With careful planning and a lot of determination, Leigh Meyers was hoping that some day his company, Beta Technology, would reach No. 100 on the Houston 100 list.

   After only three years in business, however, Beta Technology not only has made the list, but is ranked as Houston's fourth fastest-growing privately owned business.

   Beta Technology, an industrial and institutional maintenance products company, was founded after two years of careful planninng and preparation by Meyers, who had worked in sales in the industry for two years.

   "I believe in extensive planning, such as registration, training manuals, and structure and development of the company itself," Meyers says. "I developed a proprietary way of selling the products that we developed and with that we were able to penetrate the marketplace."

   Beta Technology designs, develops and markets industrial products such as drain maintenance products, cleaners, lubricants, adhesives, insecticides, and herbicides and water maintenance products. Institutional products offered by the company include cleaners/disinfectants, deodorizers, floor and carpet care products and hand cleaners.

   With one operations manager and himself, Meyers struck out on his own, making cold calls at schools and companies to sell his products.

   Door-to-door selling meant addressing workers from different maintenance departments of a business - talking to the housekeepers, chief engineers and groundspeople.

   After the first day of selling, he landed his first client, a nonprofit membership organization, and from then on the business has grown non-stop. By the end of 1995, Beta Technology had expanded to the point that it had customers in 10 states.

   Meyers believes in the products he sells. But he says that the business hasn't grown just from the products but because of the dedicated sales force he has throughout the country.

   "The right people must have discipline and accountability to be successful for Beta Technology," Meyers says. "A lot of companies have forgotten the most important thing about being in business. The most important thing after the customer is the outside sales force. These people are the reason for our success."

   It isn't easy to build an effective sales team, Meyers says.

   "Keeping the long-term customer happy is not difficult but the hard part is finding the right people for the job," he says. "Most people are dying to develop a company and try to go into business but I don't think that's the hard part. In this business it's finding the right people who are willing to work hard and be successful."

   Doing this required Meyers to start out with a broad concept and refine and hone the profile of what type of sales force was the best for the company.

   "I developed through trial and error the right way to evaluate prospective employees," Meyers says. "But it's a learning process. I'm always learning new ways to evaluate employees and new hiring techniques."

   Meyers attributes Beta Technology's success to its sales force.

   "One thing we won't become is operationally controlled,& he says. "We will continue to be sales controlled. A lot of companies in our industry and others don't follow this. Once a company becomes too large, the message of the importance of the sales force is forgotten."