Director of sales vs account director

The differences between directors of sales 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 director of sales and an account director. Additionally, an account director has an average salary of $114,728, which is higher than the $111,068 average annual salary of a director of sales.

The top three skills for a director of sales include sales process, customer service and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for an account director are account management, project management, and work ethic.

Director of sales vs account director overview

	Director Of Sales	Account Director
Yearly salary	$111,068	$114,728
Hourly rate	$53.40	$55.16
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	91,891	132,260
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 77%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Average age	46	46
Years of experience	8	8

What does a director of sales do?

A sales director is responsible for managing the sales operation of the team, ensuring that members comply with the sales strategies and procedures in meeting sales goals. Sales directors' duties include maintaining consistency of sales targets, providing reports and important updates for sales improvement, managing customers' inquiries and resolving complaints, launching new services to expand product offers, researching the current market trends, and improving sales plans. A sales director must have excellent leadership and decision-making skills to support and acknowledge the team's best efforts.

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.

Director of sales vs account director salary

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

	Director Of Sales	Account Director
Average salary	$111,068	$114,728
Salary range	Between $73,000 And $168,000	Between $82,000 And $158,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New York	New Jersey
Best paying company	Mayo Clinic	BuzzFeed
Best paying industry	Finance	Professional

Differences between director of sales and account director education

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

	Director Of Sales	Account Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 77%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Director of sales vs account director demographics

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

	Director Of Sales	Account Director
Average age	46	46
Gender ratio	Male, 69.4% Female, 30.6%	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 director of sales and account director duties and responsibilities

Director of sales example responsibilities.

Lead the OEM business transformation.
Manage projects & action items for EVP.
Manage during periods of dynamic challenge and change relative to start-up, turnaround and revitalization situations.
Manage relationships with toll manufacturers and logistics providers to exceed cost reduction and inventory turn targets.
Cultivate and manage business relationships with wholesale distributors creating positive impact for newsstand product sell at retail.
Full responsibility for all sales activities for a start-up electronic commerce company managing electronic data flow in the healthcare industry.

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.

Director of sales vs account director skills

Common director of sales skills

Sales Process, 7%
Customer Service, 7%
Customer Satisfaction, 6%
Sales Management, 6%
Healthcare, 5%
CRM, 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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Director Of Sales
Director Of Sales vs Account Director

Updated January 8, 2025

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