(1). A small, unprofitable piece of business your sales guy convinces you to take, claiming “there’s a lot of money behind this one.”
“Yeah, I know the fee on this one doesn’t even cover our cost, but this is a call option opportunity. This guy tells us his company’s going public soon – no, he didn’t say when – and we’ll already be in there when it does!”
(1). Used to refer to a sales team with insufficient resources or seniority. Often used in a self-deprecating way to refer to one’s own efforts to land new clients, while at the same time having the alternative meaning of the sales leader overcoming the insufficiencies of his organization and persisting to win new clients.
“We just completed the European tour. It’s tough man, just two guys and a dog. But we did have good traction with a couple key accounts.”