My co-founder and I both sit in the Sales and Marketing seat, with me handling marketing and her handling sales. However, because our lead generation and sales closing processes are highly automated and integrated, we are constantly stepping on each other's toes and confusing our marketing specialist. How do we restructure this joint-custody seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Sharing a seat on the Accountability Chart always results in a lack of accountability. When two co-founders share the Sales and Marketing seat, even with an informal split of duties, the team gets confused, execution slows down, and mistakes are made. To fix this, you must apply the rule of one name per seat. Look at your sales and marketing functions and split them into two separate seats on your Accountability Chart: a Head of Marketing seat and a Head of Sales seat. Each seat must have five clearly defined, non-overlapping roles. You must sit in one seat, and your co-founder must sit in the other. If your lead generation and sales closing processes are highly automated, define exactly where marketing ends and sales begins. For example, marketing owns lead generation and CRM database growth, while sales owns converting those leads into closed deals. Each of you will be single-point accountable for the measurables of your respective seats on the Scorecard. If an issue arises with lead quality, the Head of Sales takes it to the Level 10 Meeting to IDS it with the Head of Marketing. This structure eliminates confusion and ensures your marketing specialist has one clear leader to report to.