Developing Sales Teams That Know How to Hunt and Close

About four or five years ago, I met Mike Green while work­ing on the mar­ket­ing side of things for a com­pa­ny he was with at the time. From our first few con­ver­sa­tions, I could tell Mike wasn’t your typ­i­cal salesperson.

He wasn’t con­tent just to ​“run the leads” that came through the door. He was think­ing about the big­ger pic­ture—prospect­ing, busi­ness devel­op­ment, and how to build long-term oppor­tu­ni­ty. He under­stood that sales is more than order-tak­ing. It’s about rela­tion­ships, fol­low-up, and own­ing the process from start to finish.

When Mike even­tu­al­ly moved on to a new com­pa­ny, I made a point to stay in touch. I’d watched how he approached sell­ing, and I knew he had some­thing valu­able to share. Get­ting him on the pod­cast wasn’t just about catch­ing up — it was about giv­ing him a chance to share the hard-earned wis­dom he’s devel­oped from years of doing this the right way.

Why This Episode Matters

It’s not wrong to be some­one who esti­mates and sells. I know many excel­lent esti­ma­tors who close strong because their com­pa­nies have a steady flow of inbound leads. But here’s the thing—

If you’re in sales and you want to earn more, close more, and grow as a pro­fes­sion­al, you can’t just rely on what’s hand­ed to you.

Learn­ing to sell—real­ly sell—takes time, con­sis­ten­cy, and a will­ing­ness to keep sharp­en­ing your craft. That’s what Mike and I dig into in this con­ver­sa­tion: what it looks like to become a proac­tive, pro­fes­sion­al sales­per­son in the trades.

The Pow­er of Self-Gen­er­at­ed Leads

I’ve seen it again and again: a self-gen­er­at­ed lead almost always clos­es at a high­er rate — and often at a bet­ter price. Why? Because that sales­per­son has already built trust before the esti­mate even begins.

Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m still a big believ­er in inbound mar­ket­ing. I’ve built my career around help­ing con­trac­tors attract qual­i­ty leads through edu­ca­tion, sto­ry­telling, and dig­i­tal strat­e­gy. That kind of mar­ket­ing is what keeps your brand strong long-term.

But this episode isn’t about inbound. It’s about what hap­pens when you’re the sales­per­son out in the field, run­ning leads that come from Google, refer­rals, repeat clients, or social media.

What if you took even 20 – 30% of your time each week and invest­ed it into prospect­ing — fol­low­ing up with past cus­tomers, ask­ing for refer­rals, attend­ing events, or drop­ping in to say hel­lo to some­one you worked with before?

Those con­sis­tent efforts build momen­tum. They gen­er­ate stronger, warmer oppor­tu­ni­ties — and over time, that 20 – 30+% can become the most prof­itable por­tion of your pipeline. I know some sales lead­ers that rely almost exclu­sive­ly on repeat and refer­rals (real­tors for example). 

The Big­ger Picture

When sales­peo­ple learn how to gen­er­ate their own work, it doesn’t just help them — it helps the whole company.

That’s how you grow beyond a sin­gle rep’s capac­i­ty. It’s how you build a team. The sales­per­son who con­sis­tent­ly cre­ates oppor­tu­ni­ty even­tu­al­ly makes room for some­one else to join the team because they’ve out­grown their ini­tial role.

That’s how you scale: by devel­op­ing sales­peo­ple who can both hunt and close.

About The Episode

This episode with Mike Green was one of my favorites because he’s liv­ing this out right now. He’s gone from learn­ing the trade, to lead­ing high-per­form­ing teams, to teach­ing oth­ers the same dis­ci­pline and struc­ture that got him there.

If you’re a busi­ness own­er, sales man­ag­er, or sales­per­son who wants to grow your results and your mind­set, this one’s worth a listen.

🎧 Lis­ten to the full episode here (click­ing the link) 
👉 Devel­op­ing Sales Teams That Know How to Hunt and Close Or find it on your favorite, go-to pod­cast app: Apple, Spo­ti­fy etc.