Farmer's Need Hunters

The results are in regarding hiring the right person. As you may know, there are farmers (generally people who service their customers) and hunters (people who bring in new accounts - sometimes called rainmakers). For me the ideal candidate is a hunter who knows how to farm (cultivate). Afterall what is a farm without rain, barren. I just saw some statistics that were eye opening based on companies that use assessments. See for yourself.

In a recent analysis of the last 5000 sales candidates assessed, the data showed that 24%, 1 out of every four candidates, could not, do not, and will not prospect for new business. How would you like to hire one of them? Oh, you already did?

The same data showed that 45%, nearly 1 out of every 2 candidates could not, do not and will not close. I'm certain that you've hired some of them. In reality, 92% of all candidates will have fewer than 23% of the attributes in the closer skill set and 36% of all candidates will have fewer than 53% of the attributes of the hunter skill set.

What does this mean?If you don't use a pre-employment assessment, that can identify the small percentage of candidates who will close and the small percentage of candidates who will hunt, your chances of hiring a winner are quite slim.

Source: http://www.objectivemanagement.com/

So when I look at sales people I look for someone who can hunt and also has the ability to farm. What does this do? Well they will find and close, and then they will service the heck out of them. After that they will reap the benefits of the seeds they have sown by way of referrals. Sounds good to me.