The recruiter called me and said, as they invariably do “The client is looking for a raw, pure hunter.” Ah, I thought. I know all the right answers to his questions. Because I’ve been a hunter. I knew they were looking for someone who would spend 80%+ of their time cold calling to take down the new business - the game - that they just knew was out there for the taking. I also knew what not to talk about: all the other types of sales roles that I might have to adopt for me to be successful. These other roles reflect work that this client wasn’t really prepared to talk about, because they were so afraid of hiring someone that didn’t like cold calling.
Later, I began thinking about all the different types of salespeople I’ve seen — and have been. I made a list and have kept it all these many years. Today I’m going to share that list with you. I hope that when you consciously are aware of the sales roles you can wear, that you will be able to ethically choose which roles — where and when —they are needed. Correct role selection is a vital element of strategy and is surprisingly important in order to have a long and successful career in sales.
For better and for worse, I’ve been all of these roles at one time or another, whether or not I would admit it to a recruiter on a call.
Can you guess what these Salesperson roles are?
Hunter
Farmer
Gatherer
Builder
Thief
Climber
Politician
Clueless
Hunter
Hunting is the primary role every company says it wants. And hunting, of course, is vital. Hunting is primal. There must be new business to be taken down if only you research, build your target list and systematically and relentlessly work to get appointments, present, propose, and close properly. And hunting is all about new. New customers. New corporate logos. New business.
There are really good reasons to select salespeople for their ability to hunt: it is among the hardest work in sales. There is a brute force stamina needed to sustain the prospecting process that few people really have stomach for. So, I don’t really fault recruiters and companies for keying in on Hunting when they’re out looking for people. And there really are roles where hunting is the entire game. Well-established markets where products and services are commodities, are well known, and used by many. Customers know what your product is. Get out there and take those accounts down, right now! Get me a hunter!
If you’re approached for a hunter role - make sure that the product and the service are well established. Or make sure you can also sell the follow-on business - the Farming.
Farmer
Maybe you have a product where the customer is somehow already established. Perhaps they bought something online or from a previous representative. They have a taste. They know your company and what you do. Maybe it is even a customer you already hunted and brought in. Few customers purchase their full buying potential in the first transaction. Most need time to grow - to be Farmed. This is particularly true of new companies with new products in new markets. (Customers see risk in all three of those.)
I was at a new company selling a new product in a new market that handed all newly Hunted accounts off to Farmers after 90 days. They wanted their reps to be “pure hunters". They had other people — Account Managers — who were responsible for growing the business over time. The Farmers. By offering service, trials, follow up, information, the Farmers would build the relationship and grow the business. That kind of structure — Hunters to acquire nameplates and Farmers to grow them — only makes sense, though, when there is an established product in an established market with a buy-everything-up-front kind of sales model. In contrast, if you are selling something new in a new market, customers often feel there is so much risk, their initial purchase will tend to be small. The big sales will come later. Meaning the Hunters starve, and the Farmers get fat.
So, if you are approached for a Farmer role, you’ll want to understand what the upside is for you. Does the Hunter retain residual value? Assess how much upside potential the accounts will have. Oddly, Farming roles will often pay you a lot more, over time, than hunting roles, despite Hunting being much harder. Companies don’t mean to do this, but it often happens. Business from existing customers is simply much easier to bring in and often Farmers have large books of business to manage. And few companies distinguish between types of revenue in their commission programs.
Gatherer
Nancy had been at the company for many years and had an incredible portfolio of clients. It spanned regions, business segments, and types of companies. How on earth did she have her fingers in so many things? She Gathered. Whenever a re-org hit, she worked diligently to pick up the debris. Sometimes even while the fired rep was packing his bags, Nancy was in the CRM system, expertly picking through to identify the accounts left orphaned by the reps who were being fired — to find the gems. She’d take her finds to leadership to offer to help with “transition.” Sometimes she had to give some accounts up, but a surprising amount of the time, Nancy was allowed to “run with” those accounts she found. And she kept them pretty much indefinitely. She became the indispensable “clean up” rep that helped make sure that valuable accounts were taken care of. Nancy almost never hunted. And she always made her number with accelerators — often because her quota had been constructed without considering the new accounts she Gathered. Of course, Nancy also Farmed those accounts she picked up. But even without farming, often there was current year revenue on the table, left uncollected by the departing rep. If you find a situation where you can Gather, I suspect you will find it to be a powerful way to drive your income and consistently make your number.
