The Strategist vs. The Hunter: Redefining Modern Sales Roles
For decades, the idea of an ideal salesperson was defined in terms of the Hunter. The Hunter sources opportunities, builds momentum, manages objections, closes deals, and creates opportunities. All of these skills still matter. But they don't tell the full story of the modern sales function.
In today's world, an enterprise seller might need to work through many different decision-makers, manage lengthy sales cycles, go through a technical evaluation, manage the purchasing process, deal with competition, and take significant business risk. Building an opportunity is the easy part.
Enter the Strategist.
Two sales profiles can be easily identified in the current environment: the Hunter and the Strategist. While the former focuses on momentum and creating opportunities, the latter is more concerned with positioning, planning, and managing complex opportunities. There is no reason to say that one profile is better than another. The point is understanding in which cases the respective approach adds the most value.
Sales evolution is not about replacing the Hunter with the Strategist. It is about acknowledging that there is more than one approach to success in modern sales.
The Hunter: Built to Create Opportunity
The Hunter is the classical new-business sales profile. Such a seller feels good at finding opportunities even where there are few to be found. Hunters initiate calls, prospect, chase leads, and deal well with rejection.
What Hunters do best is commercial initiative.
The Hunter is never waiting for the business. He creates opportunities actively, initiates calls, holds unfamiliar conversations, chases prospects before their interest has been shown, and keeps going after no.
Therefore, Hunters become especially valuable in situations where generating pipeline is the top priority. Markets entering new territories, highly competitive environments, and rapidly growing companies often rely on salespeople capable of building new business opportunities all the time.
The other thing about the Hunter is momentum. Hunters tend to be quite active and energetic. This allows them to prevent sales teams from becoming too passive.
The problem is not the Hunter.
The problem arises when the Hunter is the only example of the sales excellence profile.
The Strategist: Built to Orchestrate the Deal
The Strategist is different from the Hunter in how he conducts his sales.
While the Hunter looks primarily at the next opportunity or the next call, the Strategist instinctively considers the big picture. This includes consideration of positioning, timing, stakeholders, competitive dynamics, criteria for decision-making, and all the necessary steps to arrive at a successful conclusion.
Questions asked by a Strategist may include: Who really decides? What needs to happen for the executive to feel comfortable with it? What are the points at which the deal may get hung up? What concerns of the stakeholders need addressing? How do I position the opportunity internally?
This way of looking at deals is especially important in complex enterprise sales, where the purchasing cycle cannot be simplified into prospect, pitch, objection, and close.
To the Strategist, the deal is a system.
Every conversation has its objective. Every stakeholder has its role. Every step of the deal leads to the next. Rather than rush through the process, the Strategist concentrates on progressing in the proper direction.
Hunter vs. Strategist: Where the Difference Really Lies
Ambition and intellect are not the real differences between the Hunter and the Strategist. Both profiles can be equally competitive and commercially oriented. What makes a difference is rather what kinds of things the two profiles are inclined to focus on.
The Hunter asks himself the question: Where is the next opportunity?
The Strategist asks himself the question: What needs to happen in order for me to make a business decision here?
The Hunter is more likely to pay his attention to opportunity generation, activity, and momentum. The Strategist is more likely to pay his attention to positioning, sequencing, stakeholder management and deal progress.
The Hunter will shine when creating new opportunities and generating demand. The Strategist will shine when the opportunity has reached sufficient complexity to require coordinated efforts and careful planning.
Neither of the approaches should be considered always better.
The most successful sales companies know the difference and assign roles based on the sales process.
Why Enterprise Sales Favors Strategic Thinking
Enterprise buying has become complex.
It might take an executive sponsor, business leaders, finance, IT, security, procurement, legal departments, and end users to get through an enterprise buy. Those stakeholders could be prioritizing differently, and they would be evaluating the solution in different ways.
So, the seller has to know more than just their product.
They have to know how their customers buy.
Even when there is a business case, a sale can go south due to the wrong stakeholder being involved. When it comes to procurement, a technically good solution can be delayed because there wasn't enough preparation for the commercial conversation. A very enthusiastic champion can become irrelevant when other executives don't have confidence in the project.
