Co-founders Richard Lane and Lee Durham were both established entrepreneurs with individual businesses when they met in 2010. Lane was an independent sales trainer and coach, and Durham was a sales strategy provider. Their paths crossed during a training session and the rest is history.

“Together we had over 40 years of commercial sales experience and we owned businesses that would complement each others. Not much later, on the 1st of April 2011, we brought the two businesses together as durhamlane,” Lane said.

Five years ago, the business started out by targetting local SMEs needing that competitive sales edge. Since then, durhamlane has worked with companies across sectors and industries, like Symantec/Veritas, HP, Northumbrian Water, Sage, British Gas and many others. 

“We set-up our business in the recession. Lee and I have always thought if you can’t grow a sales business when times are hard, then you probably can’t grow at all. Now as people look to grow and expand, we have the business ready to drive forward,” Lane explained.

“During the first two years it took a while for us to understand how we work and operate most effectively, but since then the company has exploded,” he added. 

Having passed the fifth anniversary milestone, Durham outlined plans for international expansion. “The exciting thing for this year is taking our proven, robust methodology and model of operating and expanding into other markets, such as Australia and New Zealand. While we have high growth ambitions, our core values sit at the heart of what we do, and that has never changed,” he said.