With all things in life, people generally expect to follow some trajectory. The profession of sales is no different, well, for the most part. There are different ways you can progress in a sales career. If you are on the internet looking for sales roles, you’ll find too many to get confused. But with the goal of these blogs to keep it simple and straightforward, I’ll share the broad roles that a sales professional treads in his/her career. Although the roles have been put in order to show progression, one doesn’t necessarily have to follow wach step to move up the tech sales ladder.
Inside Sales (Job Title: Associate, Executive): As the term suggests, it’s a role that entails the sales person to be indoors and use the online channels (phone, email, social media) for connecting with customers. This is probably the first entry that an aspiring sales professional will make into the world of sales. Inside Sales teams can either be inbound or outbound.
- Inbound sales professionals handle calls which they receive from customers dialling in to find out about a product or solution the company has to offer.
- Outbound sales professionals are the ones who are prospecting to get leads from prospective customers. These folks typically reach out over different online channels to qualify the prospect. They are measured based on the leads that are generated considering the amount of outreach efforts made. It’s mostly a number driven game here: the amount of calls made, emails sent, linkedin connects, meetings obtained, qualified opportunities etc.
Account Executives (Job Title: Executive, Manager): Once the leads have been identified, they are normally moved to an account executive who is assigned to close them (i.e. convert these leads into customers by selling the product/solution) or by aborting the lead. These executives carry a quota which is achieved when they close enough transactions. There are professionals who continue to do one job or the other i.e. Inside Sales or Account Executives. But if you do choose the path of the Account Executive, the following roles are where you will end up into.
Account Managers (Job Title: Manager, Director): Once a customer is added to the company, they are handed over to an account manager, whose job is to build a relationship with the customer in order to assist on any future requirements they may have which can then be solved using the existing products and solutions that the company has to offer. The account managers are also entrusted to retain the existing business. Thereby they have a portfolio that they are responsible for growing year on year.
Client Partners (Job Title: Director, Senior Director, Vice President): Client partners are senior executives within a company who look at an overall account or multiple accounts. They have a fairly large portfolio of business courtesy the customers already existing in the system. To put it simply, a bunch of account managers report into the client partner, assisting in building the account. Typically these account managers have different areas to manage, which can mean targeting different groups within the customer organization or to specialize in certain areas such as applications, infrastructure, engineering services etc (in an IT organization).
Sales Leaders (Job Title: Vice President, Chief Sales Officer): Multiple client partners finally report into the Sales leaders. These people normally carry titles of Vice President and above. From here on, it’s a pyramid structure that rolls up to the Chief Sales Officer or even to the Chief Executive Officer.
So there you have it, the different sales roles that exist. The above is a simplified view of the various titles and the associated responsibilities you might be entrusted while you pursue a career in Sales.
Have you come across a sales role which you want more details on? Feel free to comment or send me a message.
