Are We Still Eating Our Seed Corn...?

By Sid Chadwick, Chadwick Consulting, Inc. – 02/19/2026

Published in American Printer :”Sid highlights the tools, strategies, and intelligence gaps that slow organizations down. He also points out the underused resources that could change the game.”

“Tell me and I’ll forget….Show me and I may not remember…. Involve me, and I’ll understand.”………………………..Native American Saying

INTRODUCTION:

In our 14-Week Inside Sales Academy, we introduce students to Public Databases residing in our local central library.

These publicly available Databases are incredibly powerful for revealing details about approximately 115 million businesses – just in the U.S., organized by Industry, SIC Code, NAICS Code, geographical location, et al., with details re. contact information, competitors, and key personnel.

Would you like to know what target prospects are within 5 miles, 25 miles, 50 miles, 100 and 150 miles of your plant, that “mirror your best customers” – who love your company…?

The “Wow-Affect” doesn’t slow down as the Class progresses….  Another Database contains “Lifestyle Details” of over 320 million consumers, including home value, personal income ranges (up to and over $1 million/yr.), patterns of personal expenditures, charitable giving, hobbies and recreation. (We introduce multiple Databases, with Homework Assignments, and rich follow-up Class discussions.)

If you want to make an impact with a prospective publisher – looking for additional distribution, or charities wanting to identify interested supporters….well, there’s no charge for the names and addresses of your target lifestyle profile, that can be printed out from your office or home.

We tell our Students in their first class, “We will change your professional life – including providing multiple strategies for getting the attention of key prospective personnel, whom you’ve never met, and who have never heard of you or your company.”

Four companies have sent Students to more than one 14-Week Inside Sales Academy.

Three of those four companies have sent Students to each 14-Week Class – we are now in the middle of our 3rd 14-Week Class.

Our next 14-Week Class starts up June 6th (There’s a 90 Minute Class every Wednesday, with a Reading & Written Assignment for the next Wednesday Class – issued every Thursday - that requires between 3 and 5 hours, depending on the Student’s personal engagement with their Assignment.) Note: The Instructor is available for questions – 24/7, re. Class Assignments.

Every Wednesday Class is video recorded, and forwarded to each Student and their Supervisor, next day. This not only provides incredible value to the Student and sponsoring company, but that recording is why most of our Student Sponsors want more personnel – in our next Class.

SUMMARY:

This Class was developed when a treasured, long-term Client told me, without reviewing my initial Curriculum, that he would not send any struggling Reps or ambitious CSR’s to the Class, because “It wasn’t sponsored by a national association.”

That hurt – a lot – and prompted me to ask, “How much do I know that possibly, just possibly, no one in our industry teaches – that I consider valuable…that seems to no longer be taught (if it ever was)…?”

That CEO Client’s President and son, Rette Collins, sent a “last-minute” Student to our 1st Class….After viewing 3 Casses of Videos, that CEO Client called me and said:

“I want two Students in your next Class start-up, and you may use my company and me as a Reference, including my Letterhead.”  (Wanzie Collins, Panaprint, Macon, GA)

My observation is that the environment outside our Great Industry is changing faster than most of our industry is changing. As a result, unknowingly, “we are eating our seed corn.”

Our Students attend Class from their office or home (e.g. ideal for external Reps), by Zoom. And… we access Databases, from my local Central Library…plus…archived Articles from our website – (that are accessed daily – including from foreign researchers) where we produced over 800 published Articles, most of which are courtesy of our publisher, American Printer.

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”……………………….Derek Bok