Strategic sales skills are what can help here.
The Strategist takes into account the entire decision ecosystem. The Strategist realizes that enterprise sales success means not only influencing the right individual but the entire decision-making organization.
That is why strategic thinking is one of the key competencies of modern enterprise sales.
The Hunter's Strength Still Matters
Understanding the need for strategic sales does not mean that the Hunter goes out of fashion.
Any strategy without an application is meaningless.
Modern enterprises need people who can create pipeline, start new conversations, find possible clients, and develop commercial traction. There would be nothing for the strategic sales processes to work with otherwise.
Hunter creates momentum and drive.
It becomes especially important in competitive environments where no opportunity emerges spontaneously. If the organization wants to build a sustainable sales revenue engine, their salespeople must be willing to create new conversations.
The error is to think that any sales position must be the same Hunter's position.
The salesperson in charge of generating a large volume of leads might need to have some skills different from those of someone in charge of a handful of enterprise deals.
The Hunter is still irreplaceable. Modern sales require more types of sales positions.
When the Hunter Becomes Too Transactional
The profiles' strengths may become their weaknesses depending on their appropriate use.
Being too active, sellers may emphasize quantity of calls and opportunities over quality.
In a complex business environment, activity is not always an indicator of success.
An opportunity can produce a lot of meetings without any decision path; a seller can have strong connections with a sponsor, but not understand the executive viewpoint; an opportunity can be very engaged while its stakeholders are unconvinced.
Here the problem of a purely transactional approach appears.
The right thing is not to stop being a hunter but to realize that some opportunities require other kinds of approach.
The seller should not only ask, "How to move forward with this deal," but also ask, "What stops this organization from making a decision?"
This change in approach changes the game dramatically.
When the Strategist Needs the Hunter
Strategist profile is not free from limitations either.
Being too strategic may lead to too much analysis without action. No matter how well you know the opportunity, someone still has to open new conversations, pursue stakeholders, push them out of their comfort zone, and create momentum.
If a Strategist profile lacks commercial urgency, opportunities can stay in the planning phase for too long.
Thus, the best sales professionals combine capabilities of several profiles in one person.
A Strategist can learn how to be proactive in their prospecting and networking activities, and a Hunter can learn how to plan strategically. The point here is not to make these profiles similar but to see their weaknesses and advantages.
In some companies, profiles work together: one person opens an account, and another orchestrates the enterprise opportunity.
Redefining the Modern Sales Role
In terms of the Hunter versus Strategist dichotomy, it is time to recognize the even greater fact – the modern sales role does not admit one single definition anymore.
Specialization is growing within sales roles.
One professional may be great at opening up new business opportunities. Another one may thrive in navigating strategic accounts. Someone solves business problems. Another one has great skill in translating technical solutions into business advantages. Someone builds strong customer relationships, whereas others are responsible for the kind of operational discipline that ensures that the complex business deals go through.
And this is exactly why the 6 Sales Profiles become so critical.
They show us that sales success can be achieved with different sets of skills and capabilities. The Hunter and Strategist profiles are just two distinct examples of it.
There is no longer only one stereotype associated with the role of the modern salesman. One can be very strategic and still not be a typical hunter. Another one can be exceptional in opening up opportunities and not be strategically minded by nature.
Recognizing this difference would enable companies to make hiring decisions that work better for them, design the right sales roles, and provide professionals with the right kind of opportunities based on their natural capabilities.
Conclusion: The Future Belongs to More Than One Sales Profile
The Hunter and the Strategist should not be seen as competitive alternatives in defining the salesperson role.
The Hunter creates business opportunities. The Strategist understands how to navigate, position, and advance them.
Both are very valuable capabilities.
The true evolution of sales involves understanding that creating and managing an opportunity are distinct kinds of expertise. Modern enterprise sales increasingly require people who are able to make such a distinction and develop necessary capabilities.
From an individual perspective, it means something similar. There is no need to squeeze yourself into the definition of success developed by someone else. Know what your natural strengths are and what value they can create. Develop necessary complementary capabilities.
The Hunter or Strategist will not monopolize the future of sales.
It will be defined by the best sales teams who know when to hunt and when to strategize.
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