Before You Begin Hiring Salespeople

The salespeople you've probably unwittingly created Farmers. These Farmers don't break new ground by getting new clients--they just till the same old soil (already existing clients). And what's really bad about that is that once someone becomes a Farmer they get so comfortable that it's extremely difficult to change most of them back into the Hunters they were meant to be.

You see, Farmers know all their clients well and are like old friends with them. Farmers don't have to do the difficult work of convincing total strangers to trust them enough to become clients and friends, but even though they would make much more money for themselves--and you--if they did, the money they get from Farming, which is like a salesperson's "busy work", is just good enough in exchange for being allowed to stay in the comfort zone. Indeed, Steel even acknowledges that there's a place for Farmers in the sales force of most organizations: they keep the existing clients very happy and that brings in a certain dependable cash flow.

But that can't be permitted to be good ENOUGH for everyone or for your business.

It should be clear that in order to push the right salespeople to become Hunters (and you need some of these, for sure), every new salesperson you hire should be fully expected to: seek out new prospects; develop new relationships; and maintain the status quo with existing clients at the very same time that they are bringing in new business.

And--that's just about ALL that these salespeople should be doing, all the time. And one of the best things to help free them from Farming tasks or make them flow faster and easier is the tried and true friend of business: technology. Your salespeople should be equipped with all the latest and greatest tech that can contribute to their having more time on their hands so that they can use it to do more selling. It's "work smarter, not harder" put in motion.

And there's a side benefit to hiring and cultivating Hunters: they will either inspire or guilt-trip everyone else into working harder through their attitude. From out of the ashes of the Cain and Abel style friction that will arise will come a phoenix of productivity. Give the new Hunters old, underworked accounts; give them powerful titles when they earn the rights to them; and most of all, deliver on every incentive you promise and deliver it on time.

This is the beginning of how you let your sales force bring in more business than you can handle.