How many times have I encountered the term "Hunter" in job postings for sales positions. Isn't it about time that recruiters and sales organizations joined the 21st Century?
The term is anachronistic, it always was, but in the aggressive environment of the 90's it caught on. It is reminiscent of the Michael Douglas character in the movie Wall Street - Gordon Gekko. But given the sophistication of the modern consumer, both private and corporate, the hunter is no longer a useful typing. For if organizations are still sending out hunters they are going to find that the "deer" are wearing body armor and are carrying AR-15's.
The information age has led to the commoditization of practically everything, comparison shopping from the comfort of the couch or the office is the norm.
In addition the term "Hunter" is often used as part of a scale, with "Farmer" at one end and "Hunter" at the other end - this implies that the salesforce are one-dimensional, only capable of one type of selling. If a salesforce is truly comprised of one dimensional employees then that salesforce is really in trouble.
As any freshman anthropology student will tell you, Hunters only provided 30% of the consumable products for the group, the other 70% was provided by the "Farmers", so does this bode well for a "Hunter" based sales organization.
I would like to promote the changing of these labels to be more representative of the multi-faceted people that are selling today.
I have a few ideas as to what we could call them... but the point of this blog is for it to be interactive so leave me your ideas.
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