Traditional selling often reminds me of the Buffalo Hunters. In the old West, the buffalo hunters had a pretty good business going ... for a while. They would sit up on a hill looking all around for herds of buffalo. When they found the herd, why then they would ride like hell after the generally unwilling buffalo, sharpshooting from horseback until they had killed all they could handle. It was a good business model ... until the buffalo ran out.

The real successes in the Old West were The Cattle Barons who figured out that if you wanted to have a long term supply of livestock you had to "grow your own". So they fenced the land, tended and grew their herds, and built a limitless supply of "business" that they could simply herd in for "slaughter" as necessary.

We train most salespeople to be Buffalo Hunters. Traditional sales skills are often mostly sharpshooting skills, designed to "bring down" the unwilling prospect. The problem with selling this way is that with every new "hunting season" (quota year) there can be less and less "game" loose on the sales prairie. Salespeople need to become the new Cattle Barons -- field marketers who know how to carefully plan, nurture, and grow the sales territory and who can develop long-term sources of business which don't need a sharpshooter (who can hang upside down under a galloping horse) in order to close!

The only trouble is that becoming a cattle baron just isn't as exciting or as glamourous as being a buffalo hunter. There's not too much "thrill of the hunt". But times change. It's time for all you sales reps to hang up your buckskins, spurs, and buffalo rifles and wave "Goodbye, Buffalo Bill!".