sales director

As a sales director, you take on several duties to make sure your company's products or services are being sold. Some duties take place on a regular schedule, while others occur on an as-needed basis. They include:

• conducting sales audits: the actions of your sales managers and representatives aren't done in a vacuum. As a sales director, you're responsible for auditing your team members and their processes. This includes reviews of organisational charts and client information. From this, you draw up reports and presentations to address issues and suggest recommended changes.
• ensuring the sales team provides customer service: customer service is an enormous responsibility for your team. It sometimes eclipses the volume of sales your employees make. You ensure your representatives provide the utmost care possible to the organisation's customers. This is done through regular performance reviews and training by your managers and team leads. Your job is coordinating all of these aspects and reviewing their outcomes seamlessly.
• reviewing sales-based information systems: application-based information systems supplement communications within or outside the company. In your role as a sales director, you examine customer relationship management (CRM) tools. These consolidate and track client interactions from cold calls to the signing of contracts. Once implemented, you regularly review the statistics generated from the CRM. From this data, you work with the application developer and your managers to fine-tune its modules.
• report generation: regularly, your sales managers and team leaders compile reports that contain data on cold calls, purchases, and customer service issues. Once you receive this information, it's your responsibility to create a comprehensive sales report. In turn, this is presented to other executives at the director level for further consideration.

You work in an executive office that's normally on the same floor as other directors. It contains a desk and a sitting area for small meetings. Occasionally, it's connected to a larger conference room.

You work on a desktop or laptop computer with analytical and report-creation applications to consolidate sales data and customer service statistics. Furthermore, you have a mobile device to access these programs in the cloud and communicate with your employees and sales promoters when off-site.

Companies continue to move away from brick-and-mortar operations into virtual environments. As the sales director inside this type of organisation, you operate remotely from a home office or a shared workspace. You have a laptop and smart device with the necessary tools to conduct meetings and compile data.

Sales directors mainly interact with sales and marketing employees. For instance, you collaborate with sales managers, sales representatives and marketing managers. You also work with social media managers and digital marketing managers to improve sales on the company’s platforms. Other professionals you are likely to work with include logistics managers and operations managers.

As a sales director, you usually work a standard 9-5 schedule, Monday through Friday. There are moments when you come in earlier or later. For instance, when you deal with international clients or should be available for an executive meeting. However, you don't come in for second or third shifts when the company operates on a 24/7 schedule.

For better work-life balance, you may operate on a compressed schedule. Usually, this is Monday through Thursday or Tuesday to Friday, between 7 am and 7 pm. Ultimately, the four-day schedule grants an extra day off to you and your team.

As a sales director, you have plenty of career progression opportunities. When you start as a junior sales director, you progress to a senior director of sales position or the regional sales director. You can also become the director of sales and marketing before moving to executive roles. Some sales directors become chief executive officers (CEOs) and marketing directors.

Finding your sales director job through Randstad provides important advantages such as:

• a wide variety of training and development opportunities
• an experienced contact person to provide help if needed
• a range of opportunities in your area
• get paid on a monthly basis
• temporary and permanent contracts

Want a permanent contract? A temporary job as a sales director is often a stepping stone to an attractive permanent job. Every year, thousands of people earn a permanent contract with great employers thanks to a temporary job found through Randstad. What's more, many companies recruit their permanent employees through Randstad too!

As a sales director, you create and oversee the company's sales strategy implementation. You set the goals for the sales department and ensure they have the resources to achieve the targets. You also liaise with the marketing department to create adverts and promotions for products.

The average pay of a sales director is ₹2,588,219 per year. The earnings fluctuate based on experience, qualifications, company size and the complexity of your roles. The highest-paid sales directors take home over ₹6m.

A sales manager oversees a team of sales representatives and is in constant communication with field sales reps. As a sales director, you oversee the entire sales department, and the sales manager reports to you.

To become a sales director, you require a bachelor’s degree in sales, marketing or business administration. A master's degree and certifications also boost your chances of landing a job.

As a sales director, you require exceptional leadership and management skills to oversee the performance of other employees. Communication skills are also valuable when interacting with various professionals.

Applying for a sales director job is easy: create a Randstad profile and search our job offers for vacancies in your area. Then simply send us your CV and cover letter. Need help with your application? Check out all our job search tips here!