By Mark HuYoung
Look, I’m going to start with a confession that might ruffle some feathers: after placing hundreds of executives over the years, I’ve watched this same train wreck happen over and over again. Companies take their absolute best business developer (you know, the one crushing quota month after month) and decide, “Hey, let’s put this superstar in charge of the whole team!”
It’s like assuming your best surgeon should run the hospital. Sure, they’re incredible with a scalpel, but can they handle budgets, board meetings, and the political minefield that is healthcare administration? Probably not.
The Research Doesn’t Lie (Even When We Wish It Would)
Here’s the kicker that always makes my clients do a double-take: when researchers tracked over 48,000 sales associates and watched what happened when the top performers became managers, team sales actually dropped by 10%. Ten percent!
I’ve seen this firsthand more times than I care to count. A few years ago, I worked with a mid-sized software company that promoted their absolute rockstar, let’s call him Joey, to Chief Growth Officer. Joey was legendary. Clients loved him, deals closed left and right, and his pipeline was the stuff of sales folklore. Nine months into his management role? His group’s performance had tanked causing the company’s revenue target to veer offline like a North Korean rocket, Joey was miserable and miserable to be around, and the investors and CEO quietly invited me in to discuss finding his replacement.
Joey’s problem wasn’t that he was a bad person or incompetent. It’s that being great at selling and being great at leading sellers are two completely different skill sets.
The Skill Gap That Nobody Talks About
In the past, when I’ve interviewed top business developers, they lit up talking about their latest client win or how they navigated a tricky negotiation. They’re masters at:
- Building those “let’s grab drinks after work” relationships with clients
- Hitting their personal numbers (and usually exceeding them)
- Knowing their product inside and out
- Solving problems on the fly
- Making people feel heard and valued
But ask them about developing junior talent or creating accountability systems, and you might as well be speaking Mandarin. The leadership side requires a totally different playbook:
- Coaching someone through their first big presentation (when you could just do it yourself in half the time)
- Having those uncomfortable conversations about performance
- Thinking three quarters ahead instead of just this quarter
- Managing conflict when your natural instinct is to smooth things over
- Building systems that work even when you’re not in the room
Here’s what really gets me: research shows that top salespeople often have too much people orientation and do not have adequate task orientation necessary to hold others accountable. In other words, they’re too nice to be effective managers. Their superpower of “making everyone feel comfortable” becomes their kryptonite when they need to have difficult conversations about missed targets.
The Emotional Intelligence Plot Twist
This is where it gets really interesting. Many of the best business developers I’ve placed succeed without developing certain emotional intelligence competencies that become absolutely critical in management roles.
- Self-awareness suddenly matters when your leadership style can make or break five other people’s careers, not just your own deals.
- Self-regulation becomes crucial when you’re managing pressure from above while keeping your team motivated below—and you can’t just charm your way out of it.
- Social awareness means reading the room when there are multiple agendas, politics, and unspoken tensions—way more complex than a client meeting.
- Relationship management shifts from “How do I get this client to like me?” to “How do I inspire performance across different personality types and motivations?”
It’s like the difference between being an amazing line cook and running the entire kitchen. Sure, you can make perfect dishes under pressure, but can you coordinate five other cooks, manage inventory, handle supplier issues, and keep the whole operation running smoothly during the dinner rush? Totally different skill set.
When Your Star Player Thinks They Deserve the Corner Office
Oh goody, here’s where things get really interesting. Imagine your top performer has been killing it for three years straight. She’s got the biggest deals, the happiest clients, and a confidence level that could power a small city. Then a management position opens up, and she’s in your office explaining why she obviously deserves it.
“I mean, who else would you give it to? I’m the one bringing in the revenue. The team looks up to me. I know this business better than anyone.”
And you know what? She’s not wrong about the performance part. But she’s also not necessarily right about the leadership part, and that’s a conversation that requires some serious emotional intelligence and diplomatic finesse.
Here’s how I’ve seen smart leaders handle this minefield:
Start with validation, not deflection. “You’re absolutely right that your performance has been exceptional, and that’s exactly why this conversation is so important.” Don’t dismiss their achievements or they’ll tune out everything else you say.
Separate performance from readiness. “Being our top performer shows you have incredible skills. Management requires a different skill set entirely, and I want to make sure anyone we put in that role is set up for success.” Frame it as protecting them, not rejecting them.
Get curious about their motivations. Ask them what specifically appeals to them about management. Is it the money? The recognition? The assumption that it’s the only path to advancement? Or do they genuinely want to develop other people? Their answer will tell you everything you need to know about next steps.
Paint the reality picture and do it honestly. “Let me tell you what the role actually looks like day-to-day. Last week, our current manager spent Tuesday morning coaching someone through a difficult client conversation, Tuesday afternoon in budget meetings, Wednesday dealing with a territory dispute, and Thursday writing performance improvement plans. Sound appealing?” Sometimes the honest job description solves the problem for you.
Offer the development path. If they’re genuinely interested after hearing the reality, great! “Here’s what leadership development would look like before we’d consider you for a management role.” Make it clear it’s not a no, it’s a “not yet, and here’s how to get there.”
The trickiest part? When they push back with “But I’m already doing leadership things!” Because they might be right. Maybe they are mentoring newer team members or taking on project leadership. That’s actually a good sign. But there’s a difference between informal influence and formal accountability, and that distinction matters.
