As a CEO, you’ll always have a role in sales, but that role changes as your company grows and evolves.
Understanding when and how to adjust your involvement is critical to your company’s long-term success. Here’s how to navigate your role at each stage of growth.
1. The Foundation: Founder-Led Sales
In the early days, sales is your job. As CEO, you’re the one making connections, closing deals, and setting the tone for how your company approaches sales. This hands-on involvement is crucial for learning what works, understanding your market, and creating a sales strategy that fits.
But founder-led sales doesn’t scale. At some point, your business will need you to shift your focus to keep growing.
- 🎯 Action: Regularly assess whether your direct involvement in sales is helping or holding the company back. If you stay in this role too long, growth stalls. If you step back too soon, the team may lack the foundation needed to succeed.
2. Scaling Up: Handing Over the Reins
As your business grows, it’s time to bring in a sales team and eventually a strong sales leader. Your role becomes less about closing deals and more about strategy, mentoring, and ensuring sales aligns with the company’s goals.
This stage is about trust. You’ll need to empower your team to take over while staying involved enough to guide the strategy.
- 🎯 Action: Collaborate with your sales leader to establish clear goals and expectations. Shift your focus to generating high-value leads and supporting your team as a strategic resource.
3. Maturity: Driving Strategy and Building Relationships
When a capable sales leader is in place, your role becomes more about big-picture strategy and relationship-building. Now is the time to act as your company’s “chief evangelist.” Represent the brand, build partnerships, and connect with key clients in ways that only the CEO can.
- 🎯 Action: Work with your sales leader to identify critical accounts where your involvement will make the biggest impact. Use your platform—whether through speaking engagements, podcasts, or social media—to promote your company’s vision and build credibility.
The Guiding Question for Every CEO
At every stage, there’s one question you should continually ask: “What are we doing to make it easy to be our customer and harder to be our competition?”
Your job isn’t just to lead sales. It’s to make sure your entire organization supports the customer journey, creating a seamless and exceptional experience.
Bringing It All Together
Your role in sales evolves as your business grows, but it never disappears. Staying tuned into your company’s sales process—whether by leading it, guiding it, or amplifying it—ensures that your team is set up for long-term success.
If you’re ready to take a closer look at how your involvement in sales can evolve to meet your company’s needs, I’d love to help. Let’s build the right strategies to keep your team focused and your pipeline flowing.
Contact me today to discuss how we can refine your approach and unlock your company’s next level of growth.
Alice is nationally known for her expertise in elevating sales to increase valuation for companies with a B2B complex sale that have exceptional growth potential. She’s originally, from the widely known Miller Heiman Group. Spending her time strategizing with CEOs and their leadership teams to build the strategies that find new business and grow existing accounts is her passion. Her clients love her spirit and the way she energizes their sales organization.
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