Whether you are looking for VP sales jobs yourself or are looking for the best specialist to fill this role in your company, knowing the job’s basics is a must. This position is quite responsibility-heavy and all-encompassing, so figuring it out on your own can be a challenge. But, Belkins has you covered!
We prepared a comprehensive VP of sales job description to help you learn more about this role. From this guide, you will learn:
- What is a vice president of sales?
- What are the key duties and responsibilities of this job?
- What skills and qualifications make qualified candidates for this role?
- Answers to the most common questions about this job.
Read on!
Who Is a VP of Sales?
A VP of sales is one of the sales leadership roles that are crucial for every organization. As was mentioned earlier, this sales position implies a high level of responsibility and spans a wide range of responsibilities. So, before we can move on to the Vice President of sales job description, we should take some time to define this role.
According to the general Vice President of sales job summary, a person in this role is responsible for leading a sales team and managing day-to-day sales operations in order to ensure that the company meets and exceeds its sales goals.
The duties and responsibilities of a specialist in this role are broad and can vary significantly from one VP of sales job description to another. However, the key tasks include developing strategies, monitoring the team’s performance, setting a budget, and helping the team attain set goals.
What Does a VP of Sales Do?
Now that you have a general VP sales job summary, you are probably wondering what key duties and responsibilities are involved in this role. As was already mentioned, the scope of duties can vary depending on each company’s specific needs. However, here are some core responsibilities that are typically included in every VP of sales job description.
1) Lead a Sales Team
The first and key responsibility typically listed in a VP of sales job description is managing a team. A person in this role is supposed to participate in the team’s day-to-day operations, oversee their work, and measure their performance. Apart from this, the mission of a Vice President involves mentoring and motivating their teams to achieve greater KPIs.
2) Organize and Maintain Operations
A sales department is a large and complex mechanism that involves many different functions and roles, from sales managers to sales reps. It takes a smooth and well-coordinated work of all elements in this mechanism for the company to achieve success and boost revenues. And the job of a VP is to make this real. A person in this role is responsible for establishing and maintaining seamless operations in the team in order to ensure its productivity.
3) Develop Sales Plans
The development of winning sales strategies and plans is also the responsibility of a VP. Together with the company’s CEO and other top management roles, a VP of sales is supposed to identify the current performance of the sales department, find areas for improvement, and define attainable goals. Then, a VP is supposed to build well-thought-through sales strategies and plans that will let the team attain set goals.
4) Set and Manage the Budget
Typically, a Vice President of sales is also responsible for all budget-related matters. After shaping strategies and identifying targets, people in this role are also expected to plan the budget required for attaining those goals.
5) Lead Staff Hiring and Training Initiatives
As a leader of the team, a VP of sales is responsible for the talent flow inside the team. People in this role take charge of recruiting and hiring managers, reps, and other team members. They also actively participate in onboarding new team members. Finally, a VP is also responsible for preparing and implementing training needed to help their teams achieve set targets.
6) Promote Company Products and Services
Selling products and services is typically the job of sales reps. The job of a VP of sales is to supervise and manage the performance of reps. Nevertheless, a VP is still expected to perform certain sales responsibilities from time to time. This might not mean handling cold calls and managing all prospects and existing clients. But, it can mean handling the company’s key accounts and promoting products and services to them.
7) Monitor Competitors and Market
A big part of a VP sales work consists of monitoring the situation in the market and watching the company’s competitors. People in this work have to keep an eye on all the changes and trends in their markets that can affect the performance of the sales department. Watching competitor activities is also crucial to see what strategies work and don’t work for them. All this information is then used to shape winning strategies that will help the company prosper.
8) Monitor Customer Accounts and Relationships
Although Vice Presidents don’t interact in person with all of the company’s customers, they have to oversee their accounts, activity, and engagement levels. The mission of a VP is to ensure that all customers are satisfied. Also, a Vice President of sales can be tasked to keep track of changing customer needs in order to help their teams cater to these needs better and, thus, boost satisfaction and loyalty.
9) Report About Sales Performance
Finally, reporting is one more responsibility that is typically listed in a VP of sales job description. People in this role have to monitor the key sales metrics and team performance to prepare detailed reports and present them to the CEO during company meetings. Also, a VP is expected to discuss current sales expectations and plans with the top management to ensure that they go in line with the company’s overall strategy and vision.