Builder
Mike is a Builder. A builder of accounts, that is. Unlike Farming, where you’re facilitating and trying to accelerate organic growth, Mike looks to make big things happen over long time horizons. He works at one of those very large technology companies you’d immediately recognize, and Mike serves their largest customers. Of course, they are already buying from him, but Mike works to understand where his customers want to move their businesses and orchestrates the strategic exploration, presentation, and deployment of services to accomplish that customer’s needs over time. Mike Builds a big strategic vision for his client wrapped all around his company’s very complex offerings. If you ask Mike, he’ll tell you what his projected revenue from that client will be over the next several years and how he’ll achieve it.
This is an Enterprise strategy — playing chess if you will— looking to accomplish big things over time. To be a Builder, you need to be able to understand the whole picture of what your client organizations want to accomplish. You also must be able to communicate and manage the execution of your own internal teams who can address those. Some companies call these roles Strategic Sales or Global Accounts and the client has to be worth a lot to earn that level of long-term focus. For you as a Builder, you need to be able to operate strategically inside the client and inside your own organization — coordinating all the teams to deliver that white glove service that will transform the client’s business.
Thief
Wait, isn’t stealing a bad thing? Well, yes. And no. In a sense, every salesperson who takes business from a competitor is stealing that business away. No shame in that. In fact, how many times in an interview with a firm who competes with your (or your previous) employer did someone ask you something about the size of your contact list? The unwritten message there is
“Will you be able to help us to steal the business away from our competitor if we hire you?”
I received many of these questions and I found them fascinating. First, because I’m sure that my previous employer wouldn’t be thrilled (and might even find it to be a breach of confidentiality.) Second, because it made me wonder how they viewed theft, in general, at their company. What kind of shenanigans go on there? (Incidentally, over the years, I saw plenty.)
In mature and maturing markets, theft — as in stealing a competitor’s customer — is no crime and is highly prized. (Assuming you do so legally, of course.) In fact, if you have the proven ability to win over you competitors’ customers, you should polish that up and add it to your talk track on your next interview.
But there is a darker side of stealing customers, too.
Marvin was in a different geographic region of my company. He’d been at the company for many years. I didn’t even know him until one day I was doing some calling into a division of a company with whom I’d closed a national master agreement. My goal was to roll up all that business I’d earned from each division and ship product. I got a big surprise. They’d just bought from us that day. It seems that after I’d closed the agreement, Marvin had heard the corporate announcement of my deal. He’d then gone into the CRM system, moved several local branches of the company to himself, called them, and collected their business under my agreement. When I looked at Marvin’s book of business, two thirds of it was composed of accounts he had snitched in that manner from other reps.
At another firm I worked at was Marcia. While most of us National Accounts Representatives were remote, she worked in HQ and sat next to the Sales Manager - our boss. Marcia was absolutely killing it. She seemed to get every hot lead that came in and was also excellent at closing them. It was rather mysterious until at a meeting, I ran into one of the marketing managers who mentioned that Marcia always went through the weekly stack of new inbound leads that Marketing put on the Manager’s Desk, pulling lead cards out of the stack before the manager even saw them.
Well played, Marcia.
I’d like to tell you some moral or other about this. Perhaps that those who cheated didn’t really win — so that maybe you wouldn’t seek your own methods of stealing from your peers. Unfortunately, I’ve seen very little downside over the years for people who cheat. So, if you’re going to steal, I’m sure I can’t stop you with a moral or anecdote. But if you naturally bend that way, I probably couldn’t convince you, anyhow.
As for me, I always found snitching competitors’ clients away from them to be ethical and satisfying. That’s what I’d recommend for you, too. It’s also far better for your soul than ripping off your colleagues.
Climber
Climbing is more of a career strategy and less of a sales strategy. It involves your ambition over time. Where do you want to go? Who can get you there? What do you have to do now to get there? Most of us want to climb to some degree in our careers. What makes Climbers different is more a matter of degree and focus. If you are a committed Climber, you will use any method, any relationship to accomplish the next rung. You will be relentless and remorseless. And once you’re done with the previous rung, it might as well not exist anymore. Like a rock climber, you’re only focused on the next handhold, the next toehold and up you go. If you are climbing, you will sell and position differently - you’ll only be concerned about making sure the requirements of your next step are achieved. While you tee up the step after that and the people that will make it possible. For a Climber a sales role is not a career. It’s a rung.
