, whose 50-employee company distributes petroleum products, realized that some of his direct competitors were tiny divisions of much larger companies. On a hunch, Langston started cold-calling the companies to see if they might sell the divisions, which were profitable but growing slowly. Three said yes, including Pennzoil-Quaker State and Sunoco. "A large corporation doesn't have the psychological attachment," he says. "It's just numbers."
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