B2B selling in Australia. How suitable are Hunter and Farmer sales styles?

Is the Hunter and Farmer style of sales person relevant in Australia?

My experience has shown that there are many companies who struggle to lift the performance of their technically-oriented field-based sales team. But why is that?

• Do they have the right people on the team?
• Do they have enough product and industry knowledge?
• Do they know what good performance looks like?

In many cases the answer is yes. To each of the above.

For context, this observation comes from my work in the B2B space, across many companies in sectors as diverse as:

• instrumentation and controls
• educational software
• ingredients for brewers or bakers
• fenestration supplies
• environmental consultants
• equipment manufacturers

Small, highly experienced sales teams

The real challenge for sales leaders developing their sales team in these industries in Australia stems from the fact they serve specific markets. And their sales team is often comprised of well-respected industry professionals.

And… because of that their team is relatively small. Even when it’s a ‘national’ sales team.

Which usually means they simply don’t have the luxury of appointing people to the sales team focused solely on being a Hunter or being a Farmer.

And that’s where the problem with the Hunter and Farmer sales styles comes into it.

In fact, for most companies that have regular customers, in the early days the initial step is to establish a sales team with titles such as Account Manager, or Business Development Manager, Technical Product Specialist, State Manager, or even Branch Manager.

Typically, these are ‘soft sales’ titles. The expectation to drive new sales is low as the focus of the team is usually around managing existing customers. You could say this is more of a Farmer mindset.

As you’d expect, it’s normal for these teams to grow with the business. And companies reach a point where these same sales team members (the Farmers) must also become proactive and generate new sales revenue (that is, be more of a Hunter).

But the sales leader can’t just replace the existing team members in an effort to make the team more proactive.

There is too much knowledge and too many existing customer and industry relationships at stake. Not to mention the (potentially) difficult challenge of finding quality replacements.

So the Farmer must also become a Hunter.

And that’s why my experience shows that thinking of sales people as being either a Hunter or Farmer isn’t relevant for many Australian businesses.

Sure, if you’re in a large market such as the USA (where a lot of sales concepts originate) the idea of having a large B2B sales force with dedicated sales roles as either Hunter or Farmer is going to be a lot more workable. But less so in Australia.

In fact, the ‘Hunter/Farmer’ terminology was first formally recognised by the insurance sector in the 1870s in the United States based on review of the sales activities of their insurance salesmen.

What should sales leaders do?

It might seem obvious, but the best approach is to support your existing team to broaden their sales skills. Provide targeted sales training, sales coaching, and support from management to leverage the inherent power of your sales team.

Sure, some team members might need more support than others to shift their selling behaviours and mindset. But that’s what sales leadership is for.

Use their existing strengths as a springboard to build their confidence, sharpen their business acumen, and enhance their selling skills so they can develop into more flexible and proactive sales professionals.

And of course, this should be guided by the overall business strategy and sales planning.

As a sales leader or executive, you won’t always have the option to replace team members. But you always have the opportunity to build a more adaptable, high-performance sales team that embodies the most effective combination of Hunter and Farmer sales skills for your business.

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A word of caution about stereotypes:

The labels of Hunter and Farmer have been in the sales lexicon for many years. The Hunter has been stereotyped as being aggressive, urgent, a deal-maker, and ‘in for the kill’. Whilst the Farmer has been characterised as taking a softly-softly approach and ‘planting seeds’ for future harvest, taking a longer term view.

Now it is more nuanced. The modern version of these roles is far more complex. Sales people with a Hunter mindset must be more sensitive to the longer-term impact of their actions, decisions and promises. Sellers with a Farmer mindset will often need to get results sooner whilst still developing a strong relationship with the client.