Derek had joined the company around the time I did. He worked in mid-size business accounts, a different division than mine, so fortunately we didn’t compete. He’d joined the company by leveraging his relationship with the hiring manager, his good friend and fellow church member. In fact, his manager reorganized regions to give Derek what likely was the best market in the country in a region with about 6 times the business potential of the average region. And with a quota the same size as his peers. Derek predictably crushed it, generally selling for just 4 - 6 hours per day. His colleagues couldn’t miss the obvious unfairness, but no matter, as the manager was completely in his pocket. What did Derek do with the rest of his time? Participated in company-sponsored charitable and volunteer activities that gave others in the company good visibility to his achievement and character, supported all the new employee onboarding initiatives, and used those to get to know more senior leaders. All while his peers were struggling to make it to quota. After two quarters, he was identified as a fast-track leadership employee and was promoted. Those of us that knew him never heard from him after that. His foot was on the next shoulder of his climb. Derek was now focused on his next handhold.
If you are a climber, you’ll want to think several steps ahead to ensure you have the right resources and relationships to move your career where you want it to go. Whose shoulder will you need to stand on to get up one step? What needs to be done to create the appearance of vast success to warrant the next step? How can you change the playing field to ensure you will win your next step?
If you find yourself taking over a territory after a climber has left, it can be truly disastrous. Often climbers will scorch the very earth of a book of business to achieve their goals. This wasn’t the case with Derek, as his primary strategy was to engineer a territory through favoritism that ensured success. He couldn’t physically service the demand of that territory himself in the 4 - 6 hours he worked daily.
Every organization needs climbers, of course. If you are one, please be ethical. Some friendly advice, though: if you’re not a climber, make sure that you are not in the path of one.
Politician
Politicians, like Climbers, use an internal strategy to succeed. It isn’t a Sales Strategy, per se, but since you’ll run into them, you should learn to recognize them when you see them.
Mick worked nearby in my same group. I swear from the way he operated; he must have maintained a chart from the internal executive team on down. Personal information about them, their key drivers and initiatives, favorite sports teams and activities. Mick made sure that everyone heard what they needed to hear to push their buttons. Who needs what? He knew and facilitated. About 40% of Mick’s day was spent walking around and engaging people. Internal people. This paid off in a big way. Executives were all aware of the key accounts that Mick was working on. The feeling was “he’s working on huge things that will happen!” Generally, they didn’t, but because Mick also worked his relationship with his manager with similar skill, his quota was usually quite attainable through the run rate business he was able to close.
The Politician is focused on relationships and appearances, making things happen often because of superior relationship management and incredible interpersonal skills. They seem to know everyone: who has the power, and who doesn’t. They also can be super plugged into the gossip mill and can be good sources of intel on what’s going on in the company. And like Climbers, they often focus these skills internally.
Clueless
There’s always that one Clueless rep. With honesty, we might admit that many of us were that one rep, once: the new person who has no idea what is going on. Maybe they were recruited from another place and time. “Boss thought some out-of-industry experience would be helpful!” No idea what he is doing in your space, though. Or maybe this is that person’s first sales role. That’s an excellent reason to be Clueless.
The key thing is, if you are Clueless, it is important that you learn very quickly that you are. Because then, there may be hope. You can learn about your new industry. You can learn the sales skills you need. The worst thing in the world, is to deny your cluelessness. You also need to ask for help, as often companies are filled with good people who don’t like to see the Clueless flounder.
If you are unaware or refuse to acknowledge your cluelessness, you’ll plow through your days with little to show and with little improvement. After a few quarters (or less) they’ll show you the door.
Don’t be clueless and try to help others who are.
A final thought…
I’ve discussed different types of salespeople as if they were unique and separate. Actually, they are usually combined. And you should actively look to combine approaches — selecting the role that is needed.
You may be a Gatherer when you start a new job, finding the low hanging revenue left behind, while you Farm accounts for the medium term and Hunt a basketful of new accounts for the future. That will be a strategy for success right out of the gate, many times. Just make sure you budget time in your week to do the Hunting.
If you’re a Builder, you’ll probably need to be a Politician, too. The skills of knowing what many people want and helping them will allow you to marshal the internal teams you’ll need to successfully serve the large clients you’re helping.
If you’re a Climber, almost any of the other skills may be needed to accomplish your next step. The key thing though will be your ruthless, relentless focus on the tactics and strategies that get you up the mountain that one more step.
And I hope all of you frequently enjoy the Thief’s thrill of snitching a competitor’s prime customer. That kind of thievery never gets old.
So, mix away. Decide what you want and pull the right tool out of the box for it. My only ask is that you choose to do so ethically. Even if you are only concerned with your next step or your next commission check. A sales career at its best is ultimately about serving others — and serving with others with integrity is a wonderful thing to look back on at the end of your career.