 The biggest hiring mistake every organization seems to make can be summed up as putting the right people in the wrong seats.
The very best hunter in the world won’t succeed if you’re primarily expecting them to expand existing accounts. The opposite is also true: a farmer that could really expand your footprint with loyal customers will be hindered by expectations of signing new customers each week. The answer is hiring the right people for the right roles. If you know you need a hunter, exclusively look to hire one. If your hunters are doing great, but you’re stalling with existing customers, make sure you target farmers in your hiring process. It sounds simple enough. So what’s the catch? Sales people are, by nature, good at selling themselves. When customers choose to work with a new company, they’re buying the relationship with the salesperson just as much as they’re buying the product or service. Being able to convince customers of their value is part of what makes them so good at their jobs. Of course, in a job interview, if you ask somebody if they’re a hunter or a farmer, this means you may not get a completely accurate answer - and you may not realize it. This happens for two reasons. First, the sales person themself doesn’t really know if they’re better at hunting or farming. Maybe they’ve been successful in the past without thinking too much about whether or not that success was coming from new contacts or existing contacts. And, of course, the second reason: they want to get this job. It’s only natural for people, in sales or other disciplines, to make themselves look like an attractive candidate during a job interview (who isn’t guilty of telling a hiring manager what they want to hear?) When asked if they’re a hunter or a farmer, or if they prefer starting new accounts or growing existing ones, is it really all that surprising that some folks will say they don’t have a preference? Or what they think you want to hear? Well, great. You’re probably thinking. Where does that leave me? Am I destined to only maybe hire the right person? Of course not. There are plenty of tools you can use to help you understand how prospective employees will best fit into your sales team. Namely, a sales assessment. There are a variety of sales assessment tools and tests that can help you cut through curated interview answers and understand how somebody will really fit into your team. At Improving Sales Performance, we use The Sales Achiever, as we believe the variety of personality dimensions and mental aptitudes is particularly effective. We’ve seen firsthand how sales assessments help leaders mitigate risks and get who they really need from the hiring process. Luckily, the hiring process isn’t the only way a sales assessment can boost the performance of your sales team. If your current team is full of sales professionals who just aren’t performing as well as you had hoped or think they are capable of, it’s not a bad idea to have your entire team take assessments as well. You may find that the problems you’re having might not be who is on your team, but with the roles some key players are in. The results may help you start to understand why your team is having challenges and start to fix them. Not to mention, when the time does come to hire new talent, it’ll be much easier to identify what gaps you need to fill. If you’re curious about how The Sales Achiever works and how you can apply it to your team, send us a note via our contact form and we’ll share some insights.  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.  "How do you use photos as part of your marketing and sales process?"
It’s a common question I ask AV leaders when we’re talking about growing their business. And while each team has a different system for storing, organizing, and finding images, the answer is almost always the same: We use them for everything. When they say everything, they mean everything. Photos are on every page of the website, from the homepage to industry specific pages to ones that highlight different types of events. Pictures of past events are utilized heavily on proposals, or may even be what gets the AV or production team an RFP in the first place. Images are shared at networking events, during site visits, and during casual meetings. The AV industry is one that relies on pictures to sell work more than almost any other. Why? Because live events are inherently visual, and while you can explain how a certain piece of technology works or the effect a creative idea will have, you can’t illustrate the concept nearly as effectively as an image can. In the events industry, images are a currency. “What do you do to organize your images?” It’s my go-to follow up question, and, believe it or not, the answer is often the same here, too. Silence. When a current process works “well enough”, many busy leaders don’t prioritize making it work better - but here’s a good reason to. Imagine you’re at a networking event speaking with a meeting planner you’ve never met before. They ask if you have pictures of any galas you’ve worked on. You open your event photo album and scroll through it to find a few images from a gala that took place a month ago. “That’s great,” they ask. “Can I see more?” “Of course,” you tell them. And then you start scrolling. And scrolling. And scrolling. You find more images of galas, but between each set up, you have to scroll through 50 more pictures to find another one that is relevant. It’s not the end of the world - but it is a bit awkward and you worry you seem disorganized. Now picture yourself pulling out your phone, and instead of opening a single event photo album, you open a gala specific gallery. You hand your phone over to the meeting planner and allow them to look freely through the images. After a few moments, the meeting planner finds one from over a year ago. “I love this multi-screen set up with a walkway,” the planner says. “I’d love to learn more about how that worked.” Having a digital photo book with a variety of galleries that show off specific events or session types, technology, and activations make it easier to share targeted information, which allows you to market and sell with specificity. You can even make albums with images that can be displayed and shared publicly, like on your website or in an email footer, as