If you live in the Northeast like me, you would know that we have an abundance of rabbits. Maybe even too many. They are in your yard, in the parks, and occasionally but unfortunately on the streets. If someone told you to go out and hunt a rabbit, it probably would not be very difficult. On the other hand, while there are bears in my home state of Pennsylvania, they are seen very infrequently and would take much more time and effort to hunt down. They are big and you need a strategy in order to take one down (hopefully before it takes YOU down).
My sales professor compared this hunting analogy to closing sales deals in the business world. There are some sales deals that are comparable to rabbits. Selling shampoo, paper, heck even baby diapers, are items that are not incredibly hard to sell. Your customer tells you the thing they need, you show them one of your most popular products, and usually they end up purchasing it a few minutes later. While there are tons upon tons of rabbit sales, there are also bear sales that may not be as rare, but require much more effort and strategy when they occur.
A car sale, or the selling of a house would be much more on the “bear” side of selling. These purchases often are life investments that will significantly affect your customer’s life, so it requires much more thinking on their part. These bear sales also require more effort on the salesperson as well. As the seller, you have to be ready to put in the time and energy of finding the absolute best product or investment for your client as possible no matter how much time and effort it takes.
Although these certain situations take a longer amount of time and energy, these sales are much more rewarding to both you and your customer if done well. Know when to be a rabbit hunter or a bear hunter.
BoweryJE22
This is a great analogy. Your article not only highlights the importance of knowing your product but knowing yourself and what kind of field to position yourself in.
Your title is what made me want to read this! It was very vague so I knew I was in for something interesting…which was true! I think, though, that there are categories of “rabbit” and “bears” and that it is not so much choosing what you want to sell on a daily basis, rather, but choosing what you want to sell for your career. Great post 🙂
With the reality that bear-like sales are harder to make and require more effort, it can be tempting to get lazy and go for the easy or fast sells. In the case of a car or a house sale, it can be even more frustrating because–in most cases–your customers won’t be repeat customers. So what is it that makes the bear sales more desirable, besides perhaps the higher pay/commission?
I guess it depends on your context–for whom you’re selling, and if you have the option to opt out of the more tedious, drawn-out sales processes. But I think the two types of selling definitely require different skills.