MSP Growth OS Exec To MSPs: Hire Hunters, Not Farmers To Boost Sales Strategy

‘Most sales candidates are not hunters, they’re farmers. And that’s fine, unless you need someone to hunt. When you find one, support them, train them and invest in them,’ says Brent Morris, partner at MSP Growth OS.

To be successful at sales, MSPs must find a salesperson who is a hunter, not someone who’s simply handed leads, and who also has grit.

It’s also important for MSPs to wrap their arms around salespeople, according to Brent Morris, partner at MSP Growth OS, an MSP consulting firm.

Morris, who has more than 20 years of channel sales experience, spoke this week at CRN parent company The Channel Company’s XChange August 2025 event in Denver about how MSPs can growth their business through sales and peer groups and how others could learn from his mistakes.

“New hunters [mess] up,” he said. “But instead of crushing them, we reviewed the calls together. What worked? What didn’t? How can we help? That’s how you build people.”

Formerly the head of business development at an MSP, he now works with MSPs across the country on sales strategy, specifically how to develop effective hunters and build lasting growth engines. But his story isn’t just about sales, it’s about people.

He believes that in channel sales it’s key to serve the five main stakeholders: owner, employees, clients, communities and vendor partners.

“When we served all five well, we won,” he said.

And by asking pointed questions to vendors and investing in their success, doors opened.

“We had no business sitting on partner advisory councils or sending engineers to Redmond [Wash., Microsoft’s headquarters] to beta-test software. But we got invited,” he said. “We built deep relationships.”

And inside his previous MSP, culture and consistency mattered.

“We all skip one-on-ones, but those meetings are vital,” he said. “I had a key employee leave, [and] I thought things were fine. But I wasn’t asking the right questions. Worse, when I finally talked to his team, I learned how tough they had it. That was on me.”

That realization led to changes: more skip-level meetings, more leadership training and a culture where it was safe to fail.

“An engineer once wiped a client’s entire system. He called us in tears,” he said. “What we told him was, ‘You’re safe.’ That story spread across the company. It changed our culture.”

He also urged MSPs to lean on peer groups, both industry-specific and local CEO forums.

“These groups changed our business,” he said. “You get to show up and say, ‘Here’s what we [we’re not good] at.’ And you get real help. I’ve seen grown adults break down in those rooms and get built back up by people who’ve been there.”

And when it comes to growth, it’s about expanding existing accounts, winning new logos and M&A.

“We all say we want to capture 100 percent of a client’s IT spend, but many of us don’t. I didn’t,” he said. “Clients would say, ‘I didn’t know you did that,’ and it drove me crazy. We need better account management, better marketing, better conversations.”

And that’s why it’s important to hire hunters, not farmers, for sales.

“Most sales candidates are not hunters, they’re farmers,” he said. “And that’s fine, unless you need someone to hunt. When you find one, support them, train them and invest in them.”

That’s especially true for the younger workforce coming up, he added.

“The younger generation is faster, smarter and more agile,” he said. “If we want to keep up, we need to get uncomfortable. We need to be willing to learn, not just lead ... and we need to keep hunting.”

Paul Vedder, co-founder of West Palm Beach, Fla.-based VXIT, said Morris gave “very solid advice” and was a reminder that sometimes going back to the basics works.

“What he talked about was very practical,” Vedder told CRN. “And unfortunately, the practical is not always the most fun, but it works.”