How to hire a director of sales & service

How to hire a director of sales & service, step by step

Here's a step-by-step director of sales & service hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a director of sales & service job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new director of sales & service
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a director of sales & service do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a director of sales & service, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A director of sales & service's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, directors of sales & service from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of directors of sales & service.

   Type of Director Of Sales & Service	Description	Hourly rate
   Director Of Sales & Service	Sales managers direct organizations' sales teams. They set sales goals, analyze data, and develop training programs for organizations’ sales representatives.	$45-90
   Business Development Director	A business development director specializes in crafting plans and strategies to develop the relationship between the brand, clients, and other key characters in the industry. It is their responsibility to examine and understand everything about the brand and figure out which areas require improvement or changes... Show more	$34-92
   Client Services Director	A client services director is responsible for maintaining healthy business relationships with clients, ensuring that operational teams provide the highest quality services for the clients, following their deliverables and business requirements. Client services directors oversee project management procedures, identifying inconsistencies, and revising business plans to improve outputs and achieve client satisfaction... Show more	$40-77

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • CRM
   • Customer Satisfaction
   • Sales Process
   • Revenue Growth
   • Business Development
   • Sales Strategies
   • Relationship Building
   • Professional Services
   • Sales Growth
   • Customer Care
   • Account Management
   • Product Development
   • Sales Objectives
   • Sales Professionals

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Cultivate and manage business relationships with wholesale distributors creating positive impact for newsstand product sell at retail.
   • Establish competitive OEM and end user pricing.
   • Rekindle poor OEM relationships and build a structure partner communication process.
   • Design improvements to CRM financial reporting.
   • Reverse negative relationship with distributors through personal relationship building, changes in sales execution, and implementation of new distributor programs.
   • Set targets, monitor, review and initiate action plans to achieve target KPI's.

   More director of sales & service duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the director of sales & service job description is a good way to get more applicants. A director of sales & service salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a director of sales & service in Kentucky may be lower than in Connecticut, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level director of sales & service. Additionally, a director of sales & service with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average director of sales & service salary

   $134,533yearly

   $64.68 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level director of sales & service salary

   $95,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 15, 2025

   Average director of sales & service salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Connecticut	$159,453	$77
   2	New York	$158,687	$76
   3	Pennsylvania	$156,759	$75
   4	California	$150,576	$72
   5	Washington	$139,775	$67
   6	District of Columbia	$138,906	$67
   7	Oregon	$133,133	$64
   8	Arizona	$131,140	$63
   9	Virginia	$130,953	$63
   10	Texas	$126,363	$61
   11	Wisconsin	$126,354	$61
   12	Georgia	$124,465	$60
   13	Alaska	$123,678	$59
   14	Missouri	$121,875	$59
   15	Illinois	$121,653	$58
   16	Massachusetts	$119,923	$58
   17	Colorado	$115,008	$55
   18	Ohio	$114,652	$55
   19	Florida	$113,541	$55
   20	North Carolina	$108,906	$52

   Average director of sales & service salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	First Republic Bank	$173,248	$83.29
   2	AEA Investors	$172,458	$82.91	43
   3	Macy's	$161,747	$77.76	57
   4	Better	$160,112	$76.98
   5	Workday	$158,656	$76.28	15
   6	Microsoft	$156,044	$75.02	40
   7	Procore Technologies	$155,392	$74.71	1
   8	Republic Services	$149,647	$71.95	34
   9	Supermicro	$148,581	$71.43	26
   10	Golden State Foods	$145,648	$70.02	2
   11	Lithia Motors	$145,494	$69.95
   12	Cabela's	$144,018	$69.24
   13	Federated Wireless	$141,214	$67.89
   14	eMarketer	$140,245	$67.43
   15	Educate!	$140,135	$67.37
   16	HomeServe USA	$139,210	$66.93
   17	ManpowerGroup	$138,885	$66.77	31
   18	Exterro	$138,562	$66.62
   19	Goodwin Recruiting	$138,403	$66.54	1
   20	Patra	$138,044	$66.37

4. Writing a director of sales & service job description

   A good director of sales & service job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a director of sales & service job description:

   Director of sales & service job description example

   Krames, a WebMD Company, helps you support those you care for from discovery to recovery. As prospective patients start their health care search, we're there with customized marketing and ongoing personalized health education. Our content's depth and thoughtfulness drive deeper patient engagement for health improvement. And intelligent solutions like Krames On FHIR integrated seamlessly into the EHR deliver the right resources at the right time, freeing up clinicians to focus on what they do best-care for patients.
   
