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Be The Hunted – What Today’s Sales Force Is shaping Into

Matthew O'Brien

Now that I have my online profiles positioned properly and have grown my network in LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com, and Twitter.com , I have now become the new term in sales…the hunted. The traditional CONCEPT OF THE HUNTER AND FARMER no longer provides the full picture for all types of salespeople. Let’s introduce the top of the food chain when it comes to sales…the hunted. This updated term describes how businesses seek out the experts and utilize social networks to find the “perceived” best in class companies and individuals to work with. You get hunted and sought out for your expertise.

Some of my former managers used to call inbound leads “Blue Birds” and “Riding the Gravy Train”.  Now, social networks can be set up to create a constant flow of inbound, qualifies leads. This is what we now call being “The Hunted”. To be the hunted there are three significant things that need to be in place:

  1. A strong network that businesses can use to hunt you down (referrals and recommendations from your network are key)
  2. Well positioned profiles and syndicated content that defines you as “The Expert” and not a “jack of all trades, master of none”.
  3. Making it easy for “the hunters” to get in contact with “The  Hunted”.

If you fast forward this concept of the hunted 5 or 10 years from today, it seems quite realistic that one or two top-notch sales experts could replace an entire fleet of salespeople by having 1 through 3 from above in place. If you hire “the hunted”, you can knowingly predict the results that this person can deliver, especially if they have worked in the same industry as your business. The hunted are essentially bringing a network that is dialed in and directly connected to your customer base and can bring immediate results from day one. It almost sounds too good to be true…but is it?

Well, to get to the level of the hunted you need to become the expert and there is no better way to do this than through social media marketing. An expert is well-published in their niche market. The best way to do this is to have a blog that is set up as a publishing vehicle that syndicates this content to relevant marketing channels. A market channel is defined as a website of social network that is RSS enabled. It is all about the syndication of compelling content that is related to your niche market or area of expertise. Some of the best ways to mass market your information is through press releases, article submission, social networks, video networks and of course, search engines. Always overlooked are the profiles that you set up in social networks like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Fast Pitch!, Naymz.com, etc.

the hunted in social media

Take 5 minutes and look at one of your profiles on these networks. Cut and paste all of the content in your profile into a Word document and read it. Do you come across as the expert? Do you have the terms in your profile that make you easy to find?

This is an entirely new way to sell and one that becomes more service-oriented. It goes without saying that this new sales model will enable businesses to focus more effort on managing the business and building stronger relationships because fewer resources are directed at hunting for new business.

– Setting up a Social Media Marketing Strategy to be The  Hunted by Matthew O’Brien

Matthew O'Brien

With over 20 years of experience in the digital media world, Matthew has worked for and with Fortune 500 businesses and has built companies from the start-up stage to exit strategy. He recently helped develop a data insight engine to bridge the gap between search, social, and mobile marketing to maximize the visibility, relevancy, and predictive success of online businesses.

Matthew is the founder of MINT Social, an award-winning digital marketing company that accelerates online marketing results to help businesses get found and thrive online. 

Matthew has developed an educational curriculum for Universities on social media for businesses, is a founding board member of the Arizona Innovation Marketing Association (AZIMA), a board member of HeroZona Foundation and on the advisory board (Vinnies) for St. Vincent de Paul - Phoenix.  Matthew is a mentor with ASU Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, a speaker on social media and digital marketing, and is a subject matter expert with many online portals.

View all of Author Matthew O'Brien posts.

Matthew O'Brien

With over 20 years of experience in the digital media world, Matthew has worked for and with Fortune 500 businesses and has built companies from the start-up stage to exit strategy. He recently helped develop a data insight engine to bridge the gap between search, social, and mobile marketing to maximize the visibility, relevancy, and predictive success of online businesses. Matthew is the founder of MINT Social, an award-winning digital marketing company that accelerates online marketing results to help businesses get found and thrive online.  Matthew has developed an educational curriculum for Universities on social media for businesses, is a founding board member of the Arizona Innovation Marketing Association (AZIMA), a board member of HeroZona Foundation and on the advisory board (Vinnies) for St. Vincent de Paul - Phoenix.  Matthew is a mentor with ASU Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group, a speaker on social media and digital marketing, and is a subject matter expert with many online portals.

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