How Do You Implement a Hunter Farmer Strategy?

Historically, the ABC Company has used a traditional sales strategy whereby its salespeople acted as both hunters and farmers. In essence, the salesperson who sold the deal… serviced it and grew it.

The executive team has decided that this approach limits the growth of the company and wants you to form two teams…hunters and farmers. Hunters are responsible for new account acquisition. Farmers are responsible for servicing and growing their respective account portfolios.

The sales cycle for this company’s product line is six months which means that the salespeople develop close relationships with their clients during the sales process. This makes transitioning relationships to other salespeople challenging. Also, given that this company has been in existence for ten years, the implementation of this strategy will affect hundreds of clients and the entire sales team.

How do you successfully implement the hunter/farmer strategy so that clients and salespeople are not negatively affected…and the vision of growth is recognized by the company?

Be sure to address account management, compensation and team morale.