About the Sales Director role
A Sales Director owns a company's revenue engine. They set sales strategy and targets, design territories and compensation plans, hire and develop sales managers and reps, own the forecast that leadership plans around, and step into the largest deals when their weight moves the outcome. The role is accountable for the number, but the daily work is building the system and the people that deliver it.
Scope varies widely with company stage. In a scale-up, a Sales Director may be the most senior sales leader, building process, hiring the first managers, and still carrying strategic deals personally. In an enterprise, they typically run a region or segment, manage managers rather than reps, and spend more time on planning, forecasting, and cross-functional alignment with marketing, finance, and product.
In your posting, be clear about team size, whether the role manages managers or reps directly, the revenue target range, and how much personal selling is expected. Candidates at this level also want to know reporting lines and decision rights over pricing, hiring, and compensation, so state them explicitly.
Sales Director job description template
Free download. Use it offline or customize it for your company.
Job brief
We are hiring a Sales Director to own our revenue and the machine that produces it. You will set the strategy and the targets, design territories and compensation, hire and develop the leaders under you, own the forecast leadership plans around, and take the seat in the deals where it counts.
This is a fit if you have carried a number through a team rather than personally, diagnose a revenue problem with data before changing tactics, and can tell the executive team early when the quarter is not going to land.
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute the sales strategy and annual revenue plan across segments and territories
- Set quotas, design territories, and shape compensation plans that reward the right behavior
- Hire, coach, and develop sales managers and representatives, and manage out underperformance fairly
- Own the revenue forecast and run a weekly pipeline and deal review cadence
- Sponsor and join strategic deals, negotiations, and executive-level customer relationships
- Define and refine the sales process, methodology, and playbooks the team runs on
- Align with marketing on pipeline generation targets and lead quality standards
- Partner with finance, product, and operations on pricing, capacity planning, and market feedback
- Track performance through metrics such as quota attainment, win rate, pipeline coverage, and sales cycle length
- Build a culture of accountability and ethical selling that protects the company's reputation
Requirements and skills
- Has led a sales organization and carried its number across multiple years
- Can point to targets hit with a team they built or rebuilt
- Has hired, coached, and managed both managers and quota-carrying sellers
- Forecasts credibly and runs pipeline discipline through a CRM
- Has designed quotas, territories, and compensation that behaved as intended
- Holds a room in a late-stage negotiation with senior buyers
- Reaches for the data before the tactic when revenue slips
- A business degree or equivalent; an MBA is welcome but not required
Nice to have
- Experience scaling a sales team through rapid growth or a new market entry
- Background in your industry or sales motion, such as SaaS, enterprise, or channel sales
- Experience with sales methodologies such as MEDDIC, SPIN, or Challenger and training teams on them
- International sales leadership across regions or languages
Generate a custom Sales Director job description
Need a version tailored to your company, seniority level, or industry? Describe the role and our AI job description generator will draft one in seconds.
