Is whale hunting worth it?

Published: Wed, 08/20/25

Updated: Sat, 08/23/25

August 20, 2025

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning Quota readers across the world. Summer’s coming to an end, and with it, your prospects’ excuses should cease as well (fingers crossed). In this week’s issue, we’ll look at what casino LTV models can teach sales teams. We’ll also share a Sales Fail about conspiracy theories, and give some advice to a traveling rep whose wife has grown distrustful. Enjoy.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

When a prospect brings up an objection, the deal win rate goes up by almost 30%.

Source: GTMNow

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

A Texas restaurant owner was attacked by a door-to-door salesman last week, after he asked the salesman for his solicitor’s permit. The salesman allegedly got belligerent, and the restaurant owner asked him to leave. Once outside, the two men got into a scuffle, with the salesman ending up behind bars, and the restaurant owner left with a dislocated shoulder and broken finger. You can read more about the scuffle and its aftermath here.
Why have sales teams on the Inc 5000 nearly tripled in size? Inc’s latest CEO Survey found that the average Inc. 5000 company plans to hire seven new salespeople within the next year. More than 77 percent of respondents say they’re looking to hire, and the average size of an Inc. 5000 company’s sales team has more than tripled since last year’s survey, rocketing from 12 to 41 sellers, a comparison of the 2024 and 2025 data shows. Growth in sales support teams is slower but still noticeable, rising from an average of 6 to 9 employees over the same year, a 50 percent increase. You can see all the data here.

FEATURE

Photo by Kvnga on Unsplash

Is whale hunting worth it? What casino LTV models can teach sales teams

The year was 2003, and Gary Loveman had a problem. The Harvard Business School professor turned CEO had just taken over Harrah’s Entertainment, a struggling regional casino company. Conventional wisdom said he should focus on the flashy whales—the high rollers dropping $50,000 per night at the baccarat tables.

But Loveman, armed with a PhD in Economics from MIT, decided to run the numbers instead of following casino folklore. What he discovered would revolutionize the gambling industry, and how every business thinks about customer value. Loveman’s approach helped Harrah’s become one of the largest casino empires in the world, growing from 15 to 54 casinos in just 10 years.

The Whale Hunting Myth

For decades, casinos chased whales the way most sales teams chase enterprise accounts. Bigger deal sizes, more impressive logos, and flashier wins gave bragging rights at company meetings. But when Loveman crunched the numbers, he learned that whale hunting wasn’t the best way to drive growth. For Harrah’s, it turned out that the biggest revenue generators weren’t the whales. They were a group of older, retired gamblers who came by very often, and mostly played slots. They called these guys Avid Experienced Players (AEPs).

These weren’t the customers getting free penthouses and private jets. They were driving their own cars to play $5 slots every Tuesday. But mathematically, they were worth more than the millionaire showing off at the poker table. The whales looked impressive on any single visit, but their behavior was erratic. They might blow $100,000 in Vegas, then disappear for months. Meanwhile, the AEPs showed up consistently, week after week, generating predictable revenue that compounded over time.

The research showed that increasing customer retention and upgrading players in the middle-to-high-volume betting tier significantly increased the lifetime value of these patrons. It was the consistency, not the individual transaction size, that drove real profitability.

The Granular LTV Revolution

Here’s where Loveman’s quant background became a competitive weapon. While other casinos relied on gut feelings and comps based on “how important someone looked,” Harrah’s built mathematical models to calculate exact customer value.

The result? Every customer got a precise lifetime value score that predicted their total worth to the company. This math drove every decision from marketing spend to comp allocation to customer service priorities.

The Identity Revolution

The breakthrough that made this all possible was surprisingly simple: the loyalty card. Before Total Rewards, casino relationships were based on whoever happened to remember your face. If a gambler went to their regular Harrah’s casino, people would recognize them and they’d get differentiated service – but if they went to a different Harrah’s, for example on vacation, their history didn’t follow them.

