Let the Flamethrowers Throw Flames:
Why sales hunters should not be prospecting

By Greg Alexander And John Kearney, Sales Benchmark Index.

Hunters are sales people with an instinct for closing deals and acquiring new customers.  Instinct cannot be taught so few salespeople become great hunters.  If there are so few hunters, then why are sales executives so eager to have hunters beating bushes to find new prospects instead of doing what they were naturally intended to do?  To flesh this out, let’s consider another field where closers are key: baseball.
In baseball, a closer is a pitcher that comes in for the 9th inning and ‘closes’ the game.  Closers are ‘flamethrowers’, with fastballs that regularly top 100 mph.  For eight innings your starting pitcher and relievers have done their part, cultivating a lead, offering a wide variety and style of pitches to keep the opponent off guard and setting you up to win.  Then, after eight innings of cultivation, the closer comes in and WHAM, seals the deal. 

So, if a closer can throw the heat and seal the deal, why not put him in the starting rotation?  If he’s going to get you three outs when you need it, why not have him give you 9 good innings?  Because a closer is not a starter.  The closer has a small set of tools that produce big results.  But he also lacks certain skills necessary to last 9 innings.  The ‘flames’ are only hot for an inning or two.  If a batter faces you three times in a game he will eventually catch up with the pitches.  He does not have great curveballs or change ups.  But, man, can he close.

According to Scott Gruher closers are an important aspect of the Go to market strategy.  In order for them to close deals and get the product or service out to new customers, therefore enhancing brand recognition, hunters must be handled differently than the ordinary salesperson. They require different compensation, less administrative responsibility and more freedom.

Few can ever become great hunters, so why waste that talent?  The allure of having them fill different roles is strong, but fight the urge.  The hours in a closer’s day are numbered, so make them count.  So send your closers in in the 9th and let them throw flames.
Greg Alexander and John Kearney
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