Most businesses have a sales director, but what does this crucial senior hire do exactly? In this blog, we’ll cover the role, its main deliverables and the business benefits.
What is a sales director?
Sales directors are responsible for creating and delivering business sales strategies, to ensure the business can deliver its bottom-line results and remain viable. Sales directors typically manage sales teams with sales reps that deliver these sales using a variety of techniques. The sales director may also take on direct sales responsibilities for particularly high-value or big clients, which need to be nurtured over time using a variety of sales techniques, and then engaged with advanced relationship building.
What does a sales director do?
Sales directors have complex jobs which require a high degree of strategic thinking. Their tasks involve:
- Developing the overall sales strategy that explains how the overarching business plan will be delivered in a commercial organisation
- Producing supporting sales delivery plans with targets and objectives
- Building relationships with key clients
- Identifying business opportunities in key markets and progressing them
- Maximising opportunities for new business development
- Representing the business at networking events, trade fairs and conferences
- Overseeing the sales team to ensure that they deliver targets and objectives.
- Training and upskilling the sales team with targeted, quality sales training.
- Recruiting sales talent into the business.
- They may also have responsibilities for areas such as sales technology purchasing and investment.
What makes a great sales director?
An effective sales director will have a strategic mind, significant sales experience and the personal drive, accountability and vision to deliver challenging targets. They will be a great communicator, manager, leader and relationship builder. The sales director is a key role at the most senior level of any business and it carries a high degree of responsibility. It’s important to note that sales directors have to deal with a wide range of stakeholders in any business. They may directly liaise with key clients and nurture those relationships, manage their own sales teams and direct report managers, work with other strategic directors in the business and report to a series of stakeholders via presentations and papers.
How can a sales director benefit your business?
A sales director will ensure your product or service is bought by target customers. The role usually works with the marketing director, who ensures the ‘7 Ps’ of marketing place the right product in the right place, at the right price, with the right promotion, people and distribution strategies – and the sales director closes the deal, especially in B2B markets. The sales director is heavily responsible for the business’s revenue, which is why the role is such a vital part of the director’s team.
How can you get a sales director for your business?
There are different ways to bring a sales director into the business. For example, you can make a direct hire and bring the role permanently into your team from a pool of candidates. But this can be expensive and time-consuming for many businesses, especially those that need a sales director fast, or who may not be in a position to make a permanent in-house hire until they can see the benefits of the role. In these instances, businesses can use outsourced sales director resources from specialist talent providers such as Sales Geek.
With services such as these, you can bring in a sales director on a part-time, flexible basis, benefit from the director’s skills and expertise and only pay for the time you use. Essentially, the Sales Geek service lets you access the top director-level sales talent that your business needs, without the commitment, risk or cost of hiring directly to a permanent in-house role.
If this sounds like your business will benefit from a Sales Geek sales director, why not get in touch with our team, who will be happy to help and give you all the information you need.
