Where Do Your Sales Reps Shine?
Every salesperson is unique. They bring their own mix of experiences, skills, and personality traits to the selling process.
Take Louise and Uriel, for example.
Louise is a go-getter. As a salesperson, she’s persistent and thrives on chasing down new leads. The bigger the deal—and the faster she can close it—the better. Uriel, on the other hand, takes a less aggressive approach to selling. For him, sales isn’t a sprint—it’s a marathon. He focuses on getting the greatest long-term yield, rather than closing and immediately moving on to the next opportunity.
As a sales manager, you need to understand your team’s skills and preferred selling techniques. That way, you can maximize your employees’ potential—which, in turn, will grow your company’s customer base and revenue.
In this lesson, you’ll learn about two common types of salespeople—hunters and farmers—and why it’s important to understand your reps’ preferred approach.
Watch this video to learn about two common sales personalities—hunters and farmers—along with how best to nurture different selling styles in your team structure.
What Are Hunters and Farmers in Sales?
Hunters and farmers describe two common sales personalities. Each approach to selling has strengths, weaknesses, and preferred techniques.
Flip the cards below to learn the basic differences between hunters and farmers:
Tap on each card to reveal more information.
Hunters
Hunters
Farmers
Farmers
Hunters and farmers prefer to focus on different parts of the sales process. Hunters like to concentrate on the top of the sales funnel, sifting through new leads for hot prospects. Farmers, on the other hand, zero in on the bottom of the funnel. They aim to delight existing customers, turn them into loyal brand advocates, and drum up additional sales.
Which Role Describes Your Salespeople?
As you think about each of the reps on your sales team, ask yourself: What’s their personality? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Where do they excel in the sales process?
With those questions in mind, consult the tables below, which break down some of the different traits of hunters and farmers.
Hunters
- Focus on large deals and quick acquisitions
- Enjoy networking
- Build rapport quickly
- Prefer commissions
- Tend to be independent and persistent
- Are solution-oriented
- Are not afraid of rejection
Farmers
- Aim to understand customers' needs deeply
- Want to perfect the customer experience
- Aim to upsell and cross-sell
- Prefer a stable base salary
- Tend to be friendly and collaborative
- Are relationship-oriented
- Avoid risks
Were you able to classify most of your salespeople as hunters or farmers? Or, do some of your reps have a mix of the skill sets above? In general, salespeople tend to favour one or the other, but you may have some people who borrow from both.
One sales personality is not better than the other. Both hunters and farmers are critical to the selling process. You need new business coming in—but you also want to keep that business around for the long haul.
Potential Costs of Not Identifying Sales Personalities
Now that you can identify the hunters and farmers on your team, you need to understand why the distinction is important. Appreciating the difference matters because you want to maximise your team’s potential. The right salesperson in the right role can achieve maximum performance. But if you mismanage your team’s talents, problems may arise.
Expand the rows below to learn how this kind of mismanagement can harm your team.
Lowered Morale and Increased Turnover
Most salespeople know whether they’re good at hunting or farming—and generally, they’re happiest when they can play to their strengths. When you force a mix of hunting and farming tasks on your salespeople, you may unintentionally lower team morale and increase employee turnover. If someone is struggling or feels unfulfilled in their sales role, they may consider other companies where they can better use their talents.
Decreased Sales and Lower Customer Satisfaction
Forcing your reps to do both hunting and farming can also lead to decreased sales and lower customer satisfaction. Customers may experience a subpar selling process if they’re working with the wrong sales rep. For example, after a hunter closes a deal, they’re ready to move on to the next opportunity. As a result, a customer may feel discarded and neglected, which likely won’t lead to additional sales or brand loyalty from that account.
Tips for Managing Different Sales Personalities
Positioning your hunters and farmers in the right sales roles is just the beginning. With your team structure in place, you can turn to empowering your sales reps to greater performance levels. Your approach may look different for each selling personality. Let the following management tips guide your efforts:
- Use relevant performance metrics. The way you measure success should look different for each sales personality. For example, you might prioritize the number of sales per rep for hunters but focus on farmers’ churn rates.
- Give the right incentives. Consider what appeals to each selling personality. For example, you might incentivize a hunter with a bonus for signing up new clients. A farmer might find a reward for retaining long-term clients more motivational.
- Adapt your coaching style accordingly. Your feedback will have more impact if you tailor it to your reps’ sales personalities. For example, hunters are results-oriented and to the point. They want concise, data-supported feedback. A farmer, meanwhile, will value detailed feedback, extra attention, and in-depth learning opportunities.
The bottom line: You need both hunters and farmers on your sales team. To maximise their potential, position your reps in their preferred parts of the sales process. Then, take a tailored approach to managing, coaching, and incentivising.
Summary
Understanding the hunter and farmer approaches to selling can help you maximise your team’s potential and the company’s revenue stream. Hunters are persistent, independent, and focused on making a quick sale. Farmers, on the other hand, are less aggressive and more collaborative, with a commitment to long-term customer relationships.
Differentiating between hunters and farmers is crucial because mismanaging your team’s talents can result in poor team morale, increased turnover, and lower customer satisfaction. To avoid these problems, structure your team to account for your reps’ strengths. Consider the “assembly line” or “pod” structures, which allow your reps to act as specialists in the sales process. Then, tailor your management style to your reps’ sales personalities, coaching and incentivising accordingly.
- Don’t force people to sell in ways that feel uncomfortable. Stretching your salespeople will allow them to learn new skills, but that shouldn’t extend to trying to turn your salespeople into hybrid sellers. Let your hunters and farmers grow organically within their preferred approach to selling.
You’ve learned a lot in this course. Continue on to the next lesson for some key takeaways.
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