Our head of sales was our original top producer, but as the company expanded, they refused to manage people and kept closing deals themselves instead of coaching the team. How do we handle a leader who cannot scale from player to coach?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is one of the most common scaling traps in growing businesses. An exceptional individual contributor is promoted into a leadership seat on the assumption that closing skill automatically translates into management capability. When they refuse to let go of accounts to manage the team, they bottleneck company revenue.

You must evaluate this through the lens of GWC: do they Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do the leadership seat? Running a sales department requires coaching, defining process, tracking pipeline metrics, and holding reps accountable. If this leader only wants the thrill of closing deals, they do not Want the leadership seat.

Sit down with them and clarify the Accountability Chart. Explain that their success is no longer judged by their individual revenue production, but by the aggregate performance and development of their team. If they spend seventy percent of their week selling, they are failing their leadership seat.

Offer them a clean choice. If they want to develop as an executive, create a concrete ninety-day plan focused entirely on pipeline management, team coaching, and process adherence. Their personal quota becomes zero.

If they admit they hate managing people and only want to sell, move them out of the leadership seat immediately. Create a dedicated enterprise sales seat where they can maximize revenue without blocking organizational growth. Do not leave a player in a coach seat simply because you fear losing their personal production.