I recently had a great conversation with one of our clients about sales DNA, how to tell the difference between natural hunters or natural farmers and why it matters.
If you have ever managed a rep in a territory development position that avoided picking up the phone to chase new prospects, then you know why getting the right person in the right seat matters. A natural farmer isn’t likely to do well in a new business development role and vice versa (although hunters have an easier time adjusting to a farming role).
So how do you spot the differences? Here are the traits that are common to top reps in hunter and farmer positions:
Hunters (aka Account Execs, BD) – Top reps in new biz dev positions are typically competitive with a high drive to win, they enjoy “the chase” and think every rejection gets them one step closer to a sale. They are confident and eternally optimistic believing they can close any prospect, and persisting until they do. Because of their high need for excitement, they aren’t often the best at account follow-up and long term relationships, preferring to hunt for the next kill. If you ask a hunter if he likes cold calling, he ask you how else you would win business. They are excited by a highly leveraged comp plan and don’t mind a 50/50 split, because they are confident in their ability to secure the sales and commissions.
Farmers (aka Account Managers) – Top performing account management reps are typically very confident, relationship oriented and organized. They are more likely to remember a client’s birthday than a hunter and enjoy getting together with clients to stay in touch even if there is no deal on the table making them exceptional at providing ongoing service, winning up-sells and growing accounts. Ask them about how they cold call, deal with rejection or handle difficult customers and they will brace because happy customers are usually given to them. Ask them about comp plans and they will tend to prefer more predictability and less leverage, so 80/20 base/variable splits are more common.
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“So how do you spot the differences?” ………..another way that proves right more often than not. Simply, check the resume. Farmers get comfortable and often stick around a very long time. Hunters tend to move around more often, to the next green pasture.
Now, neither of these traits are necessarily bad. Corporate loyalty in fact is very hard to find these days – to your point, this just speaks to the different sorts and kinds of talent available for hire.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for dropping by. The proof is in the behavior! During our screening and interview process we investigate past behavior to find the traits that indicate someone is likely a hunter or a farmer (actually we don’t use these terms internally, because the segmentation is too crude, but many of our customers are used to this categorization). And certainly most companies need both hunters and farmers.
Eliot.