Hunters Gatherers And Profit

There are only two ways to grow a business: get more clients and/or grow the ones you have. Starting an offshoot is not growing THE business, it is starting another one.  And the same rules of growth will apply to that one too.

Instead of talking about sales as if it is one size fits all, break it down according to your creative business’ needs: hunters acquire new clients, gatherers nurture them to earn their trust so that you can maximize their value to your creative business.  Two skill sets, both sales, and both incredibly valuable to your business.  And yet I see it over and over – sales is sales with very little in the way of integration, let alone separation of the two skill sets.  The result is a miss mosh of advice and structure so that acquisition salespeople (hunters) find themselves in the role of operational sales and vice-versa.  No wonder the client gets confused and things break down into a deep misunderstanding of not only the process but how the process is to go.

First, hunters.  These are the people who love working with someone to get them to a yes. They are awesome storytellers and get you excited about the possibility of what is to come.  Sometimes they are the owners of the creative business, but not always. The value of hunters is to source opportunity, structure it and put things in motion.  The best hunters have a deep appreciation and deep respect for what gatherers will do but are not limited by what has come before if there is an opportunity to move things forward within the confines of the core and overall mission of the creative business (always honoring the one thing that matters).

Gatherers (operational sales, liaisons, client managers, etc.) are the proverbial grease to the wheel.  The best gatherers understand that they earn trust every moment of every day by making promises on behalf of the creative business and keeping them.  Whether that means delivering a proposal by a certain date, providing an update on production or even just returning a call/email/text as promised, the value is the same — consistency as a communicator and guide.  Where were you, where are you and where are you going.  Always.  Again, sometimes this is the owner of the creative business, sometimes not.

We all have to agree that those who like to close deals are rarely those who enjoy the beauty of daily maintenance.  That is why they are hunters.  Likewise, those who see the glory of a flowing project rarely are overjoyed by simply getting a yes.

The biggest issue is that hunters are seen as profit centers while gatherers are a necessary investment your creative business has to make.  It just does not have to be that way and need not be that way today. Communication tools are ubiquitous and becoming more powerful every day. Slack is worth $20 Billion for a reason.  

Every. Single. Person in a creative business is responsible for profit. Profit might mean dollars, it might also mean a better decision.  It might mean both.  What it needs to be is structural.  As a hunter most likely earns more the more she brings in, so too the gatherer when she improves the experience (and reaps the rewards) from a known baseline.  Do the work of setting the metrics of success as equally valuable so that each will be rewarded for bringing your creative business to another level. Just because it is harder to measure the value of what an awesome gatherer brings to your creative business relative to an awesome hunter does not mean that you should not figure it out.

There is a big reason to solve the value discrepancy if you have one — transition.  The entire game for any creative business is won or lost in the transition from hunter to gatherer. All clients are worried they just fell down the rabbit hole when they leap with your art and your creative business. The panic that they will not receive the journey they most desire is ever present. If you can make the transition to those that will guide the journey as smooth as possible, with a sense of equality and trust, you will have earned the right to begin well.  Fiefdoms and misperceptions of value on both sides have a way of undermining that transition and introducing the poison that makes the work oh so much harder and ultimately self-limiting.

The difference between creative business and other businesses is that what you do does not exist before you do it not matter how many times you might have done something similar before. If you were selling a known product (even one wrapped in service — a hotel room, restaurant reservation), hunters likely do matter more in that they can convince the client to choose that business’ product over those of other similar businesses. Creative businesses, on the other hand, ask the hunter to convince clients to leap into the abyss with the idea that the gatherer will be there every moment of the journey to the light.

So have a look around and ask who is a hunter and who is a gatherer even it means looking in the mirror. Do they belong there? If not, fix it.  If they do, then get to work on the concentric circle that exists between them and appreciate the necessity and value of each.  I am confident your world will turn upside down (in the best way) once you do.