How To Become A Channel Sales Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a channel sales director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Bill Thorne

The channel sales director is in charge of an organization's channel sales policies, objectives, and initiatives. They set short- and long-term channel sales objectives and evaluate the effectiveness of the current program.

A channel sales director proposes product or service enhancements to satisfy customers and improve sales potential. They provide insights on strategic decisions and input into developing the budget. As a channel sales director, you are responsible for creating and implementing channel sales strategies to meet monthly sales targets.

To become a channel sales director, you require a bachelor's degree and over three years of managerial experience. In the United States, the average salary of a Channel Sales Director is $149,537. However, it ranges from $133,078 to $169,304.

Channel Managers must be good communicators, active listeners, and innovative. They must also be able to use client relationship management (CRM) software, spreadsheet, social media, and email.

What general advice would you give to a channel sales director?

Bill Thorne

Executive Director of the NRF Foundation and Senior Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs of NRF, National Retail Federation

Retail is the largest private-sector employer in the country, directly employing 32 million people and supporting 52 million jobs overall - roughly one-quarter of the U.S. workforce. While COVID-19 has presented new and unexpected challenges, retailers have continued to showcase the industry's resilience and adaptability time and again. The safety and security of customers and employees remains our greatest priority. It is no doubt that the professional environment has changed this year, but retail continues to offer a plethora of career opportunities for graduates and seasoned veterans alike.

ScoreChannel Sales DirectorUS Average

Salary

8.5

Avg. Salary $133,690

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 21.59%

male 78.41%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a channel sales director

Explore channel sales director education requirements

Most common channel sales director degrees

Bachelor's

78.7 %

Master's

12.5 %

Associate

5.0 %

Start to develop specific channel sales director skills

Skills	Percentages
Cloud	16.63%
Lead Generation	10.57%
Digital Marketing	8.45%
Channel Sales	6.75%
Account Management	4.11%

Complete relevant channel sales director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New channel sales directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a channel sales director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real channel sales director resumes.

Research channel sales director duties and responsibilities

Develop and execute various marketing campaigns, progress leads and conduct post-program ROI analysis to gauge effectiveness.
Develop co-marketing business plans resulting in YoY growth with several manage partners.
Develop sales process, CRM processes and business rules for all distribution and channel partner sales.
Implement streamline CRM process and marketing automation platform.

Get channel sales director experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a channel sales director. The most common roles before becoming a channel sales director include regional sales manager, account executive team lead and director of sales.

Prepare your channel sales director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your channel sales director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a channel sales director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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