Two Types of Outside Sales Rep: “Hunters” and “Farmers”

Every outside salesperson has a variety of responsibilities.  In wholesale distribution, the two main types of salespeople can be categorized:

Hunters: Primary focus is to secure new accounts, prospect, cold call, “pound the pavement,” however you’d like to say it.  Once accounts are established, at a restaurant, hardware store, convenience store or other retailer, the customer is responsible for placing his own regular orders, through a handheld, web portal or other connection to the inside sales staff.  The retailer may get a visit from his “hunter” from time to time, but the account will likely be maintained by:

Farmers: Primary focus is to maintain existing accounts, often writing up the customer’s order for them.  For example, a foodservice representative will visit a restaurant, and often the manager or head chef will just call out the order that he needs, while the sales rep enters the order and provides up-sell or cross-sell opportunities on the fly.  A farmer may also walk the store aisles to scan products, check inventory levels, and recommend new programs.  Farmers may also work with retailers on store layout, product positioning, returns, credits and paying invoices.

Many organizations’ salespeople are responsible for both hunting and farming.  Whether you’ve got hunters or farmers or both on your sales staff, it’s important that they have the right information at the right time to do the best possible job.  At Ai2, our enterprise mobility solutions help farmers take fast, accurate orders that are seamlessly transmitted to your back office computer system.  We also help your hunters make exciting, memorable presentations to new prospects and accounts.  No matter what industry you’re in, we can help you improve your sales process.