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Corporate sales director skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Adry S. Clark Ph.D.,

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical corporate sales director skills. We ranked the top skills for corporate sales directors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 11.4% of corporate sales director resumes contained relationship building as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a corporate sales director needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 corporate sales director skills for your resume and career

1. Relationship Building

Relationship building is the act of building a lasting social connection with people whether online or in person. It's a soft skill required for those going into marketing, communication, and every other field that requires dealing with the public to help them connect better with people. It's also great as a personal skill for gaining meaningful relationships that can help one in the future.

Here's how corporate sales directors use relationship building:

Led corporate business development and relationship building in the territory around the center and with students.
Solicited corporate memberships through cold calling and relationship building.

2. CRM

CRM stands for Customer relationship management and it is a complete process through which a business or organization monitors and administers its interactions with the customers. A process in which large amounts of data are collected through marketing via a company's website, polls, surveys, and other social media applications. The basic goal of CRM is to target the right audience for their product, and then fulfill their needs, to increase the sales and revenue of the company.

Here's how corporate sales directors use crm:

Partnered with marketing and operations to develop a cross-sell/up-sell tool in the CRM system.
Designed, created and trained Corporate CRM.

3. Revenue Growth

Here's how corporate sales directors use revenue growth:

Developed revenue management strategies and introduced internet resources to drive revenue growth.
Managed revenue growth of 17%, and subscription increase of 30% for segment within first year.

4. Business Relationships

Here's how corporate sales directors use business relationships:

Maintained established business relationships by being entrenched in the surrounding area.
Developed profitable new business relationships across the US and International markets.

5. Sales Efforts

Here's how corporate sales directors use sales efforts:

Develop targeted advertising and public relations campaigns for entire hotel utilizing Inter Continental Hotels & Resorts affiliation and direct/indirect sales efforts.
Planned and directed sales efforts and promotions for 2005 UHL All-Star Game, resulting in arena sell-out (5,800).

6. Sales Process

Here's how corporate sales directors use sales process:

Reduced average sales cycle time by overhauling sales process to dramatically improve first meeting to active opportunity conversion rate.
Lead StarCite supplier Sales teams, both National and Direct Sales in all aspects of sales process.

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7. Sales Strategy

Here's how corporate sales directors use sales strategy:

Develop and execute overall sales strategy.
Created and implemented a successful sales strategy for potential corporate and business clients.

8. Business Plan

Here's how corporate sales directors use business plan:

Established the financial modeling for the implementation of divisional business plans.
Action: Collaborated with all 22 plant/foundry management staffs and worked with each of them on their forecast and business plans.

9. Direct Sales

Here's how corporate sales directors use direct sales:

Managed nine-person direct sales team, responsible for selling mobile devices and services to corporate clients.
Facilitated all company events and sales promotions and direct sales to companies in highly competitive market.

10. Cold Calls

Cold calling is a kind of business solicitation from customers who didn't express interest in their product and services before. In this technique, a salesman conducts a call with potential customers with whom they haven't had a prior interaction. Cold calling can include phone calls or telemarketing. However, in-person visits like door-to-door marketing are also a type of cold calling

Here's how corporate sales directors use cold calls:

Increased clientele through various outlets: cold calls, networking, city council meetings, box advertising, fliers and referrals.
Executed a successful outreach campaign which utilized cold calling to reach potential clients in both corporate and social markets.

11. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how corporate sales directors use business development:

Emphasized new business development within the United States, with specific responsibility for the advertising industry.
Promoted to become the Corporate Director of Business Development

12. Hotel Chains

Here's how corporate sales directors use hotel chains:

Represented hotel chains at all major trade shows for the wholesale market and travel agent trade shows.

13. Corporate Clients

A corporate client is a customer who either owns or has the decision-making rights of a large company. Generally, they are business clients who are responsible for the majority of business transactions in an organization.

Here's how corporate sales directors use corporate clients:

Researched, analyzed competitive products and created sales packages for local corporate clients.

14. Front Desk

Here's how corporate sales directors use front desk:

Developed and implemented company-wide front desk standards (Front Desk Basics).
Supervised reservations and front desk operations to up hold customer satisfaction and sustain high average room rates.

