In most growing B2B teams, commercial work accumulates on the same people. The account manager who closes deals also builds the lists, keeps the CRM current, answers inbound questions and chases deliveries. Nothing about that arrangement was ever decided; it simply grew. The result is predictable: senior commercial time is spread across tasks of very different value, and none of them receive full attention. Role design is the discipline of deciding deliberately where each type of work belongs.
Separate the activities before you design the roles.
Commercial work is not one job. Research, outreach, opportunity development, CRM upkeep, customer follow-up, account management and reporting each demand different skills, different energy and a different moment in the week. Listing them separately is the first step, because most conversations about 'sales workload' fail precisely because they treat these as a single block.
Once the activities are distinct, two questions become possible: which of these create direct commercial value, and which support it? The answers differ per market. In specialist industries, deep account research often is the value; in transactional markets, it may be responsiveness. The operating model should reflect that reality, not a generic template.
List the commercial work first. Only then ask who should own each part.
Give the strongest people the work only they can do.
The scarcest resource in any commercial department is experienced judgment: knowing which account deserves patience, which objection signals a real barrier and which conversation just needs a better question. Every hour a senior person spends updating spreadsheets or formatting lists is an hour of judgment the market never sees.
That does not mean support work is unimportant — it means it belongs with people and systems designed for it. When research, list building and CRM upkeep move to a dedicated capability, the senior roles stop being interrupted by low-context tasks and start concentrating on conversations where their expertise changes the outcome.
Roles only work when the handovers between them are designed.
Dividing work creates interfaces, and interfaces are where information gets lost. If research sits with one person and outreach with another, the reason an account was prioritised must survive the transfer. If sales hands over to delivery, the promises made during the deal must arrive intact. A role design that ignores these connections simply moves the problem from individuals to the seams between them.
Practically, this means each handover needs a defined minimum: what context must be recorded, who owns the relationship at that moment and what the next person should do first. When those rules are explicit, splitting the work increases quality instead of creating friction.
“Good role design is less about who does what, and more about what travels between the whos.”De Grijff · Commercial operating principle
Test the design against a normal month.
A role design is only real if it survives an ordinary month with its surprises, absence and urgent deals. Walk through recent weeks: who actually did the research, who kept the records current, where did senior people lose hours to work below their level. The gaps between the design and reality show exactly where the model needs adjusting.
Revisit the design as the team grows. The division of work that fits a founder and two sellers will not fit a department with specialist business development. Treating role design as a living part of the commercial operating model — rather than an org chart drawn once — is what keeps capacity aligned with ambition. It is also a core part of how we approach a Commercial Operating Model engagement.
References & further reading
- Where does senior commercial time actually go? — De Grijff
- Who owns each part of the commercial journey? — De Grijff
- Commercial Operating Model — De Grijff
