It’s the old question. Is there a secret sauce that all great salesmen have, or are successful hunters different from successful farmers? In recent years it has become clear (at least in my head) that there are two different types of vendors: hunters and farmers. I decided to write this article because I’ve had several discussions in the last two months with salespeople who want to know if they are hunters or farmers, and with sales executives who want to know how to organize their sales force around the two. different types of sellers. As always, I would love your thoughts on hunters vs. farmers and how is the sales force of your company!
Let me first articulate what I mean by hunters (eg “new business development executive”) and farmers (eg “account manager”). Hunters work heavily at the beginning of the sales funnel, both prospecting for and qualifying leads. They will typically find a solution to the need expressed by a qualified lead and work to seize the opportunity to close, but they are not responsible for post-sale activities. Farmers largely work at the back of the funnel and are responsible for servicing existing customers and identifying/closing new sales opportunities with their assigned accounts.
Differences between hunters and farmers:
One of the shocking things I learned from understanding what makes great hunter/farmers was that many of the core competencies that make someone successful in one type of sales role actually work against them in another! If you’ve been involved in this debate or are wondering if you’re a better hunter/farmer, here are some key differences between the two types of sales roles.
Emotional Resilience vs. emotional intelligence: Hunters must be emotionally resilient to deal with the high levels of daily rejection that comes with prospecting (eg cold calling); they have to bounce back within seconds from rejection and reach out to another potential prospect. Because hunters spend a lot of time prospecting, this is a key aspect to their success. On the other hand, farmers need to be emotionally in tune with their account team and customer support team. After all, customer satisfaction is an emotional feeling, and farmers need to be experts at feeling it.
Hunter vs. Compliance: Hunters are driven by the rush of the hunt (go figure!) and the thrill of the “kill.” Given how exciting that rush is, the everyday details can seem pretty boring. Since a hunter’s primary duty is to hunt, this works well. Conversely, good farmers like to get their hands dirty with details and consider themselves solid and reliable. This is well suited to compliance duties, which are vital to managing an account.
Independence vs. Team: Hunters are self-motivated and work very well independently. Sometimes they even disdain the sales or marketing operations people who try to work with them, and often don’t like teamwork. This is a vital feature because hunters mostly work alone during the prospecting and qualifying phases and have to be highly motivated. They rarely receive help on their jobs unless an opportunity has passed the qualifying phase. By contract, farmers are team players and collaborators. They work closely with their account management team and the client, often framing business challenges and creating solutions together with their client.
Classification vs. breeding: The best business development people out there are top raters. Hunters can be given 100 beads and tell very quickly which five are worth chasing. In business development, it’s critical that hunters spend their time on leads that could be closed or are otherwise wasting their time. This is the biggest barrier to a hunter’s productivity, so the ability to score quickly and accurately is crucial. By contract, farmers are great nurses. They look at relationships from a long-term perspective and are interested in getting to know their customers on a multitude of dimensions. In account management, it is essential that salespeople develop strong, long-term relationships with their customers to promote trust and loyalty. If a farmer were given 100 prospects, he would naturally try to develop long-term relationships with most of them.
Organize your sales force in hunting and farming
Increasing revenue is always a priority in business, so hunters are always needed when the business is small and growing. As the business begins to grow and you see potential for long-term profitable relationships with current customers, you’ll need to add farmers to your mix. The most common mistake I see companies make is under-investing in their farmers. This is mainly because when you need farmers, your sales force is full of hunters who don’t value farming. Be very careful to control your hunters and invest in a farming unit. The type of farm unit you need will depend on several factors: client size (gross receipts), complexity of the client’s business, importance of your products/services to the client’s business, complexity of your product/service portfolio, and of course , earning potential. As those criteria grow, there is an opportunity for further investment in an elite farming group. Cultivation units range from cheap inside sales reps to pricey strategic account managers.
The investment in dividing your sales force into hunters (New Business Development) and farmers (Account Management) is big. You’ll need additional layers of management, dedicated sales operations and enablement staff, and other support functions. You should always run the numbers to ensure that each NBD and AM unit is profitable and can support itself. Sales should always be a revenue center.
Weaknesses of implementing the hunter/farmer model
One of the things that I have come to believe in my time studying and working with companies is that every management model has its weaknesses. Dividing your sales department into hunting and farming departments is no exception. Here are two problems I’ve seen businesses face and how to overcome them:
First of all, companies think that account management (agriculture) is the same as customer service… IT IS NOT. Certainly, customer service is an important component of account management, but the main focus of account management is to increase revenue over the long term…which should be reflected in your incentive plans. Too often I find that account managers do not work on any kind of commission and therefore do not look for new sales opportunities. If you don’t incentivize your farmers to grow the business, you’ll get a reactive group of people who won’t grow your most fertile customers. Keep in mind that it costs 8-10 times more to sell to a new customer than it does to an existing one, so your farm unit should have an excellent cost-to-income ratio.
The strongest objection to separating a sales force into hunters (new business development) and farmers (account management) is that it creates an awkward transition for the customer after they’ve signed on the dotted line. This is a VERY valid point. After all, the customer has bought from you because he has had a great experience with your hunter and might perceive a transition as a bait and switch. It’s important to involve your account managers in sales opportunities from the proposal writing process through to final presentations.
You should also develop a value proposition to transition your client to account manager during the proposal/presentation process. You need to seek approval from your new client to transition to the new account manager, and you should only transition fully when clients feel comfortable. This part requires a lot of “management,” but it’s worth the price to put your employees in roles that align with their competencies and put your customers in good hands for the long haul.
As always, I’d love to hear what you think of the hunter/farmer model and what your sales force is like.