 Some people have a head for numbers and thrive with analytical thinking. Others are full of creativity, communication, and building relationships. Most fall somewhere in the middle, albeit closer to one end than the other.
Salespeople are no different. Just as each person has different strengths and interests, some sales professionals gravitate towards finding new business while others would rather work to expand the footprint of their existing customers. We call this “hunters and farmers.” The confident hunters are motivated by the thrill of finding and converting new business. Meanwhile, relationship-focused farmers are more concerned with expanding accounts that already exist. Each persona has distinct personality traits that allow them to grow your business - just in different ways. One of these isn’t better than the other. In fact, both are integral members of your sales team and the right combination of these personalities is what allows your business to grow most effectively. Hunters Think about the typical salesperson persona. Confident. Quick on their feet. Charming. Outgoing. Assertive. Comfortable building new connections. What you’re picturing is a textbook hunter. These salespeople enjoy walking into a room of strangers and walking away with a host of new friends. They love the challenge of turning strangers into customers. They thrive at new business development. Hunters are in their element, and most effective members of your team, when they’re able to focus on converting new business. Farmers The strengths of farmers lie in their ability to grow relationships. Unlike the assertive hunters who love the competitive aspects of selling, farmers are service oriented. They pride themselves on their ability to find new ways to add value for their customers. They’re experts at not only managing accounts to keep customers happy, but at expanding accounts, enabling the company to increase revenue without signing new customers. Why It Matters “I’m not sure what I’m going to do about my sales team. When I first hired Lisa, I was really excited about what she’d bring to the team, but she clearly hates going to networking events and dreads cold calling clients. She’d spend her whole day talking to existing clients if she could. I’m not sure it’s going to work out. Bob, on the other hand, seems sporadic in the fact that all he wants to do is go to networking events, meet new people, and leave the office to find new opportunities. If you were to ask Bob which of his current clients he thinks he could grow, he could probably tell you, but it’s not where he puts his focus. His focus is always outward. He’ll miss a meeting if it means landing the newest, shiniest client. How do I get Lisa to start being more proactive with new business? And how can I get Bob to work a regular 9-5 schedule?” This question may seem like an extreme example, but it’s exactly why hunters and farmers matter. In this example, Lisa, a clear farmer, loves working with existing clients, expanding their business, and protecting the base - and yet, her manager resents that she doesn’t want to hunt for fresh business. Meanwhile, Bob would love nothing more than to spend all his time on the go, signing new clients each day - but his reluctance to farm frustrates his manager as well. Lisa and Bob are both important members of the sales team fulfilling vital functions. The manager simply has them in the wrong roles. Instead of playing to their strengths, the sales team is forced to work in a way that they don’t like and won’t excel at. While it’s true that most members of your team won’t align 100% with one camp or the other, they will fall closer to one end of the continuum. A farmer may enjoy certain types of new business opportunities. A hunter may want to continue growing specific legacy or large accounts. The hunters and farmers framework isn’t to say that salespeople can only hunt or farm - but it’s a great tool for determining where most of their time and energy should be focused. This is where a sales assessment is incredibly useful in hiring the right kind of person for the right role. Tools like Sales Achiever can help you determine if the person you’re interviewing is a hunter or a farmer - so you can make sure you’re not hiring one when you’re really looking for the other. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us.  One of our favorite things to write about is the sales cycle in the live event space. We’ve all been to events. We’ve seen how a great AV team can make all the difference in the world. So let’s use the perspective of AV to talk about reactivating customers.
Why? Because events happen every year. Some even repeat bi-annually or quarterly. And yet, when many live events companies are looking to grow their business, they miss one of the most obvious places to find leads to contact and new event opportunities to quote: Their inventory management system or CRM. When you use a CRM, like Pipedrive or HubSpot, or an inventory management system, like Lasso, Rentman, Flex, or Intellievent, you’re sitting on a goldmine of event information, live event contacts, and knowledge that will help you approach organizations with the goal of getting more business. The first step is looking at events you previously quoted that took place 6-9 months ago. If they are annual events (and many are), this means their upcoming event will likely be in the next 3-6 months. For events that you won and worked on (whether you worked on the event once or 15 times), reach out to your point of contact. It may seem early, and you certainly don’t need to push them to start planning components of the event they aren’t ready to. But reaching out early shows your client that your team is proactive, engaged, and dedicated to the success of the event. It shows that you’re organized and that their event is a priority. It’s easy to assume when an event goes well that your team is a shoe-in for subsequent events - but that isn’t always the case. From other vendors reaching out to a change in the planning team’s structure, business that seems like a sure thing can easily change hands. Starting this conversation early, before another live event company reaches out or an RFP is issued, decreases the risk of a competitive bid process starting. Of course, if you’re only reaching out to customers you’ve worked with for events you have experience working on, you’re missing half of the reactivation picture. In fact, one of the most important ways to use your CRM is to track the deals you lost. Look back at that list of events you quoted that took place 6-9 months ago, only this time, pay attention to the ones you didn’t win. Look each one up in your CRM and answer the following questions:
Now it’s time to do some research. Find out if the event is, in fact, recurring, or if the organization has any other upcoming events. If so, it’s time to be proactive. Reach out to your point of contact with a simple email, inquiring if they’re working on the event this year and asking if they’d be open to seeing some of your ideas or an event quote. You may not have been awarded the event you initially bid on, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities in the future - and reaching out will keep you on their radar. Do you want more helpful AV industry tips? Join our Live Event Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to up-level your team and increase sales performance. In a sales meeting with a live event team, one of the salespeople shared that they were ghosted after responding to an RFP.
“I’m really bummed,” the salesman shared. “I met this meeting planner, and we really hit it off. I was hopeful it would be the start of a lot of new business and a great working relationship.” Karl looked around the room at the sales team. “What do you think he should do next?” He asked. The team responded with the obvious - calling, emailing, other follow ups - all things that the salesman had already been doing. Karl nodded. “I have a question for you. Do you want to win this specific show from the meeting planner, or do you want to capture as much business as possible in the future, too? There were chuckles around the room. “Obviously we want as much business as possible.” “Then why are you treating this entire relationship like it’s about one RFP?” As salespeople, it’s natural that we’re hyper fixated on closing the sale in front of us. However, when every interaction we have with the client is filled with pressure to buy, we forget what matters most: figuring out how you can be of service. “What do you think the meeting planner might need?” Everybody was quiet. Karl went on. “What do you think her daily life looks like? What problems is she trying to solve for her clients? How can you help?” Suddenly, the ideas started flowing. “We could show her some of our favorite venues.” “We’re producing a gala in two weeks that we could invite her to. It’ll give her some inspiration and show how our team works with clients onsite.” “There’s a networking event coming up in a few weeks. We could see if she wants to attend with someone from our team.” The conversation about this meeting planner, and the strategies we were using, switched from pestering her about a single proposal to finding new ways to provide value. During his appearance on the Navigating Sales & Proposals episode of the Corralling the Chaos Podcast, Karl shared why good proposals should include more than a gear list and a quote. Instead, they should show an understanding of the client’s needs, share ideas that inspire, and tell a story about what it’s like to work with you. Most importantly, the entire sales process should prove that you’re a partner, not a vendor. Check out the full podcast on the Lasso website to learn more! |
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We are headquartered in Colorado with domestic and international teammates and clients. Please use the contact form on this page to inquire about any of our books, podcasts appearances, speaking engagements and workshops, any of our offerings, or simply to connect.
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