In Pyromarketing Greg Stielstra discusses the power metaphors have provided him in the process of trying to understand marketing and what actually takes place in the market. While reading this section, I couldn’t help but think about the number of metaphors I’ve heard used over the years.
The ones that I particularly had trouble relating to this time around were the one’s I’ve heard used for sales people for years. “Hunters & Farmers” In the rare case you haven’t heard this used before, a hunter is the type of sales person who goes out and hunts big game customers. The farmer on the other hand, deals with customers by getting them to graze on new products and services.
A hunter’s job is to kill. A sales person’s job is to close deals. This metaphor gets really close to communicating that a sales person’s job is to kill the customer. I’ve seen plenty of sales incentive plans that were creating an environment of hate…
A farmer’s job is to get the animals fat so they can be milked, sheared, or slaughtered. Again, this does not lend itself to ‘relationship’ oriented images.
What’s particularly interesting to me is the power of images and the wo
rds which invoke that imagery. In “What The Bleep Do We Know” we’re exposed to the power certain words have at a metaphysical level. When our sales cultures are oriented to thinking like and acting like hunters and farmers, we’re not creating an environment where customers endear themselves to the organization. We need to look at our customers as citizens within a capitalist community. It is our responsibility to do what it takes for them to elect to do business with us again. Thinking about and treating our customers like animals is just stupid.
December 5th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Hunter/farmer is an easy way to communicate the concept that some of the sales team is focused on outbound, new customer generation while others work with existing customers, but I see what you’re saying about the negative connotation.
What would you suggest instead?
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Dave… that is an excellent question, and one that i’ve given a great deal of thought to. At this point, I’m not certain that I have a perfect answer. That said, I’m beginning to think that the metaphor should more like earning trust instead of winning a deal. I think that the interaction should be about illustrating understanding and providing a solution, not outsmarting the customer.
When I figure out it out, I’ll be sure to connect with you.
BTW.. .when are you coming to Austin again?