I am currently sitting in both the Head of Sales and Head of Marketing seats as the founder, and we are planning to exit in twenty-four months. How do I split these seats on the Accountability Chart now so that a prospective buyer sees a clean, professional leadership structure rather than a business dependent on my personal rainmaking?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A business that relies on the founder to generate leads and close deals is unsellable, or at best, will trigger a massive earn-out that ties you to the company for years. You must decouple these seats immediately. Start by defining the five critical roles for the Head of Sales seat and the five critical roles for the Head of Marketing seat on your Accountability Chart. They are entirely different functions. Marketing owns lead generation and brand positioning. Sales owns closing those leads and hitting revenue targets. Once defined, you must step out of at least one seat within the next thirty days. If you have an internal sales rep who has the conative wiring of a high Quick Start, run a GWC check to see if they can step into the Head of Sales seat. If not, you must hire. For the Marketing seat, consider bringing in a fractional CMO to run the department and manage your external agencies. This shows buyers you have a scalable system, not a personal lifestyle business.