Hunters vs. Hopers: Is outbound prospecting still the king of sales?

[Dopious]

I recently read a great breakdown of the two types of salespeople: Hunters and Hopers.

• Hunters prospect every single day. They are strategic, proactive, and fill their pipeline before it goes dry.
• Hopers wait for inbound leads. They check their email and just hope business comes to them.

The text argued that hunters always win.

While being a hunter is crucial for control and volume, the data shows an interesting twist. Inbound leads ("hoping") actually convert at a much higher rate (around 14%) compared to cold outbound (around 7%). However, proactivity matters, studies show that over 80% of buyers accept meetings from sellers who reach out first.

This makes me wonder: Is it really as simple as Hunters vs. Hopers anymore? Or is the best salesperson a hybrid who balances both?

What are your thoughts? Are you a pure hunter, or do you rely heavily on inbound?

 

[TheVigilante]

A hybrid who balances both thats the ideal approach

I would usually start with Outbound and build around it and then once I know it works I can always switch to Inbound

 

[Dopious]

I would usually start with Outbound and build around it and then once I know it works I can always switch to Inbound

Ok, out of laziness or not hungry enough if you make the switch?

 

[TheVigilante]

Ok, out of laziness or not hungry enough if you make the switch?

Hungry enough actually because I now know outbound works so why not generate business by inbound

Outbound has its disadvantages too if you look at it as the algorithm becomes strict you will always need to come up new ways to generate business because social accounts can get restricted for weird reasons

 

[Dopious]

Hungry enough actually because I now know outbound works so why not generate business by inbound

A mix of both maybe?