4. Reward Your Hunters And Farmers Differently

Salespeople in IT have traditionally been hunters, DiMisa said, meaning they move on once the customer makes a purchase. But with the rise of cloud and managed services, salespeople need to act more like farmers, meaning they should not only notch the initial sale but also cultivate the relationship over time.

DiMisa said companies will often use hunters to land new customers, then bring the farmers in to drive consumption of the product that’s already been sold.

“Every job role should be compensated differently based upon the responsibilities that they have,” DiMisa said.

A pure farmer will typically have 90 percent of his or her pay fixed, DiMisa said, with just 10 percent tied to incentives, while compensation for a pure hunter is often half fixed and half commission-based.