Are Lone Wolf Sales Reps Right for Your Organization?

The SEC team has had a lot of member discussions recently around the value of Lone Wolf sales reps, and whether having them is a good or bad thing for your organization.

(As a quick recap, SEC research found that five sales rep profiles exist in nature, one of which is the Lone Wolf. Lone wolves follow their own instincts and are self-assured, yet can be difficult to control.)

I wanted to share the team's thoughts as well as some of my personal beliefs around this topic, and would encourage folks reading this post to do the same in the comments section.  I'll also do my best to summarize the member discussion that has taken place recently around the potential "good" and "bad" of this rep profile.

Let's first talk about the "good"…

The short answer is that the Lone Wolf profile delivers commercial outcomes, second only to Challengers.   This can be a very valuable tool to leverage as a senior sales leader.  Take, for example, a high growth environment.  In this type of environment, there can be a need for a salesperson to declare independence and just get out there and sell something new to new customers.  In fact, in smaller organizations (smaller = smaller total company revenue), we tend to see many more High Performers exhibit Lone Wolf-type behaviors – enough to conclude that this probably a lot to do with the maturity of the company.

So Lone Wolves are potentially good at delivering results…and that's important.

That said, as we think about the potential effect a Lone Wolf can have on the broader organization, the answer isn't as cut and dry.  Let's talk about the "bad"…

Here are the obvious ones in my mind:

They don't particularly like to be managed and don't have much interest in complying with organizational policies, processes, etc.
They can be large consumers of internal resources, as they ignore engagement rules for functional partners (like product specialists, for example)…they know people will pick up the phone and drop everything to help them
Yes they exceed quota, but how?  Is it by selling unprofitable deals for the company…or leaving margin on the table by selling near-term focused deals without much scoping for broader solutions potential?

As companies get larger and more mature, there is a greater need to scale capabilities.  The question then becomes, do the very same Lone Wolf capabilities that likely built the firm all of a sudden start inhibiting growth?

While we haven't tracked progress over time with members, the fact that the larger, more established companies invariably end up needing more Challengers suggests very strongly that companies may need to change their operating model if they're ever to make the shift from a $500-$750M company, to a $XBn+ company that can sell solutions effectively.

The conclusion?  It probably doesn't make sense to go out and get rid of salespeople that demonstrate Lone Wolf type characteristics just because you are maturing as a company.

That said, if you're a sales leader in this more mature environment, and you're looking to scale capabilities and upskill in the right ways – you should focus on attributes that lead to the "right" type of success for not only the individual, but the organization as well.  And here, the Lone Wolf attributes probably aren't the answer.

SEC Members, for more information on the five sales rep profiles, visit our Challenger Rep topic center. And for guidance and resources on building Challenger reps in your organization, see our Five Key Lessons on Developing Challengers as well as our new Challenger Starter Kit.