COMM 344: Listening: A Relational Approach to Sales: Company Research

EBSCO's Business Source Complete includes company profile MarketLine reports in addition to business-related articles from scholarly and trade publication journals.

Step 1: Browse or Search for a Company Profile

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Step 2: Explore the Company MedTrack Report

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Hoover's delivers comprehensive company, industry, and market intelligence that drives business growth.

Step 1: Lookup Company Information

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Step 2: Explore the Data Provided After Searching for Company Name

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LexisNexis includes company information for over 80 million companies. Search by name or using the ticker symbol.

Step 1: Lookup Company Information

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Step 2: Explore the Data Provided

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**NOTE: You can also choose the Company Dossier option (at the bottom of the Get Company Info box). Choose Find a Company and type in the company name or ticker symbol. Finally, select Only Show Headquarters Locations to complete your search.

Questions Asked When Company Researching...

• Competitive Analysis: Who are the major competitors to your company? What products and/or services are represented by your competition? What are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) for your company and its competition? 
  **Use LexisNexis Academic to find competitors. Expand the box titled "Get Company Info", and choose "Company Dossier." Type your "Company Name" and check the box stating "Only Show Headquarters Locations". When a record is retrieved, look under the "SnapShot​" section on the left and choose "Competitors."
• Products and Services: What products and services are a part of your company and its competition?
  **Use LexisNexis Academic to find products/brands. Follow the steps above, but instead of "Competitors," choose "Brands."  
  **Use the company's website. Products are often listed.
  **Do a Google search for the company's annual report in order to locate products and services. Example Search: [company name] annual report 2013 

Public Companies: Trade on stock exchanges and issue stocks. 
Private Companies: Do not trade on stock exchanges.

Determining Public Vs. Private Companies...

• Look up the company in LexisNexis Academic. Publicly traded companies will have a ticker symbol (a 3-letter symbol in parenthesis).
• Look up the company in Yahoo! Finance. Look for a ticker symbol and check the News & Performance of the company you are researching.
• Look up the company in the Forbes-Yearly Lists using the following lists: America's Largest Private Companies and America's Best Small Companies. 
• Look up the company in the Inc. 5000 Company List. This resource provides a list of 5,000 private companies compiled by Inc. magazine (published yearly).