What if…your business strategist helped you to match the right sales people to the right customers?
What is your sales strategy to grow your business?
What type of customers do you have – and do the personalities of your sales people match up?
Simple questions yet, as an executive coach I continually discover that they yield a wealth of sales improvement opportunities. Matching up the right sales person with the right customers can significantly boost sales.
Contrary to popular belief not all salespeople are alike, there are four main types.
- Hunter / Pioneer – They love the thrill of the hunt for new business; they thrive on getting past the gate keepers and landing the opening order. As a rule they hate routine and discipline and will often do whatever it takes to close the first sales which means you need sales managers who are good at ‘sweeping up’ behind them.
- Farmer / Builder – Unlike the Hunter this sales person hates opening new doors. However, once introduced into the account, they love nothing more than seeking out and cultivating new sales opportunities because seeing their customer’s sales figures grow is what turns them on. All they need is new products and services to offer their customers and support to make sure that everything is as it should be.
- Maintainer – Once the major work of the Farmer is done this sales person comes into their own. They ensure the ‘cash cow’ customers deliver to their full potential and ensure that the account doesn’t become a ‘problem child’ when sales and margins are under pressure. They are routine and disciplined people who love nothing more than really getting to know the customer and their people. Nurture them and they will do the same for your customers, ignore them at your peril!
- Missionary – Spreading the good word about new ideas and opportunities is the life blood of this type of sales person. A rare breed but an important one for those businesses with a very long sales cycle often capital goods you find them in the aircraft, power, heavy engineering and leading edge IT, working on things that may only happen ten or twenty years from now but to which the customer needs to give consideration and start planning for.
Having the right mix and number of sales personality types is critical to the effective execution of your sales growth strategy. You can also email me richard.bosworth@whatifspecialist.com, follow @richardwhatif on Twitter and find me on LinkedIn under Richard Bosworth.
