Sales Hunters, 4 different styles.
Posted by Frank Belzer on Sat, Mar 12, 2011 @ 07:34 AM
It is pretty common for a CEO or VP of sales to tell us that they need to have or find or to develop more of a hunter mentality amongst their sales people. Great goal since Hunters are really the key to companies growing and doing so quickly. Organizations that lack true Hunters tend to be stagnant and merely siphoning revenue from existing clients – not a great growth strategy.
That said what type of Hunter are you looking for? If we were to talk about literal styles of hunting a few might jump to mind. When I did this I ended up thinking about the different styles of hunting that exist even in our office.
There are some hunters that use a tree stand or a hide – they wait for the prey and when the prey shows up they have one shot. They don’t chase or do anything before and after that one moment, which is it? Yes or no.
There are others who track their prey. Sometimes they use a dog and other times they follow the actual footprints. They might have several attempts at getting that prey, sometimes it gets tired and other times it gives up. Sometimes this happens quickly and other times it takes much longer. They work harder and longer but they are able to eventually have more kills.
Then there are trappers, they have a very specific target or targets. They analyze the routes that their prey will travel, they will set traps with bait and they will return and return to see what they have caught, all the while making adjustments to their route, the traps, the bait or the way the trap is set up. Very specific and targeted they use their research and planning to pre qualifies as many people as possible.
Then there are the big game hunters. They are in it for the thrill of the kill and the show. Their methods are more elaborate and their motives are different. They bring in help and have a very specific animal that they are looking for, they are not happy with the run of the mill game that others might pursue – they are after the elephant.
It might matter to you what kind of hunter you want to hire or want to be – but the bottom line is this: all styles are effective and if you are utilizing any of these effectively you are still in the minority of all sales people. Many have no hunting capability at all. If you want to know about yourself or your team you should probably start with a Sales Force Evaluation
