We currently have a single seat on our Accountability Chart called Head of Sales and Marketing, held by one person. Our lead flow is dropping, and our sales close rate is down. How do we determine if this combined seat is structurally broken or if we have the wrong person in it?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Combining Sales and Marketing into a single seat is very common in early stage businesses, but as you scale, this structure almost always breaks down. Sales and marketing require entirely different mindsets. Marketing is about driving awareness and generating leads. Sales is about closing deals and driving revenue.

When one person holds both seats, they will naturally gravitate toward the function they prefer or are best at, leaving the other function to starve. If your lead flow is down and your close rate is also dropping, your structure is likely the culprit.

You need to run this through IDS® during your next leadership quarterly. Look at the Accountability Chart and decouple Sales and Marketing into two separate seats. Define five distinct roles for each seat.

Marketing must own brand strategy, lead generation, and content creation. Sales must own lead conversion, pipeline management, and closing.

Once you have the two separate seats, evaluate your current leader. Do they GWC™ the Sales seat, or do they GWC™ the Marketing seat? They cannot do both.

Put them in the seat where they have the highest passion and capability. Then, open a search for a leader to fill the other seat. Splitting this function will give you clear measurables and eliminate the operational fog.