The Changing Role Of The Sales Professional

BaSed on 20 yearS of world ClaSS SaleS reSearCH aCroSS 80,000 B2B CuStomerS and 7,300 SaleS forCeS

Th e Changi ng Role of Th e sale s pRof e s s i onal
FROM PE D D LE RS TO PRO FE S S I O NAL S TO S PE CI AL I S T S
By: H owa r d S t e v en S a n d G eo f f r e y J a m e S

Based on 20 Years of World Class Sales Research Across 80,000 B2B Customers and 7,300 Sales Forces

IntroductionConventional wisdom says that the best sales professionals are hard-driving individuals who can drum up business, develop opportunities, and close deals like crazy. Unfortunately, that bit of conventional wisdom is debatable, according to extensive research conducted by Chally Group Worldwide.
The most successful companies tend to have organizations that are extremely complex and comprise asurprisingly large number of distinct sales and marketing roles. While many of those job roles have a superficial similarity, the types of activities and behaviors that prove successful vary widely. While a few roles may demand some stereotypical go-getter sales behavior, other roles are just as likely to favor employees with less showy strengths, like strong analytical skills, the ability toempathize with customer problems, or a deep understanding of complex business issues. Because of this, few, if any, individuals are likely to be successful in more than a few of these many roles. This is important, because many companies, when faced with market changes or difficult economic times, tend to pluck top performers from their jobs and reassign them to roles with markedly different requirements,assuming they will flourish in their new position. However, the characteristics that make individuals successful in one role may not help them succeed in another. This special report examines ways that companies segment sales roles, starting with major classifications (i.e., hunter vs. farmer, outside sales vs. inside sales) and proceeding to the complex segmentations to match their markets. Itexplains why top performers are often “savants” who can’t be effectively moved between different roles, and then the report provides research-based recommendations for staffing, deploying, and training sales resources.

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Hunters vs. Farmers
Traditionally, the most common way to segment sales roles is into hunters and farmers. The term “hunter” generally refers to a person whose focus is onbringing deals and closing deals. The term “farmer” refers to a person who creates sales demand by activities that influence and alter the buying process, typically after a prospect has already been established as a customer.
Theoretically, the two roles are supposed to be equally important, but, in practice, many sales organizations have a bias toward the hunter role. In many firms, the farmersare seen as the people to take over after the hunters have done the real work of closing the first deal. Unfortunately, the role of the farmer is often seen as secondary rather than essential. This favoring of hunter over farmer extends into the realm of popular culture where salespeople are invariably pictured in the hunter role rather than as farmers. Most of the time, this popular depiction isnegative, as in the Tony Award winning plays Glengarry Glen Ross, Death of a Salesman, or just about any television program or movie that features a sales professional as a character. Even on those rare occasions (as in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness) where the sales professional is depicted positively, the business behaviors are those associated with the hunter rather than the farmer role.Even some sales training programs show blatant favoritism for the hunter role over the farmer. For example, one sales trainer describes “quota-crushing sales pros” in terms that obviously refer to hunters: • “They have precious little time for anything that is not their deal.” • “Charming one minute, in-your-face the next, pros will use all emotional tools to win.” • “They save the charm for...