We currently have our Sales and Marketing functions combined under a single seat called Growth Director. Our current director is a rainmaker who lives for closing deals, but as a result, our top-of-funnel marketing has completely dried up. Should we split this seat on our Accountability Chart, or do we just need to manage his focus better?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You must split the seat. Trying to manage his focus is a band-aid solution that ignores the structural flaw on your Accountability Chart. Sales and Marketing are two fundamentally different disciplines that require entirely different skill sets and mindsets.

Sales is about hunting, closing, and short-term revenue generation. Marketing is about positioning, lead generation, and long-term brand building. When you combine these functions under one seat, the leader will naturally gravitate toward their strength. In your case, your Growth Director is a sales professional, so he is ignoring the marketing tasks that require patience and strategic positioning.

On your Accountability Chart, create two distinct seats: Head of Sales and Head of Marketing. Define five distinct roles for each seat. This ensures that someone is wake up every morning thinking exclusively about marketing and someone else is focused solely on closing deals.

Once the seats are separated, look at your current leader. He clearly gets, wants, and has the capacity for the Head of Sales seat. Place him there so he can focus on what he does best. Then, find a dedicated leader for the Head of Marketing seat. This structural clarity is essential if you want to scale your business and build a repeatable, predictable sales engine that buyers will value.