A firm that puts its most capable person into every first conversation is usually praised for it. The practice is also the reason those people have no time for the work that requires them.
The entry sale is comparatively well defined. What is being bought is known, the questions repeat, and the standard for a good conversation can be written down. Work of that shape does not need the firm’s scarcest judgment, and giving it that judgment is a choice to spend the resource where it changes the least.
Where the capable people go
To value realisation. Once the entry sale closes, the job is to expand it into whatever actually solves the client’s problem, and that conversation cannot be scripted or delegated. It is where the difference between a competent firm and a good one shows up.
The honest risk
A buyer who meets a junior first can conclude they are being handled. The defence is not seniority, it is the standard: a first conversation that diagnoses properly is better than one with a famous name that pitches. Where the standard is not written down, the criticism is fair.