Our highest-performing sales hunter wants to transition into our new Head of Customer Success seat, but we are worried they will fail because that seat requires structured follow-through and relationship building. How do we evaluate this transition?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is tempting to reward your best sales hunter by promoting them to a leadership seat in customer success. However, the conative wiring required to hunt new business is completely different from the conative wiring required to retain and grow existing accounts.

Use the Kolbe A Index to evaluate this transition. A great sales hunter typically has a high Quick Start score, meaning they love the thrill of the chase, take risks easily, and thrive on short-term wins. They usually have a lower score in Follow Thru, which means they resist repetitive systems and detailed follow-up.

A Customer Success seat, however, requires systematic onboarding, regular client reviews, and meticulous tracking of client health metrics. This seat needs someone with a strong Follow Thru score who naturally builds and maintains structured relationships over time.

If your sales hunter has low Follow Thru, they will quickly grow bored and frustrated in the Customer Success seat. Their performance will slip, and you will lose both a great salesperson and key client accounts. Keep them in a seat that matches their natural strengths, and find a leader whose conative profile fits the structured needs of customer success.