For years, our co-founder has sat in a combined Sales and Marketing seat on our Accountability Chart, but we are preparing for a clean exit and our business broker says we must split these seats to show a scalable, professional sales engine. How do we execute this split on our chart when the co-founder wants to keep running both departments?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your business broker is completely correct. To a potential buyer, a combined Sales and Marketing seat led by a co-founder looks like a massive key-man dependency. If you want a clean, high-multiple exit, you must prove that your marketing and sales machines are separate, professional systems that do not rely on a single owner's heroics.

Marketing and sales require fundamentally different conative profiles. Marketing is about generating qualified leads and building brand awareness, which often requires a high Quick Start conative profile on the Kolbe index to innovate. Sales is about closing those leads and hitting revenue targets, which requires high execution and drive.

To execute this split, use Keith Cunningham's Thinking Time framework to map out the specific, distinct roles for both a dedicated Head of Marketing seat and a Head of Sales seat on your Accountability Chart. Once the two seats are designed, evaluate your co-founder. They cannot sit in both seats. They must choose the one they truly get, want, and have the capacity to lead as the business scales.

Once they select their seat, you must run a search to fill the other seat with a professional leader. This transition will show buyers that your business has a scalable, systemic pipeline, which will significantly increase your enterprise value and pave the way for a clean exit.