It’s time to rethink the hunter/farmer model in SaaS.
The experiment has failed.
Nobody else separates hunting new customers, from farming existing ones.
It’s a SaaS invention.
I started my career in management consulting, owning a target of $5M per year.
I was responsible for:
1️⃣ Finding new customers, based on referrals and customer stories.
2️⃣ Overseeing what we delivered to ensure all stakeholders got value.
3️⃣ Finding and closing new opportunities within customers.
Customer Success is built into how service companies operate.
You are always focused on delivering value.
You are always selling.
It’s the only way to succeed.
______________________
When I left that life and started in tech, I was introduced to a different way.
Hunters found new clients, and farmers managed existing ones.
It seemed counter-intuitive, and unnecessarily complicated.
Why would you have one team make the promises and another team deliver them?
This idea of hunting and farming is so entrenched in our thinking, we’re blind to how dysfunctional it is.
What if a single team owned new logos, outcomes, renewals and expansion?
1️⃣ The problem of selling to bad-fit customers goes away.
2️⃣ The problem of over-promising goes away.
3️⃣ The problem of aligning Marketing, Sales and CS goes away.
Because one team is accountable for revenue AND the long-term success of customers.
If we had to do it all over again, would we separate them?
Given how much time and effort we spend trying to get Sales and post-sales teams to work together, the answer seems obvious.
