One motion becomes several roles
Qualification, discovery and closing separate out.
Who we helpScale-up
What a founder-led team handled by talking does not survive role separation.
A single founder-led motion has to split into roles repeatable by people who did not invent it. Qualification becomes SDR and AE, discovery becomes a handoff, and the split rarely preserves what worked.
Stage read
One motion, now several roles.
Rework replaces conversation
What a founder settled by talking now needs a defined handoff.
Repeatable assumed before tested
The split is treated as working before evidence says it does.
The management layer arrives late
First-line leaders are appointed before the cadence exists.
Enablement chases the change
Training lands after the new structure has already drifted.
The seams the division left
The split is treated as working before evidence says it does.
One motion became several roles. What made it work was never written down, so it did not travel with the role.
The symptom is reported at the surface. The cause sits underneath it.
Rework replaces conversation
What a founder settled by talking now needs a defined handoff.
Surface · what gets reportedOne motion split into separate roles
Qualification, discovery and closing became different people.
Structure · what produces itThe split was assumed to work
It is treated as repeatable before any evidence says it is.
System · where it breaksThe original motion does not survive division
What made it work was never written down, so it does not transfer with the role.
Consequence · what it costsCause and consequence rarely surface in the same place.
What it looks for here
Trace what changed when one motion became several roles.
The diagnostic tests the full system rather than assuming coordination or role design is the answer. It reads SDR, AE and customer-success handoffs alongside management cadence, compensation, forecast accountability and enablement, then checks whether the founder's original motion survived being divided across new roles.
- Commercial leaders
- SDRs and AEs at different tenures
- Customer success and enablement
- Qualification criteria and ramp materials
- Incentive rules
- Forecast reviews and handoff notes
One motion splitting into separate roles changes how the strain presents.
What the next stage demands
A motion that survives being divided.
One motion split into specialised roles is the defining move of this stage. What the next stage demands is that the split be designed rather than assumed.
Designed handoffs
Each division creates a seam. The content that has to pass across it needs defining before the split, not after rework starts appearing.
Shared definitions
Two roles using the same word for different things is the mechanism behind most of the rework that follows a split.
Management as a function
Coordinating specialists is a job. Where it is left as an addition to a selling role, coordination is what gets dropped first.
A read on what the split cost
The original motion rarely survives division intact. Knowing which part was lost is the difference between fixing it and rebuilding it.
What happens next
Three ways in, depending on what the evidence already says.
Executive Workshop
Three hours with the people who can change the system. One condition named, in writing, before any evidence is gathered.
Explore the Workshop →Diagnosis
Interviews, the records you already produce and your own rates. What is breaking, what it costs, what to change first.
Explore the Diagnosis →Strain Check
Ten questions, two minutes. A first read on which part of your commercial system is carrying the most strain.
Take the Strain Check → FAQ
Before you assume it is a people problem.
We just split SDR and AE, doesn't that mean we have already scaled the motion?
Splitting the role is the first step, not the last. The split only holds up once the handoff between SDR and AE is defined well enough that a new hire on either side gets the same result the founder used to get alone.
Is this a hiring problem, do we just need more reps?
Rarely by itself. Adding reps to a motion that has not actually been made repeatable usually increases the cost rather than reducing it, because the same gap now runs across more people.
Which functions typically get interviewed at this stage?
SDRs and AEs across different tenure lengths, plus sales leadership and whoever owns enablement, since scale-up dysfunction usually concentrates in the handoff between qualification and close. The exact list is agreed with you before the engagement starts.
How is this different from a reorg?
A reorg changes reporting lines. The diagnostic reads what is actually breaking first and prices it, so any restructuring that follows is aimed at a measured cause rather than a guess.
Get started
The split feels done. Whether the handoff actually holds is what the number settles.
Use 30 minutes to define the operating question, test what evidence exists and decide whether Kihon has a role at all. No scope is proposed before that is clear.
Discuss the operating problem