well as galleries that can only be shared privately, like in a proposal or directly with a prospective meeting planner or client. Organizing photos by their privacy levels removes guesswork and keeps your team from accidentally posting a photo that you don’t have permission to share. This is incredibly important as many clients may prefer that event photos aren’t posted to your website or social media platforms, but don’t mind them being shared directly with other organizations. Others may want identifying logos or information removed. Meanwhile, some clients may give you permission to use any photo as you see fit. If you’re not sure which category an event falls into, the best thing to do is ask your clients so that you don’t miss an opportunity to post a great photo to your website or burn any bridges by assuming you can share something a client would prefer you didn’t. If you're not sure what to say, we've created an email template below that you can copy and paste: SUBJECT LINE: Quick Request About Event Photos Hi [NAME], Our team loved working with you on [NAME OF EVENT] recently. We captured some great images that showcase what an incredible experience the event was and I was hoping to get your permission to use some of these pictures on our website and social platforms. Here's a link to the images we're hoping to use: [INSERT LINK] If you'd prefer to only approve specific images, would like logos or identifying information removed, or are only comfortable with certain use cases, please let me know! — [NAME] Creating a digital photobook is quick and easy - and there is most likely a tool to create them in a suite you already pay for! 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.  Your photo library is one of your best selling tools.
It’s a point I was sure to emphasize when I shared “20 Actions to Take Right Now,” to a room full of AV professionals. Your photo library is more than a highlight reel. It shows examples of innovative technology. It’s an important visual aid when a prospective client asks why a certain type of event technology is so impactful. Most importantly, it proves your expertise. Of course, when your photos are located across various google folders, hard drives and internal servers, finding the right one can be a long process. At best, it wastes the time of your sales team each time they need to find a specific image. At worst, it robs you of opportunities to make new connections when you can’t produce the pictures you’re talking about. Almost immediately, I heard dissent. “It would take weeks to overhaul our entire system.” “We have photos coming from freelancers and techs. Even if we reorganized everything, it would be impossible to upkeep the system.” “It’s more trouble than it’s worth.” That’s when I told them about MyLio. The photo search engine connects multiple sources of images without requiring you to move a single file. Even better – when the photos are tagged, they become searchable, allowing your team to find the images they need quickly. I also encouraged them to have photos that show off some incredible events using a variety of tech saved to their phones and tablets in a dedicated folder. That way, if you’re at a networking event or walking through a venue with a client, you have great images accessible at a moment’s notice. You aren’t reliant on an internet connection, and nobody has to wait for you to search through a hundred photos of your dog to find the picture you’re looking for. A few weeks after the keynote, (you can’t make this up - I promise it’s 100% true, although I changed the name to protect my friend, Steve) I received an email from Amy, one of the AV company owners in attendance. Karl, I wanted to thank you for sharing your easy tips for increasing sales - especially making sure you always have great event photos on hand. My flight leaving the conference was delayed, so I had some time to kill in the airport. I started looking through some of my favorite event photos and downloaded a variety of them to my phone. As we were boarding, I created an album and saved all the photos to it. I noticed the woman sitting next to me had an ILEA sticker on her water bottle, so I asked if she was a meeting planner. We got to talking and after a while she asked to see some pictures of association events that utilized LED screens. Normally, I would’ve been scrambling to get a strong enough connection to the airplane wifi to search through folder after folder of images. But because I saved the photos, I was able to quickly scroll through the album and find several examples. While I was scrolling, she noticed other tech she was interested in, and I explained how we used that, too. After we landed, we exchanged business cards. We’re scheduled to get coffee next week. I know she’s planning some upcoming meetings, so I’m hoping to walk away with an RFP. Thanks again! Best, Amy Your clients want ideas that inspire them, and being able to produce photos quickly when asked does just that. But you don’t need to wait to be asked. We live in the event space 24/7, but our clients don’t. What might feel like old technology or dated trends may still feel new and exciting for your clients. My recommendation? Consistently send photos that show off your work and will inspire your clients and prospective clients. If your photo library is organized, it makes it that much easier to find relevant images to send. Feel free to copy and paste the example below and add in photos that will inspire your existing and prospective clients. Hi [NAME], The last few months have been really exciting for us. We've had the opportunity to do some incredible events for our amazing clients. Below are some photos that I think might inspire you and give you ideas that could be implemented into your upcoming events. [INSERT PHOTO] [INSERT PHOTO] [INSERT PHOTO] One of my favorite parts of my job is brainstorming the next best event ideas with each of our clients. I'd love the opportunity to meet or jump on a call to talk about the trends we're seeing and my ideas for your next event. — [NAME] Join our AV Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to get more industry tips that will up-level your sales process and performance.  “We go to tons of networking events, but it’s always the same crowd. We never meet anyone new.”
