The Road to INTELLIGENT GROWTH™

The concept of INTELLIGENT GROWTH™ originated in 1995 when Doug Davidoff, an ”old-school" salesperson, was delayed for three hours on a flight to Baltimore. As Doug passed the time, considering the changing nature of sales, he realized traditional selling techniques were becoming less and less successful, and that soon they probably would not be working at all.

"There were times when I successfully closed the sale, but I was relieved that the service group would deal with the client in the future. Given the adversarial nature of selling, after closing I really didn't like the client anymore, and the client probably wasn't too fond of me," he tells audiences.

Once on the plane, he wrote an article "Thoughts of An Old-School Salesperson in the Information Age."  He realized that lack of control of information was the fundamental reason that sales techniques—which had been effective for hundreds of years—would no longer work in an information-rich market place. In the past, companies and salespeople always had an information advantage over their customers; they could implement sales processes that focused on maintaining that control.

The Internet and a “flattening world” have changed everything.

Applying the Theory

In 1997, Doug joined Merrill Lynch where he applied all of the concepts he developed to build a differentiated business in a highly commoditized industry. Producing over $1.2 million and managing more than $100 million in assets, Doug led a team in which he was responsible for converting a senior Merrill Lynch advisor’s book of business from a transaction-based model to a fee-based one. As a result, Merrill Lynch asked him to develop the core planning document they used to train their teams at the world’s largest financial services complex in Washington, DC.

Humble Beginnings

In 2004, Doug left Merrill Lynch, founding Imagine Financial Services and Imagine Consulting. Working from his home office, Doug began refining the INTELLIGENT GROWTH concepts to help enable companies to transform their business development process from merely communicating value to truly creating it. As The INTELLIGENT GROWTH Process™ took shape as a robust, repeatable process, it found great success in helping companies in a wide range of industries, break the commoditization trap and find accelerated growth. Through its many successes, the basement-based company evolved into Imagine Business Development, a fully staffed organization which opened the doors to it’s new office in 2007.

Imagining a Brighter Future

Today, Imagine Business Development is the leading company in helping small and mid-sized business enterprises, throughout North America, achieve fast growth. The INTELLIGENT GROWTH Program™ has expanded to offer numerous components, including Coaching, Execution, Packaging and Virtual EVP programs. We continue to expand our programs and are constantly developing new tools to assist our clients in achieving their goals.

As Imagine continues to experience consistent growth, we recognize the dedication of our team to making this happen. We recognize a work/life balance and strive to be among the most desirable companies to work for while staying committed to the vision and values of the man who started it.