The VP of Sales Is Not Your Revenue Architect

As a former VP of Sales, I understand the critical role of a full-time sales leader dedicated to strategy, hiring, training, coaching, and sales, along with process and systems design, and playbooks. However, this raises a crucial question: Is a VP of Sales truly responsible for all these functions? Is it even feasible for one individual to possess the experience, knowledge, and capacity to manage such a wide array of responsibilities?

My experience suggests that attempting to encompass all these roles within a single VP of Sales position is rarely successful. Here's why:

A VP of Sales typically advances through the ranks, starting as a seller, then a sales manager, and finally a sales executive. Similarly, many C-suite executives (CRO, CMO, CSO) often emerge from a pool of former Sales VPs. They often possess expertise in a singular function of the Go-To-Market (GTM) Team and within the Revenue Cycle. This progression seems logical: if these individuals excelled as sellers and sales managers, they should possess all the necessary skills to drive the entire revenue-generating engine of a business, right? Not necessarily.

Given this traditional structure, it's unsurprising that companies often focus exclusively on top-of-funnel acquisition functions, neglecting retention and expansion. It's also not shocking when tech stack implementations face resistance from sales teams, even if designed to enhance selling. And when growth momentum slows, the immediate thought is often to add more sales representatives.

Selling itself constitutes a small yet vital component of the Revenue Cycle. True selling is distinct from outbound lead outreach, customer service, or retention activities. It's not even the largest part of acquisition. Its core function is to accelerate the pipeline and close deals. Period.

To clarify where a VP of Sales truly fits, let's simplify the Revenue Cycle functions:

• Acquisition is the process of bringing prospective customers into the "system" and qualifying them for sales. This is not selling in itself. Ideally, most acquisition should be handled by Marketing to ensure a balance against unqualified leads, preventing wasted seller time and the onboarding of poor-fit customers who are likely to churn. This necessitates that Marketing professionals are not just content creators but also understand the sales process.
  
  One might argue that SDRs need strong sales skills to secure demos or meetings, and that's partially true. Sales Development's strength lies in crafting compelling outreach scripts, developing logical sequences, and executing a precise process to connect with the right leads. While they do "sell" the prospect on the company and product enough to secure an initial meeting, this is primarily a marketing function. In today's AI-driven landscape, SDRs may even become obsolete. For example, my Apollo.io subscription can simulate five SDRs for a mere $100 per month; if a prospect responds, I, as the closer, take over for discovery and deal closure if there's a fit.
  

• Selling commences once qualified leads enter the pipeline. Sellers then engage with these well-qualified leads in Discovery to confirm a good fit and ensure the company can deliver a substantial, long-term impact. Sales guides customers through their buying journey, engages with them until they are ready to purchase, and initiates the onboarding process.
  

• Customer Success/Service assumes responsibility during onboarding. They act as a welcoming concierge, ensuring all necessary data is accurately captured to foster a successful ongoing relationship. They establish processes, KPIs, goals, and objectives to guide the CX team and the customer throughout the remainder of their journey.
  

• Revenue Operations (RevOps) encompasses the entire Revenue Cycle, from inception to completion. Crucially, it should not report to Sales, Marketing, or Customer Success. This is why I believe RevOps is ideally suited for a fractional or consultant relationship. This independence allows the individual or team to remain agnostic to any specific part of the Revenue Cycle, offering an objective perspective on current operations and necessary improvements. Consider RevOps the CIA to the military.
  

While this presents a simplified and linear view, let's revisit our original question: Where does a VP of Sales fit, and what should their responsibilities entail? A VP of Sales should lead the sales function, and only that. Based on our earlier definition of when selling occurs, Sales VPs should not oversee acquisition or post-onboarding customer relationships. Their, and their teams', primary responsibility should be pipeline acceleration and deal closure.

Of course, the lines often blur post-onboarding. Who manages the Account Executives (AEs) or Account Managers (AMs) responsible for customer relationships? In an ideal scenario, the individuals managing post-onboarding customer relationships (AMs and AEs) would be distinct from those who initially closed the deals. This is due to two reasons: 1) It splits their time between retention/expansion and acquisition, and 2) Highly effective sellers are often more expensive than Account Managers, and finding a "unicorn" skilled at both is challenging. Therefore, while post-onboarding Account Managers can be overseen by the VP of Sales, their role should differ from closers and focus exclusively on retaining and expanding existing relationships, working in conjunction with Customer Success on retention and expansion efforts.

So, when does a company truly need its first VP of Sales? Likely not until at least Series C, or even D, funding. Knowing what I know now, if I were founding a company today, I would first bring on a RevOps consultant. This consultant would build the entire Revenue Cycle architecture, implement it, and refine it as I, as the founder, simultaneously handled marketing, selling, and sales management. Once my hypothetical company required more than one sales manager (likely around 10 reps), I would then hire a VP of Sales. This VP would not be involved in the Revenue Engine's systems or processes but would oversee the sales team, focusing entirely on team development and coaching, assisting in deal wins, and improving performance metrics, all while enforcing the systems and processes established by RevOps. Account Executives would handle closing, retention, and expansion, albeit with less-than-perfect efficiency. Subsequently, I would hire Customer Success leadership and build out that team. Finally, I would bring Marketing back in-house from a marketing firm, completing the team.

My bias towards RevOps coming first is strong, but it stems from a fundamental principle: you cannot hire a contractor to build a building before the architect has completed the design.