The contrast between hunting and farming often fuels debate in the world of business development. It’s a key question for executives, sales managers, or recruitment leaders who want to structure their teams effectively. Knowing whether to prioritize a hunter or farmer sales profile is crucial to adapting your salesforce to your company’s specific sales cycle.
Understanding the Differences Between Hunting and Farming
Having a clear understanding of both approaches helps better assess candidates. Hunting refers to the active prospecting of new clients, while farming focuses on client retention and long-term relationship development. Short sales cycles generally favor a hunter strategy, whereas long cycles require farmers capable of building sustainable relationships.
This distinction directly impacts team culture and how your lead generation efforts are organized. To align recruitment with business goals, it’s essential to carefully assess the role each sales profile will play within the company.
Key Responsibilities of a Hunter
A hunter focuses on conquering new markets. They proactively reach out, explore opportunities, and engage new prospects. Their daily routine involves prospecting, setting up meetings, and quickly converting leads into business.
A good hunter is persistent, curious, and comfortable stepping outside their comfort zone to land new deals. This dynamic approach is critical in highly competitive environments where growth relies on constantly identifying new targets. A fun and effective way to strengthen this mindset is by organizing treasure hunt-style team-building activities, which promote cohesion and a spirit of conquest.
The Core Strengths of a Farmer
Conversely, the farmer brings stability. They thrive in managing existing portfolios, nurturing deep client relationships, and increasing long-term value through loyalty and trust. Their focus lies in anticipating needs, preventing churn, and offering personalized solutions over time.
Patience, empathy, and excellent active listening skills are essential qualities of this sales profile. A farmer naturally reinforces client trust, creating additional upselling or cross-selling opportunities.
Determining Your Needs Based on the Sales Cycle
Before initiating recruitment, analyzing your sales cycle will help you identify which profile will drive performance. Very short sales cycles, where decisions and signatures follow quickly, are better suited for hunters who thrive on fast-paced environments.
Organizations focused on building long-term partnerships tend to favor the farming approach. In such cases, the goal is less about generating a large volume of leads and more about implementing a long-term, advisory-based client support strategy. Additionally, selecting team-building activities tailored to farmers can strengthen collaboration and long-term vision.
Comparative Table of Sales Profiles Based on Sales Cycle
| Sales Cycle Element | Hunting Approach (Hunter) | Farming Approach (Farmer) |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle duration | Short / very short | Long / spans several months |
| Focus | New lead generation | Client retention and expansion |
| Type of relationship | Often one-off | Ongoing, deep relationship |
| Key indicators | Number of new deals closed | Renewal rate, average spend per client |
This table offers decision-makers a quick visual of the main differences between hunting and farming, depending on sales stages. By clearly identifying the dominant sales cycle, choosing the right sales profile becomes much easier.
Criteria to Guide Your Decision
- Nature of the products or services sold
- Level of competition in the market
- Expected repurchase frequency
- Potential for upselling or cross-selling
- Volume of accessible leads
By cross-referencing these factors, every organization can fine-tune its sales recruitment plan to maximize impact across every step of the customer journey.
Recruiting According to Your Commercial Strategy
Making the right recruitment choice is not a matter of guesswork. Success starts with writing a detailed job description tailored to the chosen sales approach. Using well-recognized assessment tools helps reliably identify the required soft skills, whether it’s resilience for prospecting or service-mindedness for customer retention.
Sourcing efforts should target candidates who’ve already demonstrated effectiveness in contexts similar to your own. A practical case study or simulation during the interview can reveal how well a candidate aligns with your chosen strategy.
Integration and Training that Fit
Hiring the right sales profile is meaningless without proper onboarding. A tailored support program helps newcomers—whether hunters or farmers—understand internal processes and embrace your company culture.
Offering regular training ensures continuous skills development, especially in the face of evolving client expectations and the increasing digitalization of customer relationships. These consistent efforts improve both individual and team performance over the long term.
The Importance of Balance Within Your Sales Team
There’s nothing stopping you from combining hunting and farming under one roof—especially in hybrid sectors or when working with large accounts. What matters most is clearly defining roles and responsibilities to avoid overlap and ensure optimal performance.
A balanced approach enables continuous market conquest and the steady development of existing portfolios. Adjusting team composition to match sales cycle dynamics can offer a strong competitive advantage.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Recruitment and Sales Cycle
What are the key differences between a hunter and a farmer sales profile?
Hunter salespeople focus mainly on generating new leads and prospecting. They aim to sign new clients in the short term. In contrast, farmers work on nurturing long-term client relationships, with a focus on loyalty and account growth. Their daily motivation and performance indicators differ:
- Hunter: number of new clients, number of meetings booked
- Farmer: client satisfaction rate, revenue from renewals and upsells
How can the recruitment process be adapted to match the company’s sales cycle?
The sales cycle directly determines the type of sales profile needed. For short cycles, prioritize a hunter with a proven taste for prospecting. For longer cycles, emphasize account management and client loyalty skills. Incorporate this distinction in the job description and test it through specific case studies during interviews.
| Sales Cycle | Preferred Profile |
|---|---|
| Short | Hunter |
| Long | Farmer |
What assessment tools help distinguish between sales profiles?
Several tools can help pinpoint commercial potential. Personality tests assess motivation, perseverance, or customer-centricity. Role-plays and business cases are also useful for observing real-world behavior:
- Psychometric tests tailored for sales roles
- Case studies focused on prospecting or retention
- Simulations replicating complex client scenarios
Can hunting and farming be combined within the same team?
Yes, mixing hunter and farmer profiles often enhances commercial agility. It depends on your client portfolio structure, industry, and strategic goals. Just be sure to clearly distribute tasks to avoid confusion:
- Assign some reps to acquisition, others to account management
- Set distinct goals by role
- Organize regular team meetings to share best practices
