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Client: Global industrial manufacturer
FINDING THE RIGHT MIX OF HUNTERS AND FARMERS IN A GLOBAL SALES TEAM
A global manufacturing company asked us to define what commercial success looks like in its sales organisation, and then to assess its people against it. Here’s what we found.
Brief
The company’s sales leaders wanted their sales capability to keep pace with a changing market. They needed a clear, shared definition of great commercial performance. They also wanted a fair, evidence-based way to assess their sales staff against it, from individual contributors to senior leaders.
Solution
We interviewed sales leaders across the business, ran a workshop with stakeholders, and played back what we heard. From this we built a commercial competency framework with behavioural anchors for individual contributors and senior leaders, checked against the research evidence on what predicts sales performance.
Results
The assessments confirmed a real strength. The sales organisation excelled at “farming”, building deep, long-term relationships and growing existing customers. They also showed where the next gains lay: adding more “hunters”, who open new markets and win new accounts.
