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Are you a job developer hunter or a job developer farmer?
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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As a job developer, are you a hunter or a farmer? This is kind of like a personality test. These are terms popularized in professional sales and they can help illuminate how job developers can best function in their jobs.
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According to the Business Development Bank of Canada, "farmers are salespeople who focus on customer retention. They nurture your customers and hopefully grow a long-term relationship between them and your company."
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"Hunters, on the other hand, are focused on customer acquisition. They enjoy prospecting and pursuing people and companies who could become customers. They’re trying to close as many deals as possible."
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So, are you the job developer who is focused on nurturing relationships with local employers or are you the job developer who is always marketing your clients and who measures success exclusively based on employment or placement outcomes?
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Even as I write this, I suppose you may think this is a trick question. Either, we should be exclusively one or the other, we should be both in equal measure or we shouldn’t be either.
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It really isn’t a trick question and most authoritative sales training institutions will acknowledge there is strength in being either one.
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In the arena of sales, a lot of it has to do with the product or service you're selling. If you’re selling a relatively simple product that people will buy once such as a Jacuzzi and you’ll possibly never see them again, the preference will be for hunters. On the other hand, if you are selling a subscription service such as specialized software where customers will need onboarding and regular service, the preference would be for a farmer.
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In the field of job development, it falls somewhere in between. We certainly measure our success based on employment outcomes but we also want to build ongoing relationship so we can get referrals to other employers and be called upon again and again to meet their ongoing staffing needs.
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As a hunter, your activities might include tasks such as:
- Cold calling employers to pitch specific clients
- Routine follow-up to determine if new hiring is needed
- Researching new business licenses issued and connecting with new employers
- Tracking new job postings and following up with each one
- Being actively engaged in social media to track posts which suggest potential hiring
- Reviewing new contracts, building permit requests, successful RFPs and other aggregate data suggesting new hiring may be occurring
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As a farmer, your activities may include tasks such as:
- Attending community events and business functions
- Welcoming new businesses opening in town
- Sharing new research and articles which will be relevant to local employers
- Commenting and sharing the social media posts of local employers
- Providing ongoing support and guidance for individuals you’ve placed in the past
- Hosting job fairs and providing employers with support such as offices and classrooms they can use for recruitment
- Invitations to lunch, coffee, open houses and workplace tours
- Providing special recognition to employers who are outstanding in their sector
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In truth, job developers should be good at all of these things but when you identify the area where you most excel, you can specialize in growing this area.
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It should also be noted that a brand new job developer is not going to make any progress for a long time if they only invest in farming activities. Someone who is new to the profession or the community will need to engage in cold calling and regular employer outreach to build their network.
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By this same token, the seasoned job developer who has a long list of employer contacts will see their efforts diminished if they never attend community or business events, rarely participate in networking and if they aren’t nurturing their relationships with employers. These employers will be naturally suspicious of a job developer's motives and will be resistant to their client pitches.
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If you’re naturally a farmer, then be the very best farmer you can be and if you’re a hunter than go out and be a great hunter. If this is your area of strength, work at it and it will return dividends.
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But just as you are going to be best served nurturing your greatest strength, as a job developer your will enjoy the greatest personal and professional growth if you schedule specific time to do those things which don’t come naturally.
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If you’re naturally a farmer, set aside time every day for cold calling employers and if you are a hunter, be sure to attend chamber functions and schedule time to like and share what employers are posting on social media.
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We’ll be discussing the realities of farmers and hunters at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday Sep. 9th at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday September 9th, 'Click this Link' to join the session LIVE.
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