Back when I was a young and active salesperson, my supervisor often told me:
“Keep your antenna up.” While the word “antenna” might feel a little outdated now, the idea behind it remains just as important.
Still, I understood it to mean: Always make an effort to stay informed. Salespeople, caught up in the demands of daily tasks, tend to lose sight of what’s new. Without conscious effort, it’s easy to miss out on fresh information—and without that, it's impossible to engage in new business. That was the lesson.
There are two types of “new business.”
One is the expansion of existing business. While it may not fit the strictest definition of “new,” it often requires acquiring new customers to build on current relationships.
The second is what I believe to be the true definition of “new business”: something entirely different from anything we’ve done before. Finding such opportunities is also part of a salesperson’s role.
In a small company like ours, however, there’s a bigger challenge: no matter how high we raise our metaphorical antennas, the information doesn’t always come to us. Simply putting out feelers isn’t enough. We need to go out and actively seek it. Without that initiative, nothing new will come our way.
So how do we acquire new information? The answer is simple: through daily sales activity and consistent effort. It comes down to whether we’ve built enough trust and presence for a customer—whether a supplier or buyer—to think, “This is someone I should share this idea with.” That kind of trust requires knowledge and experience, and gaining both takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. That’s why steady effort matters so much.
As we’ve often said, our aim is to become a company strong in the field of proteins. Fortunately, we’ve also been approached by international partners with new opportunities involving malt, potato starch, and more. With any luck, we’ll be able to introduce some of these in the near future. These conversations are the direct result of our team’s daily commitment and reliability.
If we ever become complacent, even for a moment, a company of our size would quickly find itself out of the loop. We must always remember this—and continue to put in the effort every single day.
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