Handle the ego factor carefully. High performers often have healthy egos (it’s part of what makes them successful), but management requires a different kind of confidence. I once had a candidate tell me, “I don’t need management training—I’ve been managing client relationships for years!” That’s when you know they don’t yet understand what management actually involves.
Address the elephant in the compensation room. If they’re making more as an individual contributor than they would as a manager, acknowledge that openly. “I know the compensation structure might seem backwards, but let’s talk about the total package and long-term trajectory.” Don’t pretend money doesn’t matter because it absolutely does.
The worst thing you can do is lie to them or give them false hope just to avoid a difficult conversation. I’ve seen too many companies promise “we’ll definitely consider you next time” when they know that’s not true. That’s how you lose good people.
Sometimes the conversation reveals that they’re not really interested in management—they just thought it was the only way to get recognition or advancement. That’s when you pivot to talking about senior individual contributor paths, special projects, or other ways to acknowledge their value without putting them in the wrong role.
And sometimes? Sometimes they surprise you. I’ve had candidates who initially seemed like pure individual contributors but showed real curiosity about developing others and thinking strategically. Those are the ones worth investing in.
The key is being honest, respectful, and focused on their success, not just avoiding an awkward conversation.
The Strategic Thinking Challenge
Here’s another reality check: most outstanding business developers are tactical execution machines. They see a problem, they solve it. Client needs something? Boom, handled. Competitor trying to steal a deal? Game on.
One of my closest friends was absolutely crushing it in pharmaceutical sales. Quick thinking, relationship master, could close deals in his sleep. But when he got promoted to regional manager, he came to me with bottle of good bourbon and a head full of frustrations. He struggled because he couldn’t stop jumping in to “fix” every deal his team was working on. He was managing tactics, not strategy.
Leadership requires strategic thinking, anticipating market changes six months out, planning for scenarios that might never happen, and guiding teams through uncertainty when you don’t have all the answers. It’s the difference between being great at checkers (tactical) and being great at chess (strategy).
The Money Problem Nobody Mentions
Here’s the awkward truth that can make these conversations even more complicated: depending upon the industry in which you work, your top business developers often make more money than the management position you’re trying to promote them into.
Think about it. Uncapped commissions, performance bonuses, accelerators. I’ve seen individual contributors pulling down serious cash while their potential manager is on a fixed salary dealing with budgets and performance reviews. Why would someone take a pay cut to gain a bunch of headaches?
This creates a bizarre situation where we’re essentially asking people to accept less money for more responsibility and stress. It’s like asking a successful freelance consultant to take a full-time role with lower pay because “it’s a promotion.” That math doesn’t math.
When Promotions Go Wrong (Spoiler: It’s Expensive)
I’ve cleaned up enough of these situations to know the pattern by heart. When organizations promote the wrong person, several things inevitably happen:
- You lose your best individual contributor. The person who was actually generating results gets buried in meetings and administrative tasks.
- The team performance suffers under inexperienced leadership, and trust me, teams can smell inexperience from a mile away.
- The newly promoted manager becomes frustrated and stressed. They signed up to lead a team, not babysit underperformers while drowning in spreadsheets.
But here’s the part that really hurts, when high-performing team members see questionable promotion decisions, they start updating their LinkedIn profiles. I can’t tell you how many great people I’ve placed who left their companies not because of money or opportunity, but because they lost confidence in leadership’s decision making.
Better Alternatives (That Actually Work)
Smart companies have figured out how to create advancement paths that don’t require jumping to management. For example:
- Senior Business Developer roles that pay competitively and recognize expertise without adding team management.
- Strategic Account Director positions that focus on complex, high-value relationships.
- Principal Client Manager roles that blend business development with strategic client success.
These positions let people maximize their strengths while still providing career growth and competitive compensation. It’s like creating a master engineer track alongside the engineering management track. These different paths of high mastery and high potential are both valuable and necessary within any organization.
If You’re Going to Make Someone a Manager, Do it Right
For those rare individuals who show both high performance AND genuine leadership potential, invest in their development before throwing them into the deep end. Some options to consider:
- Structured leadership training that goes beyond a weekend workshop—real programs that teach team development and strategic thinking.
- Mentoring relationships with experienced managers who can share the reality of what the role actually entails.
- Progressive leadership opportunities through project management and team initiatives—let them test-drive leadership before committing.
Spotting Real Leadership Potential
Instead of just looking at the sales leaderboard, ask better questions.
- “Tell me about a time you helped a colleague improve their performance.” (Not “tell me about your biggest sale.”)
- “Share an example of when you influenced outcomes without having any formal authority.” (This is management 101, folks.)
- “How would you handle an underperforming team member?” (If they say, “I’d just close their deals for them,” that’s a red flag.)
- “What’s your perspective on our department’s strategic direction?” (Can they think beyond their own territory?)
The Bottom Line
After years of watching this play out, here’s what I’ve learned: exceptional individual contributors and effective leaders often have completely different skill sets and motivations. The best approach is to stop assuming everyone wants to be a manager and start creating multiple paths for advancement and recognition.
When you do find someone with both high performance AND leadership potential, invest in developing them properly before the promotion. Your success rate will skyrocket, and you’ll avoid those expensive cleanup projects that nobody enjoys.
The goal isn’t to never promote high performers, it’s to make sure promotions align with individual strengths and organizational needs, because nothing says “we value talent” quite like putting people in roles where they can actually succeed.
Trust me on this one. I’ve seen too many Joeys to ignore the pattern.