Most sales roles can be split into two camps:
1. Hunters: reps who cultivate new or mostly new business.
2. Farmers: reps who expand accounts the company already does business with.
Market Perceptions
There’s a common belief among sales leaders that Hunters have their day early in their careers and then move on to other roles: account management, sales leadership, or away from sales altogether.
On the other side of the spectrum, some Account Managers have never hunted any new business at all. This leads many hiring managers to stay away from Account Managers for new business roles, even though all account management roles are not created equal, and they don’t all carry the same mix of new versus current business.
Evaluating Where You Are in Your Sales Career
Hunters are driven to do as many deals as they can and make as much money as possible. For some salespeople, that drive lasts an entire career. For others, it fizzles out after 10 years of cold calling, constant pressure, and heavy travel.
So, Hunters: are you still willing to be your own Sales Development Rep? Have you kept the habit of calling on prospects and devoting time each day to opening new doors? Or have you decided this activity is beneath you at this stage of your career?
And Account Managers: are you bored? Have you found yourself dreading meetings with current clients? Are you feeling trapped by the account base you manage?
Does your stomach ache every time you get a call from your main account?
Looking Hard at the Change You Need
Before you update your resume, take some time to evaluate how your skills, values, and career goals have changed over time. Before you think about conducting a job search, evaluate the salesperson you are today.
- What interests you?
- What are your strongest skills?
- Is looking for a new job going to make your situation better?
- Are the problems you’re facing today external or internal?
- What’s working about what you’re doing today? (Hunting, territory, travel, working remote)
- What isn’t working? (Vertical, boss, bad solutions)
That fourth question deserves your most candid answer, because an internal problem follows you to the next company. Not sure which kind you have? Losing repeatedly to the same competitor is a useful test case for sorting belief problems from company problems.
Self-Awareness
One of the traits that scores high for leadership and career progression is self-awareness. The greater your self-awareness, the more you understand your own preferences and how others perceive you.
Cultivating it will help you make better choices, and better choices lead to better outcomes. To go deeper, here’s how to get the sales job you want by understanding what you’re good at.
Now It’s Your Move
Before tackling the next big job search, ask yourself two questions. How have I changed? And how are those changes impacting my sales career?
When you can answer them, you’ll have more success finding a better employer and a better match.
Knowing what kind of salesperson you’ve become is step one in the complete guide to managing your software sales career.
Ready for a new sales role? Check out the in-demand roles we actively recruit for.
