Our current Director of Client Success manages both new business sales and client project delivery. We are prepping for an exit, and our advisor says this hybrid seat must be split. How do we execute this split on our Accountability Chart without causing operational chaos?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A hybrid seat that combines sales and operations is a classic bottleneck. These two functions have opposing forces. Sales is focused on hunting and closing new business, while operations is focused on delivery and client retention.

When one person runs both, they will naturally favor the function they are most comfortable with, leaving the other to suffer. To prepare for a clean exit, you must split this hybrid seat into two distinct seats on your Accountability Chart.

Start by defining the two new seats: a Sales Director seat and an Operations Director seat. Each seat must have its own unique roles and metrics. For example, the Sales Director is accountable for new business revenue, while the Operations Director is accountable for client satisfaction and margin.

Next, evaluate your current Director of Client Success against both seats using the GWC™ tool. They cannot sit in both long-term. Determine which seat they truly get, want, and have the capacity to do.

Once you assign them to their preferred seat, you will have an open seat. You must fill this open seat with a new hire or another internal candidate.

During the transition, document the hand-off process between sales and delivery to ensure no client details are missed. Splitting this seat proves to potential buyers that your business has a scalable, repeatable engine rather than relying on one superhuman executive.