This is a common problem my clients have when they start dedicating time and resources to networking and new client outreach. They fill up their calendars with networking events and attend them religiously but rarely find that they’re making new connections – and even less of those new connections turn into new customers. There’s a simple reason for that: attending an endless slew of networking events on autopilot and getting intentional about networking is not the same thing. When you treat networking events like another item on your to-do list – something to get through quickly and then cross off – you won’t see even a fraction of their value. But when you enter each event with a clear set of goals and a plan to achieve them, you’ll start to see some results. Here’s what you can do before, during, and after networking events to get the maximum impact. Before the Event If there are other people in your current network who you think would benefit from the event, invite them to attend! By having a buddy, you can work together to make new connections and benefit from established connections the other already has. Next, try to determine who may be attending the event. Is there a meeting planner who “liked” the event on LinkedIn? Is there a vendor who is on the board of the association? Try to get an idea of who will be at the event and then check out their LinkedIn profile, as well as their company’s LinkedIn profile. If they’re already in your CRM, read the notes. Look for any common connections or interests you may have. Once you have an idea of who will be at the event, create a list of the 5 or 10 people you absolutely want to meet. These should be people you think you’d be able to work with in the future and could easily connect with. If you can find their LinkedIn profile, consider reaching out ahead of time so you’re on their radar, too. Before you go to the event, take some time to plan how you’re going to network. Is a friend going with you who can help facilitate conversations? Do you plan to walk around introducing yourself to people? Or would you prefer to hang out by the bar or coffee station to introduce yourself to people as they come by? Regardless of what your plan is, coming up with one ahead of time helps you determine the best way to make your connections. Prepare your top 3 conversation starters so you aren’t stuck wondering what to say when somebody on your list walks by. It may seem silly – but it goes a long way in giving you confidence. Google and ChatGPT are your friends here. Finally, consider things you may be able to offer to a new connection. Is there an upcoming event you can give them an invitation to? Is there anyone in your network who may be an asset to them? It’s important to enter conversations with new clients by showing that the relationship can benefit both of your businesses. During the Event Stick to your plan. Once you arrive, identify the people on your list and make sure you talk to each of them. After each conversation (definitely not during it!) make a note on your phone about what you discussed. If you make any tentative plans to meet, write it down. If you say you’ll share something, make note of it so you don’t forget. And, of course, hand out plenty of business cards. After the Event The name of the game is… follow through! Connect with the people you met on LinkedIn immediately. How immediately? From the train or before you leave the parking lot. Suggest a time for the coffee date you talked about or remind them of your promise to send those pictures you mentioned – and first thing the next morning, do it! The next day, put each new contact into your CRM, make the introductions you said you would, and foster the connections as they grow into real opportunities. Showing up to a networking event is not enough. Showing up and only talking to people you have strong existing connections with isn’t getting you new work. You need to be intentional about showing up with a clear plan to make new, meaningful connections and follow through with them. For more AV industry tips that help you grow your client base and get more out of your sales efforts, join our AV peer group and subscribe to our newsletter!  When a client tells me they lost a prospective client after their proposal because they got unlucky, I’m always tempted to pick the situation apart. Of, course, there are times when it just doesn’t go your way – venue fees for outside AV support makes it impossible to have competitive pricing, an incumbent vendor wins the bid, they change their mind about what they want – the list goes on.