The loyalty card created a unified customer identity across all touchpoints. Suddenly, Harrah’s could track every interaction, build complete behavioral profiles, and deliver consistent experiences. Your slot machine preferences in Atlantic City followed you to Vegas. Your favorite cocktail was remembered in Tahoe. This single innovation, creating a persistent customer identity, made sophisticated LTV calculations possible.

The Modern Sales Application

The lessons from Harrah’s transformation directly apply to every sales organization:

Stop chasing logos, start calculating value. That whale account might look impressive, but if they churn after 12 months while your smaller customers stick around for years, who’s really more valuable?
Measure what matters for retention. Track engagement frequency, not just deal size. The customer who uses your product daily is more valuable than the one who bought the biggest package but rarely uses it.
Segment by behavior, not just demographics. Group customers by how they actually use your product, when they’re likely to expand, and what predicts their churn.
Create unified customer identity. Make sure every touchpoint—sales, support, success, marketing—sees the complete customer history and value calculation.
Automate the math. Build LTV models that account for your specific business patterns, seasonality, and customer behavior.

Harrah’s proved that mathematical precision beats intuitive guessing every time. By focusing on lifetime value instead of transaction value, they built the most profitable casino empire in history.

The “Avid Experienced Players” taught them that consistency trumps flashiness, retention beats acquisition, and data-driven customer value beats gut instinct. The question for sales teams is simple: Are you still hunting whales, or are you calculating what customers are actually worth?
In the long run, the house always wins—and the house runs on math, not myths.

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MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

What was the best-selling sedan of 2024?

A. Honda Civic
B. Toyota Camry
C. Geo Metro Sedan
D. Toyota Corolla

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

I sell residential security systems and thought I had a solid lead when a homeowner called asking about our “most advanced surveillance package.” I drove to his house the next day. When he answered the door he seemed normal enough. But then he started explaining how government cameras are used to read people’s thoughts, and started asking some really weird questions.

“I need protection from the mind readers,” he said seriously, leading me to his living room where every window was covered. “Can your cameras be modified to block mind rays?”

I tried steering the conversation toward actual burglary protection, but he kept interrupting with elaborate theories about alien surveillance networks. When I showed him our motion detection features, he asked if they could detect “interdimensional beings.” For twenty minutes, I attempted to explain normal security features while he took detailed notes about protecting his “thought privacy” and asked if our cameras could be reversed to “scramble brain waves instead of recording them.”

When I finally escaped and called my manager about the bizarre meeting, he started laughing. Turns out the guy calls every security company in town with the same routine—he’s locally famous for wasting salespeople’s time with his conspiracy theories. I’d been punk’d by the neighborhood’s most deranged time-waster.

Anonymous Location Withheld

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- August 2025

WORTH A PEEK

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done to close a deal. A recent post on Reddit asked readers this question, and the answers didn’t disappoint. From all-night benders to deep-sea fishing—some salespeople go above and beyond. Check out the full thread here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team,

My marriage is falling apart because of my job, and it’s starting to hurt my performance. I sell medical equipment across three states, which requires overnight travel 2-3 times per month and regular client dinners for relationship building. My wife has become increasingly jealous and suspicious, accusing me of “playing around” during business trips and questioning why I need to take clients to expensive restaurants. The accusations are completely unfounded, but the fights have escalated to the point where I dread coming home after successful business trips that should be celebrations. Last week, I had a huge argument the night before a major presentation because she found out I’d be traveling with a female colleague, and I was so rattled the next day that I bombed the demo. How do I save both my marriage and my career when my job requirements seem to be incompatible with my wife’s insecurities?

On the Road in Location Withheld

Dear On the Road,

Your wife’s insecurities are creating a destructive cycle that’s sabotaging both your relationship and career performance. A marriage built on constant suspicion and accusations isn’t healthy, regardless of your job requirements.

There's not much we can advise you to do except perhaps seek couples counseling where a neutral professional can help address her trust issues and your communication around work requirements. In the short term, you can increase transparency by sharing detailed itineraries, and perhaps try video calling home during trips to maintain connection. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: B. The Toyota Camry was the best-selling sedan of 2024 (You can read the source article here).

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Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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