HUNTERS vs. FARMERS by Bill Gaffney Which is more important?   Dec. 12th, 2005   As a recruiter many times I am told, “I want a hunter” or “I want a farmer”. I think to begin this article we should clarify the definitions of these two roles. Then we can discuss which role might be more important. When I say farmer I am talking about an individual who manages an existing account or group of accounts. They can be either a salesperson whose role is to generate more business within these accounts or a highly skilled customer service person whose role includes increasing revenue as well as providing customer service. A hunter is a person whose role is to find and develop business with potential clients whose business you don’t have or have very little of. For the sake of this discussion let’s put existing business at less than 40% of potential business. A true hunter also usually likes to move on once the majority of the business is “wrapped up” and go to the next challenge. Which role is more important? First pose yourself some questions. The following are certainly not all of them: 1. Are you anticipating the bulk of your growth from new sales or from acquisition, either buying companies or customer bases? 2. Are you in a high growth market segment or a very low growth segment? 3. What is your new customer acquisition cost vs. customer retention cost? 4. Is your company name instantly recognizable or are you a newer or niche player? 5. What is your current percentage of market share? Finally, as we close this paragraph remember that a product or service does not sell itself, no matter what the engineers, inventors or some marketing departments tell you. Some salesperson has to sell it. Now we get to the question. My answer is you need both, unless you are a new company with no customer base. The real question is what is the proper mix and here you start with some of the questions posed above. Some of the reasons for both roles are: 1. Each role has particular skill sets that can be at odds. For example a true hunter is most excited by finding a new opportunity, crafting a solution, negotiating the terms and closing the deal. A farmer many times is more rewarded by knowing the increased business was a result of continued outstanding customer service. (I have a coaching practice on the side and I love doing that but without the challenge of finding and putting the deals together in my recruiter role I would be bored stiff.) 2. A true hunter could typically be a farmer but start feeling unchallenged doing so in a few months and will move on (change companies). A true farmer generally doesn’t possess that “killer” instinct required to be a hunter. 3. A client, or a potential client, also has certain expectations. When you are dealing with a new “vendor” don’t you expect to be sold a little differently than when you are already a customer? 4. You have the opportunity to drive behavior and performance better and more efficiently by separating the roles and responsibilities. I was just told these weeks about a well know organization where the sales leadership was being compensated based primarily on retention activity and the salespeople rewarded based on new acquisition. Now what do you suppose is currently happening in this organization? One last comment I want to make, but don’t have the space to go into great detail, is compensation is also a key. Don’t get greedy or even worse, egotistical and try to limit your salespeople’s’ earnings by caps, complicated commission plans, etc. This is a demotivator and in the long run takes money out of your pockets and your company’s coffers. When I worked for MCI I worked for one of the most successful divisional presidents in the company. One of the primary reasons was he didn’t enforce caps. He believed, and rightfully so, the more legitimate money his sales force made the more he made. I hope you find the right mix and close lots of deals. Bill Gaffney has been a recruiter in high tech sales and marketing for 15 years. Before that he did large account sales for close to 10 years. Bill is also a trainer within the recruiting industry and a contributing author in recruiting, coaching and sales publications. He can be reached at bill@sorrellsearch.com