The director of sales has a lot of responsibility. In addition to leading your team to success, you're also managing sales efforts and planning when to launch new products. There's a lot of strategy hidden behind the job position so make sure your thinking cap is on.
In order to be good at this job, you need to be organized. This is how you'll ensure an efficient workflow. But that's not as important as the way you choose to lead. Directors of Sales learn how to motivate their team rather than dragging them through the mud.
Director of Sales is the short-term game. You rely on the immediate success of a product or service. While you'll be leading your team to successfully releasing and selling these products or services, you will have a bit of customer or client involvement. So make sure you've got your communication skills in check.
How to Become a Director Of Sales
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a director of sales. For example, did you know that they make an average of $61.06 an hour? That's $127,012 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 20,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Director Of Sales Do
There are certain skills that many directors of sales have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and customer-service skills.
How To Become a Director Of Sales
If you're interested in becoming a director of sales, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 76.8% of directors of sales have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 10.0% of directors of sales have master's degrees. Even though most directors of sales have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a director of sales. When we researched the most common majors for a director of sales, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on director of sales resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a director of sales. In fact, many director of sales jobs require experience in a role such as sales manager. Meanwhile, many directors of sales also have previous career experience in roles such as account executive or regional sales manager.
Director Of Sales Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of senior sales director you might progress to a role such as senior sales director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title senior sales director.
Average Salary for a Director Of Sales
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Director Of Saless
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Private
5. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA • Private
6. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
7. Ohio State University
Columbus, OH • Private
8. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Private
9. University of Houston
Houston, TX • Private
10. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
Top Skills For a Director Of Sales
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.8% of directors of sales listed sales goals on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Director Of Sales Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Director Of Sales templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Director Of Sales resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Director Of Sales Demographics
Director Of Sales Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among directors of sales, 30.6% of them are women, while 69.4% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among directors of sales is White, which makes up 82.7% of all directors of sales.
- The most common foreign language among directors of sales is Spanish at 45.4%.
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Best States For a Director Of Sales
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a director of sales. The best states for people in this position are New York, Vermont, Connecticut, and Washington. Directors of sales make the most in New York with an average salary of $147,393. Whereas in Vermont and Connecticut, they would average $146,402 and $141,606, respectively. While directors of sales would only make an average of $141,234 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
$147,393
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$138,014
Avg. Salary
3. Vermont
$146,402
Avg. Salary
How Do Director Of Sales Rate Their Jobs?
Top Director Of Sales Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ directors of sales and discovered their number of director of sales opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Mary Kay was the best, especially with an average salary of $156,329. AT&T; follows up with an average salary of $159,161, and then comes Hilton with an average of $127,012. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a director of sales. The employers include TASER Self-Defense, Broadridge, and VMware
Most Common Employers For Director Of Sales
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PepsiCo | $182,893 | $87.93 | 50 |
| 2 | Accenture | $174,312 | $83.80 | 96 |
| 3 | AT&T | $159,161 | $76.52 | 125 |
| 4 | Salesforce | $156,794 | $75.38 | 60 |
| 5 | Mary Kay | $156,329 | $75.16 | 585 |
| 6 | The Coca-Cola Company | $146,832 | $70.59 | 47 |
| 7 | Oracle | $146,047 | $70.21 | 43 |
| 8 | Masco | $142,536 | $68.53 | 48 |
| 9 | Anthem | $131,264 | $63.11 | 81 |
| 10 | T-Mobile | $128,842 | $61.94 | 67 |
Director Of Sales Videos
Becoming a Director Of Sales FAQs
How long does it take to become a Director Of Sales?
It takes 10 years of professional experience to become a director of sales. That is the time it takes to learn specific director of sales skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 13 to 15 years years to become a director of sales.
How do I become a sales and marketing director?
To become a sales and marketing director, you need to have achieved at least a bachelor's degree. You should also have extensive experience in sales and marketing.
Sales and marketing directors need a minimum of a bachelor's degree. Degree programs are typically business administration, marketing, and communications. Many companies will seek candidates who have a master's of business administration (MBA) for the role of sales and marketing director.
How much do sales directors make?
Sales directors make around $130,000 per year. However, the range of salaries is from $60,000 to $300,000 a year.
A sales director's salary depends largely on experience, industry, and company size and structure. Highly experienced sales directors should expect to earn closer to $200,000 in a year, while new sales directors should anticipate lower salaries that might range from $70,000 to $90,000 a year.
How much does a sales vice president make?
A sales vice president makes $227,000 a year, on average ($109.16 an hour). The range and how much a VP of sales can make is considerable - starting from as little as $145,000 to as much as $353,000 a year. Factors such as the location and industry influence where a VP of sales will end along this pay scale.
Is there a difference between the sales director and the director of sales?
No, there is no difference between a sales director and a director of sales; these titles are interchangeable. Both titles refer to a director-level position in sales.
The director of sales, also known as the sales director, manages all sales efforts of the sales team, strategically plans and launches new products or services, ensures the company continues to provide excellent customer service, motivates the sales team, and ensures the sales team meets expected sales targets.
What do you need to be a sales director?
To become a sales director, a person needs to have achieved at least a bachelor's degree. They should also have extensive sales and marketing experience, demonstrating their understanding and ability to increase sales.
What does it mean to be a director of sales?
To be the director of sales means to take a leadership role in all the company's sales efforts.
The director of sales, also known as the sales director, manages all sales efforts, strategically plans and launches new products, ensures the company provides excellent customer service, and motivates the sales team to ensure they meet sales targets.
What is the highest position in sales?
The highest position in sales is the chief sales officer. The chief sales officer is the person who is in charge of leading and managing the entire sales function of a company.
The chief sales officer focuses on developing the overall sales strategy for the company and evaluating the success of the company's sales team. Additionally, they focus on developing lower-level leadership within the company. They spend significant amounts of time helping their VPs and directors manage their teams and responsibilities.