Commercial director vs general manager

The differences between commercial directors and general managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 8-10 years to become a commercial director, becoming a general manager takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, a commercial director has an average salary of $143,615, which is higher than the $71,581 average annual salary of a general manager.

The top three skills for a commercial director include project management, kpis and healthcare. The most important skills for a general manager are customer service, cleanliness, and food safety.

Commercial director vs general manager overview

	Commercial Director	General Manager
Yearly salary	$143,615	$71,581
Hourly rate	$69.05	$34.41
Growth rate	10%	6%
Number of jobs	97,667	442,690
Job satisfaction	-	4.25
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Average age	39	44
Years of experience	10	6

What does a commercial director do?

Commercial Directors are executives who manage the performance and subsequent growth of the company. They lead activities related to the commerce side of the business. Commercial directors study the current trends in both the economic market and in the industry that the business operates in. They also study their target market. With this research, they devise ways to ensure that a company's performance will not decline as they navigate the changing market landscape. Commercial Directors should have good foresight and strong analytical skills to make sense of the current trends and how they would affect their future.

What does a general manager do?

A general manager is responsible for handling the overall operations in the business. General managers manage the staff tasks efficiently, monitor the productivity and efficiency of the work environment, implement new strategies to improve the business performance, recognize the team's best efforts, and effective allocation of budget resources. A general manager must have excellent communication, decision-making, and critical-thinking skills to identify areas of improvement in handling customer complaints, connecting with vendors and other lines of businesses that will direct the company towards its successful objectives.

Commercial director vs general manager salary

Commercial directors and general managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Commercial Director	General Manager
Average salary	$143,615	$71,581
Salary range	Between $93,000 And $221,000	Between $40,000 And $126,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Massachusetts	Hawaii
Best paying company	Emergent BioSolutions	NVIDIA
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Manufacturing

Differences between commercial director and general manager education

There are a few differences between a commercial director and a general manager in terms of educational background:

	Commercial Director	General Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 67%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Pennsylvania

Commercial director vs general manager demographics

Here are the differences between commercial directors' and general managers' demographics:

	Commercial Director	General Manager
Average age	39	44
Gender ratio	Male, 80.9% Female, 19.1%	Male, 70.7% Female, 29.3%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 6.2% Unknown, 4.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.4% Asian, 6.4% White, 67.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between commercial director and general manager duties and responsibilities

Commercial director example responsibilities.

Monitor and manage budgets on each account to ensure high ROI and biggest bang for each buck.
Lead start-up of new far-east OEM partner, including selection process, technical & manufacturing management and relationship development.
Lead global project to commercialize expand portfolio of adhesive utilizing company synergies to establish a strong, highly-competitive distribution channel.
Define and implement the CRM and phone systems and infrastructure need to support commercialization efforts.
Create and maintain adoption measurement for SFDC resulting in increase usage of CRM tool, globally.
Institute metrics to document cost savings, purchase requisition turnaround, and number of POs issue.

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General manager example responsibilities.

Generate positive EBITDA and improve cash flow by managing costs and inventory.
Manage all recruiting and training efforts, and develop systems to track ROI comparison results.
Work as a FOH AGM and train to manage all staff functions including training, hiring, food and labor controls.
Develop yearly budget for multiple hotels that include revenue, labor, fix and variable costs to achieve overall EBITDA goal.
Task primarily with building logistics infrastructure, managing operational expenses, and supporting start up strategies.
Train and manage FOH staff and improve overall quality, organization and professionalism of restaurant and bakery.

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Commercial director vs general manager skills

Common commercial director skills

Project Management, 9%
KPIs, 8%
Healthcare, 8%
Business Development, 8%
Customer Service, 7%
Lead Generation, 5%

Common general manager skills

Customer Service, 20%
Cleanliness, 18%
Food Safety, 7%
Guest Service, 4%
Payroll, 4%
Math, 4%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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