Hunters and Gatherers
Note: I apologize to Seth Godin for a post of similar names on the same day. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone when I saw his post in my reader this morning. I kept the “Gatherers’” part even though his “Farmers” is probably more accurate due to the active nature of farming versus the passive nature of gathering.
Hunters and Gatherers are roles that are critically important to every civilization throughout history. Your organization (expecially your sales team) is no different.
The key to successfully building your sales team is identifying up-front who on your staff fits each role as both are needed.
Gatherers are task-oriented and better suited to cultivating your current client-base for up-sells, cross-sells, and farming for referrals. They are people who are better suited in roles of consistency. Gatherers are able to identify potential trouble areas and apply the right amount of care to get them back to a healthy state. Meticulous, observant, and patient are key attributes for your Gatherers.
With bigWebApps HelpDesk ticket software, it is vitally important to maintain our referral percentage above 90%. This is the lifeblood of any SaaS model. SaaS Churn is discussed from a mathematical stance by Joel York in a recent post on his must-read Chaotic Flow blog.
The continual revenue stream from renewals affords the company stability for those periods of drought that your company is certain to experience. Are you making sure your Gatherers are getting the praise that they deserve? It is easy for them to be over-shadowed by the glitz and glamour that comes along with your Hunters’ new business.
Hunters, on the other hand, are not naturally gifted at the tasks necessary for cultivating your current fields. Hunters are restless folks who excel at tracking moving targets. The challenge of finding the right spot, establishing a valuable working relationship, and bringing them in as a client is what motivates them. Hunters must be challenged in a different way than Gatherers. Going to the same fields each and every day throughout the year not only doesn’t excite them; it demoralizes them.
Hunters have the ability to boost overall morale at a company. At bigWebApps, we intentionally communicate “big wins” throughout the company in an attempt to let them know that without their specific services, the Hunter would not be able to perform.
Growing our business with both Hunters and Gatherers for our HelpDesk ticket software is vital for the future of the company.
Renewals are for today. New business is for tomorrow. (note: this statement is being contended internally. more to come in a future blog post)
bigWebApps is currently looking for Hunters for our Atlanta office. If you are interested in hunting with us for our HelpDesk ticket software, click here to see the job description.
Photo Credit: The Library of Congress. Click on the image to see their Flickr photostream.
