Leading PreSales · 2026-09-02 · 6 min
What an untrained first-line SE manager really costs - and who ends up paying the bill Nate breaks down why promoting your strongest SE into a first-line seat with no readiness path is an unbudgeted risk, not a reward. Ava pushes back from a 12-person scale-up where a title is the only retention lever she's got. What Nate and Ava discuss Why the untrained first-liner reverts to IC tools - and turns a 200% performer into 50% output How to actually price a failed promotion: blind capacity, lost quota contribution, attrition Staged progression with measures before the title, and how to compress it when you can't wait a year The move Attach a training budget to every first-line promotion, and don't sign the promotion until the money and the readiness measures sit in the same document. Show the candidate those measures before they say yes. Resources & Links: paths.to/presales Book a Discovery Call: calendly.com/serockstars-tim/discovery-call
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