When working with companies to improve their marketing and sales strategies and plans, we often uncover a tendency to focus on the pre-sales ‘hunting’ phase or the post-sales ‘farmer’ phase, rather than the ideal combination of both aspects.
So, how do these two phases differ? For example, companies who focus on the ‘hunter’ phase tend to have a bias towards opening new accounts. They employ a higher proportion of sales people who are target driven, incentivised to ‘hunt’ for new customers and rewarded through their success. Obviously, new customers are essential to all businesses and there are advantages to focusing on the ‘hunter’ phase. However, as the nature of a hunter is to seek ‘better prey’, their employer often finds they are paying high recruitment and training costs as the restless hunter moves on to pastures greener – often taking valuable information to the competition.
Other organisations, whilst recognising the need to find new customers, place a greater emphasis on developing existing accounts. Their ‘farming’ focus tends to be on ‘account management’, ‘CRM’ and cross-selling which, implemented effectively, can reap more regular rewards than a one-off sale. Moreover, this approach usually costs less than continuously seeking new business. However, it is vital to measure the input costs of the effort made to achieve results in both areas.
For some businesses, the longevity of a customer relationship appears to be less of an issue. For example, if a company is selling high cost, one-off items, the reality is that the customer is highly unlikely to place the same order again in the short term. However, the company still needs to ensure, by careful ‘farming’, that the customer is aware of their full range of products and services, as there may be cross-selling opportunities in the interim or for customer referral.
The truth is that all businesses benefit from a co-ordinated approach to sales and service. The challenge is to recognise that the most critical time to engage in the next marketing campaign is when you are busy delivering the results of the last one.
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