We have two regional sales directors who want to share the single Sales Leader seat on our Accountability Chart, arguing that their split territories make them equal heads. How do we structure this on our chart without creating a double-headed monster?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The short answer is you do not. Placing two names in a single Sales Leader seat on your Accountability Chart is a recipe for operational disaster and zero accountability. When two people are responsible for one seat, nobody is actually responsible. Your regional directors will inevitably point fingers at each other when sales targets are missed or when CRM data is poorly maintained.

To resolve this, you must separate the structure from the individuals. First, define the single Sales Leader seat at the leadership team level. This seat has ultimate accountability for the entire sales engine, including overall revenue generation, sales process consistency, and quota attainment. Only one person can sit in this seat.

If both regional directors are currently operating as equals, you must restructure the chart to reflect the reality of your operations. You can create a single Sales Leader seat at the top, and then create two distinct seats reporting to it: East Region Sales Manager and West Region Sales Manager.

The person who sits in the top Sales Leader seat must be the one who GWC, gets it, wants it, and has the capacity to lead the entire department, including managing the other regional manager. If neither is a fit to manage the other, or if you cannot make that call today, you must temporarily sit in the Sales Leader seat yourself as the owner while you search for a dedicated leader, or appoint one of them and help the other transition to their regional seat. You cannot compromise on the rule of one name per seat if you want to scale.