Are You An Elephant Hunter?

Maybe you’ve heard this before … “Oh, that guy, he’s an elephant hunter.” In my experience, this title has seldom been meant as a compliment. Rather, the connotation has been … “He’s too good to handle the little sales and/or if he spent less time hunting elephants, he would probably be at quota!” Perhaps. That being said, if you do want to be an elephant hunter …

Have you got the juice?

While elephants are quite tasty, it’s going to take more that a nice bag of peanuts to bag them …

How does your LinkedIn profile look? Is it professional? Is it searchable? Does it visibly demonstrate your expertise?
Do you blog? Writing about what you know, and particularly about things that are related to your business, provides you with instant credibility! Not only does blogging substantially increase your visibility, it shows you as being someone who is a cut above the rest because (among other things) … very few salespeople blog.
Do you have the necessary temperament, patience, and skills? Hunting big game takes a different mindset. There is a good chance that they are already deeply entrenched with one of your competitors. Why should they listen to you?

You will need to have patience, be committed to the long-haul process (persistence), and will need to demonstrate that you, your company, and your product or service (this is called value) will provide some sort of needed benefit that your competitor does not. Honestly, not everyone is cut out to be a big game hunter. For that matter, if you are new to sales, it might be better to hone your skills by hunting varmints first.

The case for big game

I have always gravitated toward larger deals. What I realized early on in my career was that …

The payoff is substantially higher with big game and, generally, it’s no more work than is needed to secure any other deal regardless of size. Even if it does take more work, the ratio of commissions to hours spent will be geometrically better!
Competing in this market generally eliminates your riff raff competition as they either cannot compete effectively and/or will not even be allowed or invited to compete.
Larger deals/larger companies will generally place a premium on service and quality rather than on price. They are more sophisticated buyers in this respect.
They are loathe to change vendors unless you give them a compelling reason to do so.

Let’s take a look at this last statement as it can, and should, be interpreted two ways. You are going to need to provide a compelling reason(s) for this company to switch from their current vendor to you. Once you are their vendor, it is you who will give your client that same compelling reason to switch over to one of your competitors. This is called dropping the ball.

Compelling reasons for a company to switch to you

You are prepared! You know more about them and their company than even they do! You have the tools (social media, web, connections) so use them!
You ask great questions, you listen to the answers, and you clarify the answers. Your idea of a compelling reason will not necessarily match with their value set. Your average salesperson walks in and starts presenting. The seasoned salesperson knows that they must listen in order to identify pain points and then carefully craft their message to address those and those only.
Never ask if they are happy with their current vendor. First off, this is a close ended question that will likely be answered with one word … “Yes”. A better question would be … “If there was one thing or service that you wish that your current vendor could provide you with or do better, what would that be?”
You make it apparent that your goal is to build a relationship rather than to close a sale. It’s the little things. You connect on the social networks. Your promote them to others. You find ways for them to increase their revenues. Maybe you email them an article that they will find to be of interest. You court them as you would your lady. You are not a salesperson. You are their trusted advisor and a member of their team!
It’s rarely about price! There is absolutely no honor in being low-bid. I can train a monkey to submit low-bid proposals.

Small and/or unwanted deals may be your ticket in!

Opportunities to compete on larger deals are earned. For example, you may be asked to demonstrate your ability to perform on smaller opportunities. As far as this goes, offering to take the job that no one else wants or cares to do because it may be too small or require a completion date that is unreasonable, may be your best opportunity to get your foot in the door with a larger company. That is … providing you perform.

These same small deals will be critical if …

you want to keep this account! I have known salespeople who, having secured the large contracts, will either refuse to handle the smaller deals in this same company and will either hand these off to an internal support person or will tell the client that they will need to go elsewhere and both are … incredibly idiotic moves! Why oh why would you risk losing control of this account, this relationship, and/or create any sort of opening for a competitor?! I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if I have to get it someplace else. I’m your man to get it done.

Compelling reasons to kick you to the curb

We talked about this earlier. Either you, or someone in your company (and this also points back to you), have dropped the ball.

Your customer was not feelin’ the love. Close to 70% of all customers leave because they felt either ignored or unappreciated.
You became complacent. This account is mine. I’ve already done the heavy lifting. Now all I have to do is sit back and cash the commission checks!
You are not proactive. When the customer is calling you for the status on ANYTHING, and when you are the one who should have already made that call … start packing.
You were too important to handle that small deal and you forgot about how you got into this account in the first place.

Protect your herd!

Be sure to be connected throughout the company as both insurance in case of personnel moves and for opportunities in other department areas. You need to be like a vine that constantly grows and creeps and attaches itself wherever it can find a foothold. There is nothing more disconcerting than calling and asking for your key contact only to find out that this person has moved on to another company. I want to know two things … what company (there is a potential new opportunity) and who took their place (damage control)? LinkedIn can help you with this via their new contacts interface, email notifications, or by filtering your home page news stream to show “profiles” only.

How about you? What do you think that it takes to be an elephant hunter?

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!