Picture 10pm. The kitchen is quiet, the laptop is the only light on, and a proposal from your new sales hire is open on the screen. You're rewriting it yourself, because that's faster than explaining what's wrong. 🐬

Earlier that day you closed a deal. Nobody prospected while you did. And nobody asked where the company should be in three years.

Two jobs are sitting in one chair. The Marine Corps gives them two chairs.

One looks out, one looks in

A Marine unit is led by a command team.

The Commanding Officer (CO) looks out. The mission, the threats, the opportunities, where we're going and why.

The Executive Officer (XO), second in command, looks in. Schedules, supplies, readiness, daily friction, and whether people have what they need to do the job.

The CO holds the higher rank. But the unit needs both jobs every single day. Bury the CO in paperwork and the unit drifts. Send the XO after a personal strategy and it breaks down from the inside.

Your sales engine runs on the same two jobs. 🐯

CO work: who you want to work with, which deals you turn down, what you charge, where the business goes next.

XO work: the process a new hire can run, the follow-ups, the pipeline review, the CRM, the Friday numbers.

What one chair costs you

Founder-led sales usually starts with one person in both chairs. It works for a while.

Then it stops adding up. When you're closing, the pipeline goes stale, because prospecting runs on your calendar. When you're prospecting, the new hire waits for answers, because the process lives in your head. When you're doing both, nobody looks at the horizon.

You feel it most on the call itself.

Walk in with a thin pipeline and a number to hit, and you need this deal. The buyer hears it in your voice. The scope gets smaller. The proposal goes out before they've said what doing nothing costs them. Then silence.

That's why control of the sales conversation starts before the call. It starts with who is sitting in which chair.

Now run the bitter math for yourself. A salary waiting on your answers. Deals you never chased because you were deep in the inside work. What does one more quarter of that cost? You're the only one who can put a number on it.

A hire alone won't fix it

Bringing in a sales leader can create two new problems. 🌴

Two COs. You and your new leader each have a vision. The team hears two answers, and the follow-ups fall through the gap.

Two XOs. Everyone is busy, the CRM is spotless, activity is up.. and nobody has lifted their head to ask where all of it is going.

Good command teams avoid both by being clear about who holds which chair, on which topic. The chairs can even swap. On a big deal your head of sales leads and you carry the bags. In a new market you lead and they hold the inside.

Commander's intent: how you leave the room

Marine doctrine has a tool for this. Commander's intent is a clear statement of what success looks like, so people can act when the plan changes, without calling back for permission.

Your sales team needs three versions of it:

1. One sentence of intent. A made-up example: "Five new deals this quarter at full price, from founders hiring their first seller." A hire who has that sentence can make the call without you.

2. The right things in the right order. That's the 8 Steps of the Repeatable Sale. Step 4 Cost of Inaction comes before Step 6 Investment. Step 7 Starting Date comes before Step 8 Statement of Work. Your hire always knows where they are in the conversation.

3. A rhythm where both chairs meet. Monday Strategy sets the week. Friday Learnings scores it in black and white. Next Monday adjusts.

No XO on the payroll yet? A lot of the inside work can run on AI-powered processes: research, follow-ups, call notes. The sales call stays human.

Picture a Friday a few months from now

Your hire led a call on Tuesday, and the buyer named their own cost of doing nothing. You weren't on it. The Friday scorecard shows the win in black and white.

At 6pm the laptop clicks shut. The kitchen smells like dinner, and nobody needs you to rewrite anything. 🐬

That's a Sprintlife: the freedom to live your life on your terms, and a business that funds it.

We've practiced the 8 Steps with 2,400+ B2B founders in our programs, with spotters who push them through their current sales wall, until they lead the conversation again.

Your move this week

Open last week's calendar. Mark every block CO or XO.

Then pick one XO block and hand it off by next Monday, to a person or to a process. One block. See what you do with the time. 🐯

Want company while you do it? Sprint Club gives you the tools, the AI skills and the founders working on the same thing. 7 days free: https://www.strategysprints.com

Ready to accelerate now? Book a Discovery Call: https://calendly.com/strategysprint/discovery-call

Happy hunting.

Simon & The Sprinters 🐬⚡️🐆