15. Sales Professionals

Here's how corporate sales directors use sales professionals:

Managed a team of corporate sales professionals to successfully increased GiftTree.com's corporate sales.
Managed high-performing team of 60 inside and field-based sales professionals promoting print and digital products to higher education institutions.

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What skills help Corporate Sales Directors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on corporate sales director resumes?

Adry S. Clark Ph.D.

Director, Western Oregon University

The skills that stand out on resumes fall into two categories: 1) Skills required to do the job and 2) Skills almost all employers look for. The most important aspect of resumes is to make sure it reflects exactly what the employer needs. Study the job description, identify key skills, and have them reflected on your resume. Think about transferrable skills, not the specific roles you've had.

Most employers look for skills such as communication (written/oral), flexibility, proactivity, problem-solving, project management, and technical. Make sure to cultivate those skills in whatever role you have, and have examples that demonstrate those skills.

What soft skills should all corporate sales directors possess?

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021, Baylor University

Since sales professionals have a lot of information available to them today via customer relationship management (CRM) systems, the sales manager's "supervisory" role is less important (especially for experienced sellers). Consequently, the sales manager needs to be more of a coach and enabler of high performance. Having confidence balanced with humility allows the sales manager to engage more effectively with their salespeople.
One of the critical soft skills for sales managers going forward will be the ability to connect members of the sales team to others in the organization - in other words, the sales manager of the future needs to have strong skills in network building for others. Sellers have access to data which helps them build success.
They also need access to the right people to turn to when they need specific expertise or assistance.

What hard/technical skills are most important for corporate sales directors?

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021, Baylor University

One of the growing technical skill requirements for sales managers is in the area of data analytics. Our performance and customer systems provide a myriad of data, and the role of the sales manager is to be a sense-maker of that mound of data. What are the implications for changes in strategy or behavior evident in last quarter's activity? How can the sales manager help a specific seller "see" where the data suggest new approaches?

What corporate sales director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Kerri Orders

Assistant Professor of Business, Aquinas College

In terms of a gap year, I recommend that international business students acquire tangible skills, relevant experience and/or certifications which will enhance their success in their desired area of interest. For example, a gap year could consist of gaining technical or digital training overseas, which would also further the students' cultural intelligence and language proficiency. These types of enriching gap year experiences will assist students to distinguish themselves in a highly competitive market. Furthermore, students should focus on broadening and maintaining their global network during a gap year in order to be ready for the job market once the gap year is concluded.

What type of skills will young corporate sales directors need?

Michael Mikitka

Executive Vice President, MHI – Material Handling Industry

Courses and internships are essential. While the required depth of knowledge may vary from one position to another, employers are generally looking for candidates with strong "people-related" skills, those who are willing to continue to learn, and those with the ability to be flexible and adapt.

By "people-related" skills, I mean the abilities associated with effective communication (listen and express ideas and direction) and the skills related to working independently and a team.

As for the interest to continually learn... from a technology, data, and equipment perspective, today's supply chain looks very different than it did 10-years ago. The willingness and ability to continually learn are essential for anyone in a leadership role.

As for flexibility and adapting...supply chain/logistics is as much about responding to disruption and demand as it is planning for it. There is a predictable demand (i.e., seasonal...everyone knows when back-to-school shopping begins). Then there is the unpredictable demand (i.e., power-outages, wildfires, pandemic) that impact market and the ability to operate. Candidates that express flexibility and problem-solving skills will be much sought-after.

Do you want to know more?

List of corporate sales director skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a corporate sales director resume and required skills for a corporate sales director to have include:

Relationship Building
CRM
Revenue Growth
Business Relationships
Sales Efforts
Sales Process
Sales Strategy
Business Plan
Direct Sales
Cold Calls
Business Development
Hotel Chains
Corporate Clients
Front Desk

Sales Professionals
ROI
Resorts
Coordinators
Gross Profit
Sales Programs
Customer Relationships
Sales Culture
Client Relationships
Sales Revenue
Contract Negotiations
Group Sales
Product Development
Sales Operations

HR
YOY
SAM
Market Trends
Sales Objectives
Revenue Management
Delphi
IHG
Community Outreach
Product Sales
Direct Reports
Group Business
RFP

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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