Hunter vs Gardner

When tending a garden, one fertilizer doesn't fit every plant.

Just piling on a bunch of manure doesn’t work, either. It stinks pretty bad, and now your plants are buried under a bunch of … well, you know.

Every plant has unique needs, and some grow better when planted together. I approach new teams and projects with the same perspective. Before real success can happen, we have to understand what is needed in order to make sure everyone thrives. 

In sales, rather than being a traditional “hunter” type, I would take the time to plant seeds as a trusted advisor and then nurture those relationships into profitable businesses, for example:

• growing one customer relationship from $10M to $75M in less than four years

• providing VOC inputs on a new product development which resulted in $90M revenue in its first three years on the market

Every team needs good hunters - but I would argue many teams are sorely lacking good gardeners.