Our Head of Sales spends sixty percent of their week closing deals directly because frontline reps cannot close complex accounts. How do we use the five roles on the Accountability Chart to break this habit?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a leadership seat holder spends their week doing the work of their subordinates because they believe only they can do it right, they have fallen into the player-coach trap. This behavior caps organizational growth and conceals real operational problems.

Review the five core roles defined for your Head of Sales on the Accountability Chart. Those roles should focus on high-level accountability: Sales Strategy, Leading and Managing (LMA), Pipeline Health, Revenue Target Delivery, and Process Adherence. Direct deal closing for the team must not be one of those roles. If your sales leader is constantly rescuing reps at the finish line, they are abandoning their leadership seat and masking an underlying Right Person, Right Seat failure beneath them.

Update the seat accountabilities to explicitly emphasize coaching, pipeline inspection, and team development. In your weekly Level 10 Meeting, hold the leader accountable to overall team metrics and rep quota attainment rather than personal closing volume. If your business model truly requires a dedicated executive deal closer for enterprise accounts, build that as a separate specialized seat beneath the Head of Sales on the chart. Separating frontline selling from department leadership restores accountability and forces managers to manage.