Our Head of Sales has been with us for ten years and is a cultural pillar of the company. However, as we implement EOS and prepare for a future exit, he refuses to adopt our new structured sales metrics, CRM tracking, and weekly Scorecard accountability, claiming his relationship-based approach has always worked. How do we handle this right-seat call?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic Right Person, Wrong Seat situation that many owners avoid because of loyalty. Your Head of Sales is clearly a Right Person because he shares your core values. However, he is currently in the Wrong Seat because he does not GWC the modernized, structured Head of Sales role.

Getting, wanting, and having the capacity to do the job means accepting the accountability that comes with it. In an exit-ready company, buyers do not buy relationships that live entirely in one person's head. They buy predictable, scalable systems. A sales department that relies on tribal knowledge and undocumented relationships is a massive risk that discounts your company value.

You must have a candid, loving, but firm conversation with him. Explain that the requirements of the seat have changed. The seat now requires driving CRM adoption, reporting weekly Scorecard metrics in the Level 10 Meeting, and building a systematic sales process that others can replicate. Give him a clear timeline, typically thirty days, to show progress on these specific roles.

If he cannot or will not adapt, you must move him out of that seat. Because he is a Right Person, you can look for another seat on your Accountability Chart where his relationship skills are highly valuable, such as an individual contributor key-accounts seat, without the management and structural responsibilities. If no such seat exists, or if he refuses the transition, you must make the hard choice to let him go to protect the future of the company.