You own or run a business. When do you farm and when do you hunt? Strange question for somebody who’s in business, but it’s one I’ve pondered for many years. And even today, even though I know when to turn to hunting and when to rely on farming, I sometimes find myself reverting back to old habits. Let’s define each of these two survival methods for obtaining food.
Farming: You plant a seed, you water it, it grows, and then you harvest it. Later, you spread the seeds again, hoping that next time, your efforts produce an even more robust crop.
Hunting: You look for the prey, track it, and kill it. You eat it and enjoy it, but now it cannot feed you again. It was a one-and-done proposition.
Sam, how do these two survival methods play out in the day-to-day operation of a business?
Hunting: You’re looking to make a one-off sale, and you’re determined to close the deal by any means necessary. Working this way doesn’t mean you’re dishonest, but it does mean you’re not taking the long view. Hunting is often associated with car salespeople or door-to-door sales reps. Why? They work on commission, and their jobs are often only as secure as their current week’s sales. Unfortunately, embracing this sales mentality is not a long-term strategy for success. The best sales organizations generally steer clear of a hunting strategy; they want loyal customers returning to them for years to come. So these organizations won’t go for the kill. Instead, they look to cultivate relationships. Let’s be clear: You always want to make the sale. I’m not playing devil’s advocate and arguing that the sale is unimportant. I simply refuse to rush the process by any means necessary so that my customers wind up wishing they never did business with me…or either wouldn’t want to do business again or wouldn’t refer others to me who need the kind of services I provide.
Farming: This is accomplished a few ways, but I have two mantras that have served me well over the years.
- Ask for referrals from existing clients.
- Provide exceptional service to your customers, and always—always!–avoid high-pressure sales tactics when dealing with them.
These two tactics forge lifelong relationships that transcend industries. For example, for many years, I visited some local houses of worship, letting the congregations know what we had to offer in one of my printing and shipping shops. For quite some time, we got no bites. The people I spoke with were happy with their current provider. I touched base in person a few times. Eventually, during one of my visits, someone in the office recognized me, and we struck up a conversation. During our talk, I was able to provide the name of somebody in another house of worship who could serve as a reference and vouch for my shop. My store had been doing work for this other congregation for some time. A few months after my conversation, we got a call from the office. The congregation I had been visiting had a rush project, and its provider couldn’t meet the deadline. We had our in, and we delivered. Over the next two years, we won a huge chunk of the business of this congregation, and best of all, it referred us to three more houses of worship. We were able to win the business of nearly a dozen more congregations simply by virtue of our reputation in the area as an outfit that people could count on for quick and reliable service. And we won this business despite the fact that we were not the cheapest provider in the area! We don’t gouge on price, but we’re not vying for the title “Cheapest Shop” either. We want our clients’ respect for what we offer, and we will stop at nothing to make sure we deliver quality and on time. Keep in mind that relationships form a chain that links one group to another, even stretching across industries, so that when opportunities arise, word-of-mouth “pollination” brings you new business, making you the go-to outfit for many products and services. In our case, nurturing small relationships grew them and planted the seeds for many more relationships. Over time, these seeds all flourished, yielding happy customers and more business for the shop.
When you farm relationships, you build long-term trust. When you’re first starting out, of course, you sometimes have to rely on a farming-and-hunting hybrid because you have to eat to live, but over the long term, you need sustainability, and you achieve that goal by working in the field of potential clients, building relationships, nurturing and reinforcing those relationships, and watching them flourish and grow. I’ll be sure to add another post in the upcoming weeks about how to nurture relationships. I will also talk then about some of the tools I use to keep in touch and follow up.