THE RAINMAKER - HUNTER – FARMER SALES ROLE

Guest post by: Colly Graham
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Asking the Right Questions - By Colly Graham

The most valuable resource in a sales team is to make things happen to be “a rainmaker” The role of the rainmaker is to find a dormant business problem and then create a vision of what life could be like if it were solved.
What dormant business problems can you find?
What is the vision you can create to solve this business problem?

Once the rainmaker has discovered the business problem it takes the skill of hunter. The hunter requires aggressiveness, confidence, and the capacity to make an impressive impact.

The Woolly Mammoth Hunter
The hunter is responsible for killing fresh meat and bringing it back to the tribe. Woolly Mammoth hunters use a four-step process in their quest for being effective and efficient. These four steps are:
1. Identification - Here the Woolly Mammoth sales hunter is seeking to identify the right animal. He/she will come across many types of prospects in their hunt. The successful hunter learns to identify the right opportunity before engaging the next step: pursuit. How do they know the difference between a Woolly Mammoth and other large animals? Simple, they train hard to become efficient in the identification process.
They do not allow other large prospects to take (waste) their time.

2. Pursuit - After identifying the right prospect, the Mammoth hunter then begins the second phase; the pursuit. Here, they engage with the prospect, asking the right questions to profile the account, understand what the needs and pain factors are, determine where they are in the selling cycle, and insert themselves as value added partners. Depending on the size of the Woolly Mammoth and the terrain, good hunters close the gaps to quickly move onto step three; the kill.

3. The Kill - In the sales vernacular, closing the deal.
Serious Mammoth hunters have all the tools in their arsenal that cover all the bases for the kill. Wherever they corner the Mammoth, they have the right tool to finish the job. In sales, here is where you have identified the need/problem, gathered the right data, matched that data with the product/service you represent, and have skilfully presented a passionate presentation.

4. Drag To Cave - Novice Mammoth hunters are identified here. They drag their kill into the cave, then organize and assemble the party to clean it. Often, they decide to do this themselves or hold classes on the subject. Once cleaned, the novice hunter continues to linger inside the cave, further removing him/her from ever getting back out and killing another Woolly Mammoth. Senior hunters know that their job ends at the foot of the cave. They go back out and capture the next one and not linger longer than required to exchange data, gather the latest cave updates on new tools, products or services, and go hunting again.
The Farmer Sales Person

Once the hunter has initiated the first piece of business a different set of skills is required and these are the role of the farmer. Some existing accounts require as much active selling as the new business to develop and grow the business within that account. Many sales people wrongfully assume that there is more business to be had from new rather than existing customers. Value-creating businesses recognise that the bulk of their present and future revenues come from the accounts you already have.

The skills of the farmer are not all that far removed from the hunter, they both require equal skills in questioning and problem solving.

With the farmer concept, you look upon your accounts the way a farmer would look at his land. The farmer cultivates, prepares, plants, seeds, waters, fertilizes, weeds, protects, grows, develops crops, harvests and then starts the cycle all over again.

1. Cultivating – learning as much about your customer as possible to discover opportunities to see what you need to plant so that you can harvest the results.

2. Preparation – putting yourself in a better position to service the customer, building your relationship to understand his business at depth, asking questions to uncover and discover further opportunities.

3. Planting - using your skills as a problem solver to offer solutions for the further problems you have uncovered within the account. Helping the customer realise that he has further problems that you can solve.

4. Seeding – demonstrating how you can solve this problem.

5. Watering and Fertilizing– showing how other customers have benefited by placing further business with you

6. Weeding – keeping your competitors out of your accounts.

7. Harvesting - requires that you get further business from the existing customer – you get more sales!

8. Continuous Harvesting - requires that you maintain excellent customer relations

Identify which of the top accounts you have hunted and brought back to the cave, which can now be farmed?

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Asking the Right Questions - By Colly Graham

About the Author: Colly Graham

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Colly Graham CEO of salesxcellence After graduating from college, Colly entered the field of accountancy however after five years decided to change his career direction in sales. First working for a Fortune 500 company in fast moving consumer goods, his career progressed from selling capital equipment, financial services to internet services, with a wide management experience in both telephone and field sales, concentrating on the recruitment, training and development of sales people, in this role he gained experience in designing and building a number of successful sales teams. Colly brings thirty years of practical experience of selling and his ability to empathize with sales people and establish immediate rapport and credibility as a trainer, (the accolade Colly receives from most sales people is “that he has carried the bag”). A licensed practitioner of NLP Colly trained with Richard Bandler in 1998. When I entered the field of sales, back in 1969, with local franchise holder for Pepsi Cola because of my lack of knowledge of any selling skills I set a goal, to one day, start my own training company. As my career in sales progressed becoming a sales manager, group
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THE RAINMAKER - HUNTER – FARMER SALES ROLE

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