The Buffalo Jump: Why Hiring a “Hunter” Won’t Save Your Revenue Strategy

Build the tribe and capture the herd

The Buffalo Jump was a hunting technique employed by the plains Indians hundreds of years ago. The basic premise of the Buffalo Jump was to guide a large herd of buffalo over a cliff. This effort required a deep understanding of the terrain, migratory patterns of their prey, and seasonal influences. This strategy also required full tribal involvement and specialized roles that executed specific tactics.

Tribal elders understood the historical ebbs and flows of the migratory pattern of the buffalo. They determine the plan, the timing, and the execution. The highest skilled horseman herded the buffalo from the rear and flanks. The fleetest of foot in the tribe acted as buffalo runners. The buffalo runners dressed up as coyotes and wolves to help guide the buffalo in the direction of the cliff. Some buffalo runners were disguised as buffalo and literally ran off the designated cliff, leading the herd to their demise and escaping death by hiding in a nook in rocks near the cliff edge. This was a highly team oriented and orchestrated effort.

The resulting kill could provide sustenance for the entire tribe for a year or more. Much like the Buffalo Jump, client acquisition requires a multi-faceted strategy to consistently meet revenue targets. That being said, I constantly hear "We just need to hire a hunter."

Hiring a hunter is a simplistic and short sighted approach to a revenue strategy.

Leaders at start-up and founder-run companies are the most common declarants of "We just need to hire a hunter". I understand the reason. Leaders and founders are the best sales people at any company. They have unlimited drive to be successful and a deep passion for their mission. Their authenticity is real and it is easy to establish trust with potential customers. A founder’s sales success is part of manifest destiny. The mantras of individuality, confidence, and belief in oneself drives their success and continues to feed their belief system. In their mind, all they need is someone to get them in the door and they will get the deal done. Hence, "we just need a hunter" viewpoint. Scaling a business with this strategy has some significant flaws.

The predominant characteristic of a "hunter" is that they are a great prospector. Prospecting is an absolute necessity for all salespeople, but it is only a single component of the job.

Great prospectors want to understand the company's value proposition, product details, and past customer successes in detail. They do this to assimilate the organization's value and belief system into their own so they sound authentic when they interact with a potential customer. Great prospectors build plans and are disciplined at executing those plans. Their prospecting plan is codified, communicated to leadership, and tracked in the CRM. When the plan is not successful, it is adjusted after time. Great prospectors will rely on the company’s value proposition and target market strategy at a minimum.

Prospecting is an entry level sales activity that takes experience and guidance to get right. Prospecting is the mundane grunt work all sales professionals need to do, but prospecting should only account for about 30% of their time. (That % is situational and requires more detailed discussion in a later article.) There are a wide range of skills and tasks that have a better influence on revenue production.

First of all, what happens when a potential client engages? Does the hunter understand how to run an initial discovery call? Are they versed in consultative methodologies to extract the customer's root issues. Does the hunter understand your products and their value enough to connect to those root issues and ultimately the customer's business objectives? Does the hunter understand the procurement process and how to align the sales cycle to their process? Can the hunter support the production of a well-crafted solution and statement of work? If your answer is NO to any of these questions, then you might have hunters, but you don't have killers. 

Your sales people will be constantly inundating management, support resources, and even worse,  cross functional resources with requests to support the sales cycle. This is what your hunter will expect and if they don't get this type of support…on to the next gig that needs a hunter. By the way, good hunters get fat eventually. When they don't need to hunt anymore….then you have a farmer.

The perception that the hunter has the full skill set to independently source leads, engage with potential buyers, and consistently close deals is a fallacy. This perception is dangerous for the business and the consequences are real:

The danger is that leadership doesn't understand how to build a value proposition that drives brand identity, guides its representatives, and attracts customers.

The danger is that the sales support organization will be overrun with bad deals that waste everyone's time.

The danger is that your organization will develop a deep skepticism and resentment for the sales team because they will be heavily reliant on others to close deals.

The danger is that your hunters will bring you the wrong customers.

The danger is when your hunter leaves, the company is left with the bad contracts and a bad reputation.

The danger is that your hunters will ultimately run out of time due to lack of training, guidance, and values. This will create constant turnover on your sales team.

The consequences may destroy the morale of the company and stunt revenue in the long run.

You should hire hunters, but be prepared to mentor and guide them to be killers. Train them on how to engage with your potential customers. Give them the tools, values, and belief system to reflect your brand. Build a career path for them. The ones that develop the skills and expertise to close deals, move them into senior sales roles that can help mentor new hunters. The ones that delve deep into the product side, train them to be sales engineers and solution consultants. Build a revenue system that they can influence and be a part of. Run the buffalo jump and your organization will grow and prosper.

If you're building a sales organization for your technology services firm, don't rely on lone hunters. Build the tribe and capture the herd.