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Fixing and maintaining power plants can be multimillion-dollar projects, so Michael Lake often has to persuade more than one person that his company is the right one for the job.

Lake, the director of sales for Turbine Generator Maintenance in Cape Coral, has the added challenge in the fact that none of his customers is nearby. These range from pulp mills to mining operations and independent power producers, often in hard-to-reach locations.

So Lake devised a recipe for success he calls the 10-3-1 program. He says the company has the best chance of landing a client when account managers complete 10 phone conversations with at least three different people within the prospect's organization and conduct one site visit.