Amalgamate Your Sales Force by Segregating for Revenue Synergy

By Michael J Griffin

Amalgamate Your Sales People to combine their unique strengths and diversity to create a dynamic salesforce that is more effective in growing revenue and cementing long term customer loyalty.

8-minute read

Intentionally hiring, training and coaching for three the unique types of B2B salespeople as either “hunters, farmers, and hybrid large account consultants” can significantly improve your salespeople’s motivation, loyalty that leads to increased sales revenue. I have hired many B2B salespeople and consulted with over 500 sales organizations and seen the positive effects hiring salespeople for what they will excel at. I myself have been in all three roles in my long sales career and the legally defensible Chally Predictive B2B Sales Profiling scores me as able to be successful in all three roles:

• Sales Hunter 74%tile (World Class)

• Strategic Account Consultant 86%tile (World Class)

• Sales Farmer 54%tile (Average)

It obvious from my experience, motivations and selling skill set, and if you were my sales manager, you would coach me to hunt for new large strategic accounts that would inspire and challenge me. Farming existing accounts is not my “cup of tea.” I can do it but will only be an average performer.

Let’s review six key reasons why this strategy of segregating your salespeople works:

1. Leverages Specialized Skill Sets

• Hunters excel at new client acquisition, focusing on prospecting, cold outreach, and closing new deals. Farmers, on the other hand, thrive in relationship management, nurturing existing accounts, and driving repeat business. Hybrid large strategic account managers combine both skills to handle complex, multi personality, high-value accounts.

• Segregating roles ensures that each salesperson operates in their area of personal motivation, skill strength, maximizing your sales force productivity and revenue results.

2. Improves Customer Retention and Expansion

• Farmers are relationship builders who focus on retaining and expanding existing accounts, which is critical because it is 6-7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

• Assigning farmers to manage existing clients ensures consistent service, reduces churn, and increases upselling and cross-selling opportunities.

• Assigning hunters to service existing accounts will frustrate them and drive them to quit unless there is an innovative opportunity to expand new products or services.

3. Drives New Business Growth

• Hunters are goal-driven, challenge motivated and task-oriented, making them ideal for generating new leads and closing deals with new customers. By dedicating hunters to new business development, companies can achieve faster growth and higher acquisition rates.

• Successful hunters have high resilience.

4. Reduces Role Confusion and Burnout

• Combining hunting and farming responsibilities in one role often leads to inconsistent performance and burnout. Hunters may neglect existing accounts, while farmers may struggle with aggressive prospecting.

• Segregating roles allows salespeople to focus on their strengths without being stretched too thin or stressed, leading to better results and job satisfaction.

• The glue that keeps all three types cooperating is a focus on the corporate values, emphasizing collaboration and learning, and celebrating successes across all three teams.

5. Enhances ROI and Sales Efficiency

• A focused hunter can significantly increase new business revenue, while a dedicated farmer ensures long-term profitability by retaining and growing existing accounts. For example, one company saw a 35% increase in new business within six months by adding a hunter to their team.

• This division of labour ensures that both short-term and long-term revenue goals are met efficiently.

6. Optimizes Large Strategic Account Management

• Hybrid large account managers are essential for handling complex, high-value accounts that require both hunting (to identify new opportunities) and farming (to maintain high level CXO relationships). These accounts often demand a mix of strategic thinking, relationship-building, and business development skills rather than the technical focus that many farmers employ.

• Hunters may not have the patience to handle these large accounts which may need higher emotional intelligence to navigate customer politics.

• By assigning hybrids to these larger key accounts, companies can ensure personalized CXO service and maximize revenue potential from their most valuable clients.

The Core Differentiation Matrix

This matrix highlights the fundamental differences in goals, relationships, and time horizons for each role – Hunter, Farmer and Strategic Account Manager.

Behavioral and Skills Assessment for Hunter, Farmer and Strategic Account Consultant

When hiring and interviewing for these different three roles, uncover these skills and traits for each role. As for selling skill assessments, I normally rely on TTIS DISC and Motivator Profiles, Chally Sales Profiling, and Gallup Strength Finder.

In every hiring process, I want to ensure all salespeople score high in the TTISI motivator of Utilitarian/Resourceful as these people use revenue and money as an personal achievement benchmark. For the higher more skilful Strategic Account Consultant, I also employ an EQ profile to assess their emotional intelligence and ability to build relationships with different personalities. Chally Sales Profiles are used during final interviews to assess selling skills and sales motivation to a global, legally defensible benchmark.

Here are some other useful indicators to interview for and test for the right fit.

Some Red Flags of Adopting a “One Size Fits All” Salespeople Strategy

Don't try to force someone to be what they're not. A great hunter won't suddenly become a great farmer with training, and vice versa. Play to your salespeople's natural strengths and motivations - you'll get better revenue results and higher retention. Let’s review a few “red flags.”

A Hunter in a Farmer role will:

• Neglect existing accounts while always chasing new ones

• Leave money on the table with existing customers

• Create service issues due to poor follow-up

• Eventually get frustrated and leave

A Farmer in a Hunter role will:

• Avoid cold calling and prospecting

• Spend too much time on unqualified leads

• Miss new business targets

• Feel stressed and demotivate

A Strategic Account Consultant in the wrong role

• May become demotivated in smaller accounts

• Hunting must be for large strategic accounts

• Not hunting for hunting sake

• Not motivated if s/he thinks s/he is just an “order taker”

A final word on compensation: If you are “algamating by segregating” your organization may have to adjust its compensation and commission structure to reward each role differently. 

Conclusion

Segregating your salesforce into hunters, farmers, and hybrid strategic account consultants allows you to align sales roles with specific skill and motivation sets, improve customer retention, drive new business growth, and optimize large key account management. This strategic approach ensures that every aspect of the sales process is handled by the right person, leading to higher efficiency, better customer satisfaction, and increased revenue. If you wish to discuss any aspect of this “hunter, farmer, strategic account consultant” segregation process (hiring, assessing, coaching, compensating) with me contact me for a no obligation discussion.

Michael J Griffin
Founder and APAC CEO of ELAvate
Global Sales Productivity Consultant
michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com
+65-91194008 (WhatsApp)

Sources for this blog:
Forbes Magazine
Quilr.com
Nutshell.com
Close.com
Mike’s 40 years of experience in all three roles