However, there are also plenty of situations where lack of preparation is easily disguised as bad luck, and they typically come down to the same problem: lack of research. Here’s the scenario: a call comes in from a buyer who wants a quote. You start by identifying all the details on the surface. For association meetings or nonprofits where information about events is typically public, there is likely a lot you can learn to come prepared to your first discovery call. But why stop there? If you really want to set yourself up for success, it’s time to dig deeper. Check Your CRM For the Customer Open whatever application you use to build orders and manage clients, like Flex, LASSO, Rentman, Pipedrive, etc. and check to see if the customer is in your system. Have they spoken to a salesperson at your company before? Have they requested (and received) a quote previously? Did you win the job, and if so, was there any feedback? If not, did they give any feedback as to why? In the case of one of my clients, they found that the organization had issued an RFP years ago, and the team pulled together an in-depth proposal. Ultimately, they were not awarded the business or given any feedback as to why (although, the potential customer did go with their incumbent provider). However, they realized they still had all the assets, brand guidelines, and research from the last proposal logged in their system, which they were able to use as a resource. Research the Buyer Let’s say the customer wasn’t in your system – it’s time to do a little research on the buyer. A quick LinkedIn search will tell you how long they’ve worked at the organization and where they’ve worked in the past. Check any previous employers against your CRM, too. It’s possible that even if you haven’t worked with their current organization before, you have worked with the buyer directly or indirectly. That may be why you received the RFP! If you do find an organization they previously worked for in your CRM, ask yourself all the same questions as above. You may find that someone on your team has an existing relationship with the buyer. Find Shared Contacts The events industry is small, so even if you haven’t worked with the buyer before, there’s a good chance somebody in your professional network has. Reach out to your AV industry friends to learn as much as you can about the contact. When one of my clients asked around about a buyer who had reached out, a freelance technician who’d been on one of their shows answered honestly. You might find out some incredible things about working with the client. You may also find the opposite. Regardless, the more knowledge you have the better. It’ll help you find common ground, understand the nuances of their communication style, and help you stand out from other teams they may be talking to. When one of my clients asked around about a buyer who had reached out, a freelance technician who’d been on one of their shows answered honestly. “He can be difficult to work with,” he shared. “He seems like a nice guy, but he’s very particular about how he wants information communicated and who everything should be shared with.” My client asked the tech more questions and then used that information to influence the processes outlined in the proposal, making it much more specific to the buyer’s taste. All of this is to say, you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) leave your sales up to fate. Doing as much preparation as possible makes it that much more likely that the initial proposal will align with the buyer’s expectations and their business will be yours. For more best practices for live event proposals and tips to get more out of your sales process, join our AV peer group and subscribe to our newsletter!  Jordan initially didn’t understand why I was telling him to look at his company’s reviews. After all, he had extremely positive, long-term relationships with most of his clients. I told him it would only take a minute, so he pulled up his Google listing. Low and behold, among the 10 reviews he had, one was for two stars.
“I’d never engage with this company again. Constantly micromanaging and they didn’t even pay me on time!” Jordan recognized the name – disgruntled audio tech who had worked with them on exactly one show. “That’s not even a client!” he rubbed his eyes. “And he’s only telling half the story. He was constantly on his phone, so we told him it had to be out of sight the entire day. After the show, he sent his invoice but didn’t give us his bank transfer details, so we had no way of paying him and he didn’t respond to anything until the invoice was past due.” “Aren’t you glad you googled your reviews?” I asked Jordan, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “Not really. It’s not like I can do anything about it.” That’s where Jordan was wrong. Sites with ratings, like Google, GlassDoor, Yelp, and BBB understand that malicious and fictitious reviews do happen, which is why they have an appeal process. In the meantime, he could respond to the comment and tell the story from his side so people understood what really happened. Not to mention, he could ask other clients and freelancers to rate his company to counteract the low star rating. Unfortunately, bad reviews, often unearned bad reviews, are inevitable. I say this, not to scare you, but to show you that knowledge is power. There are plenty of ways to fix or at least lessen the impact of negative reviews, but you can’t do damage control if you aren’t aware of the damage in the first place. In Jordan’s case, he wasn’t able to get the review removed, but he reached out to clients and was able to get enough 5-star reviews that the impact to his average was minimal. He also realized how many live event clients and contacts he’d never received reviews from because he never asked. I often hear clients say that it’s awkward to ask for reviews, but if you have a script in place and make it part of your post-show process, it gets much easier. Below is a template for a review request you might send after an event to encourage your customers to leave a positive rating and reviews. Hi [NAME], Thanks again for partnering with [YOUR COMPANY NAME]. We really enjoyed producing your event on [DATE] at [VENUE]. If you had as good a time working together as we did, we’d love for you to take a minute to leave us a rating and review on one or all of the following platforms: - Google [INSERT LINK] - Yelp [INSERT LINK] - BBB [INSERT LINK] - Facebook [INSERT LINK] If there’s anything else we can help you with in the future, please reach out. We’re ready to talk about planning your next event any time. Thanks, [NAME] Want more helpful AV industry tips? Join our AV Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to up-level your team and increase sales performance. |
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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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