Channel sales director vs account director

The differences between channel sales directors and account directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both a channel sales director and an account director. Additionally, a channel sales director has an average salary of $133,690, which is higher than the $114,728 average annual salary of an account director.

The top three skills for a channel sales director include cloud, lead generation and digital marketing. The most important skills for an account director are account management, project management, and work ethic.

Channel sales director vs account director overview

	Channel Sales Director	Account Director
Yearly salary	$133,690	$114,728
Hourly rate	$64.27	$55.16
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	82,182	132,260
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 79%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Average age	46	46
Years of experience	8	8

What does a channel sales director do?

A channel sales director oversees an organization's channel sales and marketing operations, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. Part of their job is to establish roadmaps, set guidelines and timelines, liaise with internal and external parties, gather and analyze reports from different teams, develop strategies to increase profit and strengthen client relationships, and address issues and concerns, solving them promptly and effectively. Moreover, as a channel sales director, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

What does an account director do?

An account director is responsible for managing client accounts, monitoring budgets, and sales forecasting. Their goal is to maintain stable account management strategies, meet clients' demands, develop healthy professional partnerships that would generate revenues, increase profitability, and achieve the organization's long-term goals objectives. Account directors supervise the account management staff, ensuring the project's successful completion with the highest efficiency and accuracy. An account director also plans training programs to maximize their performance and productivity, especially when dealing with deadlines and clients' requests.

Channel sales director vs account director salary

Channel sales directors and account directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Channel Sales Director	Account Director
Average salary	$133,690	$114,728
Salary range	Between $97,000 And $182,000	Between $82,000 And $158,000
Highest paying City	Mountain View, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Oregon	New Jersey
Best paying company	Apple	BuzzFeed
Best paying industry	Technology	Professional

Differences between channel sales director and account director education

There are a few differences between a channel sales director and an account director in terms of educational background:

	Channel Sales Director	Account Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 79%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Channel sales director vs account director demographics

Here are the differences between channel sales directors' and account directors' demographics:

	Channel Sales Director	Account Director
Average age	46	46
Gender ratio	Male, 78.4% Female, 21.6%	Male, 50.9% Female, 49.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between channel sales director and account director duties and responsibilities

Channel sales director example 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.
Lead sales initiatives for region, driving SMB sales to retail locations consistently over the years.
Set new SAAS channel go-to-market strategies, vertical market-selling solutions for enterprise customers design to double first YOY growth.

Account director example responsibilities.

Manage coordination with HCP agencies for launch.
Manage the development and creation of print and broadcast advertising and in-store merchandising.
Manage relationships with all GPO pharmacy, medical device, and physician preference teams.
Manage client accounts as well as introducing cross selling into other verticals to increase the portfolio.
Manage RFP / RFI process and drive all opportunities that provide a consultative, long-term solution and support.
Increase clients SEO rankings and achieve first page placement both locally and nationally for highly search phrases for a client.

Channel sales director vs account director skills

Common channel sales director skills

Cloud, 17%
Lead Generation, 11%
Digital Marketing, 8%
Channel Sales, 7%
Account Management, 4%
Enterprise Sales, 4%

Common account director skills

Account Management, 9%
Project Management, 7%
Work Ethic, 7%
Healthcare, 7%
Digital Marketing, 5%
Email Marketing, 4%

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Channel Sales Director
Channel Sales Director vs Account Director

Updated January 8, 2025

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