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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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? 
• Products and Services: What products and services are a part of your company and its competition?
• **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 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).