   WebMD is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, ancestry, color, religion, sex, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, medical condition, disability, veterans status, or any other basis protected by law.
   
   WebMD Provider Services is seeking an Executive Director Sales, who has demonstrated superior sales growth and leadership in the healthcare IT space. In this role the successful candidate will manage a strategic sales team who are responsible for prospecting, nurturing and closing clinical patient engagement sales at the health system executive level.
   
   WebMD is investing in this business with a data driven focus, new products/ delivery methods such as FHIR, services and a holistic approach to helping our customers drive better patient engagement, satisfaction and outcomes. The candidate will have successful experience driving a sales team to exceed bookings targets and significantly grow the client base. He or She will support the VP Sales & Customer Success in the driving the adoption of new products with both new and existing customers and will be familiar with tuning and scaling the go to market approach to accelerate sales and drive up deal sizes
   Responsibilities:
   
   Reporting to VP Sales & Customer Success, the Executive Director leads a team of 7 sales people responsible for selling our patient engagement solutions to net new health systems, and collaborating with the Account Management team to upsell within our current customer base Help to organize the overall sales team around new sales initiatives, training, planning, forecasting and budgeting. Works as a subject matter expert with the product team to provide feedback on enhancements, new products and partnerships Leverages deep understanding of the market, customers and competitors to build GTM strategies that outsmart the competition and drive market share growth. Actively manages team pipeline development and structured territory planning processes that ensure delivery against aggressive bookings goals. Manages a strong sales process that promptly progresses opportunities through the sales stages to successful close. Accurately forecasts, proactively engaging executives and providing transparency into sales performance. Adopts and leverages account planning and strategy tools to build strategic relationships with prospective clients that optimize contract size and cross-sell opportunities. Working with the sales team, develops creative proposals that optimize total client spend and accompanying ROI for clients. Works across the organization in partnership with sales and account management teams from our Marketing business to drive cross opportunities and to position strategically with clients across our portfolio. Collaborates closely with sales and account management leaders across the organization Builds a performance based team with a strong culture of achievement and success Works operationally with partners to drive maximum growth Engages in the field with sales teams, prospects and clients, contributing creativity, solution selling expertise and market knowledge to our success.
   
   Key Skills and Experience:
   
   Bachelor's Degree or equivalent required 7+ years of sales management experience. Proven track record selling SaaS based IT solutions to the health system market. While not required, experience in the patient engagement space is preferred. Confident and demonstrated track record selling at an executive/ C Suite level Demonstrates an agile approach to selling with the ability to quickly assimilate new value propositions and guide the sales team and clients to adopt them. The candidate must be a proven winner with a successful track record of growing and managing sales in a challenging and fast paced environment. The candidate must have strong motivational leadership skills and must be able to think strategically about new opportunities and develop and execute against a clear plan of action. The candidate must have strong organizational skills, and experience communicating effectively within a sales organization, particularly in the area of sales and revenue forecasting The candidate must be an excellent judge of sales talent and have a record of hiring and training salespeople that has resulted in successful outcomes.
   Preferred:
   
   Experience selling or managing a sales team in the patient engagement space Demonstrated understanding of EHR integration and clinical workflow

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right director of sales & service for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with directors of sales & service they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit directors of sales & service who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your director of sales & service job on Zippia to find and recruit director of sales & service candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with director of sales & service candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new director of sales & service

   Once you've found the director of sales & service candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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