In the 15+ years I’ve been in sales, I’ve only ever met 3 types of salespeople.

Yes, this applies to Producers too.

Sidenote: If you’re a Producer and you don’t think you’re in the sales business, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Back to my point, once you understand these 3 types of Producers, you’ll struggle to see anything else.

So, lets break them down.

Hunters

These are the type of Producers that live for the thrill of the hunt.

They enjoy building lists of prospects, calling prospects, and closing prospects.

Prospecting is a game to these Producers.

They know if they call enough prospects they’ll be successful.

They don’t let call reluctance or fear of failure hold them back. They hunt come hell or high water.

Their only weakness is they enjoy hunting so much, they have a tendency to neglect existing clients.

At their worst they become transactional. They must make a concerted effort to build relationships and maintain retention rates.

These are the rarest of Producers.

Farmers

These are the type of Producers that are most comfortable fertilizing and watering existing relationships.

Rather than cold calling, they prefer to prospect by networking and leveraging their centers of influence.

They are fiercely loyal and expect the same from their clients.

Their biggest weakness is placing too much value in relationships and becoming complacent in their prospecting.

Once they’ve exhausted their network they stall out and struggle to break through revenue plateaus.

These are the most common of Producers.

Catfish

These are the type of Producers that sit around doing nothing, waiting for the scraps from the top to fall down to them.

They are bottom feeders. Thus, their name “catfish”.

They produce little new business on their own. But gobble up accounts from other Producers retiring or leaving.

Despite never building their own book they often give unsolicited advice about how “they did it”.

New Producers, should avoid them like the plague.

They provide little or no value to their agency, clients or co-workers.

Which One Are You?

A Hunter, a Farmer, or a Catfish?

Me? I’m a “Hunter”.

I live for the hunt. I love prospecting. To me, prospecting is like digging for gold. You never know what you’re going to find under the next rock.

Odds are, you’re a “Farmer”.

You’re great at networking, great at relationships, great at servicing your clients.

Problem is, sooner or later your network is gonna run dry (or not produce opportunities at the rate you would like to grow).

If that’s the case, perhaps we can help.

We’ve put together a little something for you we call “The Producer Playbook”. Its a step by step guide to prospecting and selling with BORs. If that tickles your fancy here’s the link.

If not, no worries.

Ok, that’s enough out of me.

Hope you have an awesome week.

See you next Sunday.

Kick ass take names,

Maximus F. Revenue IV

P.S. If you’re a Catfish please unsubscribe. Go mooch off somebody else’s newsletter.