Our VP of Sales is asking to create an Assistant to the VP seat on our Accountability Chart to handle his administrative tasks, schedule his meetings, and help him prepare sales presentations. Is this a legitimate seat, or are we just adding unnecessary layer and overhead to our sales department?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Creating an Assistant to the VP seat is often a warning sign of a poorly defined structure or a leader who is struggling to delegate. Before you approve this seat, you must ask if this is a genuine business need or simply a patch for a VP who has low Follow Thru on the Kolbe Index and is drowning in administrative tasks they should be handling themselves.

If your VP is overwhelmed, adding an assistant often just creates a buffer that slows down communication. It adds an unnecessary layer of hierarchy and overhead that does not directly drive sales.

If the administrative work in the sales department is indeed a major bottleneck, look at your overall corporate structure. Instead of a dedicated assistant for one specific VP, consider whether you need a centralized Executive Assistant or Administrative Coordinator seat that supports the entire leadership team. This keeps your overhead low and ensures the assistant's capacity is fully utilized across the organization.

If the work is highly specific to sales, such as managing CRM data and preparing client proposals, then do not call it an assistant seat. Define it as a Sales Operations seat. Write five clear roles for this seat, such as CRM management, proposal preparation, and sales meeting coordination. This transforms the seat from a vague personal helper into a strategic operational asset that directly supports the sales pipeline, making it much easier to measure and hold accountable.