Vice President of Sales Job Description: Qualifications and Skills
As you can see, a typical VP of sales job description spans a wide range of duties and also implies a high level of responsibility. Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise you that the demands for such professionals are pretty high.
A good candidate for Vice President of sales jobs should demonstrate extensive knowledge and a broad range of skills and abilities. Of course, the list of requirements can vary from one VP of sales job description to another. Yet, there are some basic skills and qualifications that are always required for such jobs.
Here is a list of the key skills that all VP of sales candidates must possess:
Communication Skills
As you already know, there are many responsibilities listed in a standard Vice President of sales job description that involve communication. Managing sales teams, reporting about sales operations, fostering key customer relationships - all these duties require lots of effective communication. Therefore, communication is one of the primary skills required for this job. So, every VP sales specialist has to be able to demonstrate excellent communication skills.
Customer Service Skills
Apart from communication, every good specialist must know the basics of effective customer service. Since one of the key duties of this role is fostering customer relationships, it is vital that a VP of sales knows how to communicate with the company’s clients efficiently and ensure customer satisfaction.
Leadership Skills
Strong leadership is another skill commonly listed in a VP of sales job description. In order to ensure that the company’s selling strategies are being implemented efficiently, a VP of sales must be able to lead and inspire the sales force. Therefore, solid leadership skills are a must-have for this role.
Problem-Solving
When overseeing sales teams, promoting the company's products, developing effective sales strategies, and performing other VP sales responsibilities, one is going to encounter a variety of challenges and problems. Therefore, having solid problem-solving skills is also crucial for this job. A good leader should be able to identify issues and find solutions quickly. And they also have to be able to help their teams solve pressing issues quickly too.
Creative Thinking Skills
Although this role doesn’t seem to be very creative, employers often list creative thinking as one of the base skills in their Vice President of sales job description. The thing is that the problems specialists in this role can encounter in the workplace often require much more than strategic thinking and problem-solving. Often, it requires being able to think outside the box to find creative solutions that can bring the best results.
Strategic Planning and Organizational Skills
In order to streamline sales operations, a specialist in this role should demonstrate excellent organizational and time management skills. Apart from this, a good specialist should also possess great strategic planning skills to be able to develop a winning sales strategy and set smart sales budgets and goals.
So, these are some of the key skills required for VP sales jobs. What else is there?
Apart from these key skills, every Vice President of sales should possess certain knowledge and meet education and experience requirements. The knowledge required for this role includes:
- Understanding of the sales team structure and key functions;
- Proven knowledge of the top sales tactics, strategies, methods, and key metrics;
- Knowledge of different employee motivation techniques;
- In-depth knowledge of the company’s services and products, industry and market trends, competitors, etc.
As for the education and experience requirements, they are pretty high for this job due to the high level of responsibility implied by it. Therefore, you will never find a VP of sales job description that seeks a candidate with a Bachelor's degree and no professional experience. Instead, job descriptions typically require candidates to hold at least a Master’s degree in a business or other related field and demonstrate proven work experience in the same or similar role within a sales or marketing department.
VP Sales Jobs FAQ
-
What Is a Vice President of Sales?
VP sales is a top position in a sales team. People in this role are responsible for leading and managing the entire team in order to ensure that the company’s sales function is smooth and effective. The duties, as well as qualifications, listed in a vice president of sales job description, can vary significantly from one company to another.
-
What Are the Key Responsibilities in a VP of Sales Job Description?
Although job descriptions can vary depending on numerous factors, the key duties and responsibilities of a VP of sales include overseeing the work of a sales team and ensuring that the team meets and exceeds the company’s sales goals. Some additional duties typically include managing the company’s talent pool, hiring sales staff, preparing sales interview questions, and creating and implementing training programs to help sales specialists reach their KPIs. In addition to this, people in this role are responsible for developing sales plans, setting annual sales goals, and preparing sales reports for the leadership team.
-
What Makes a Good Vice President of Sales?
To succeed in the VP sales role, one must possess a wide range of soft and hard skills. Namely, every good professional has to demonstrate strong communication and leadership skills to work with sales teams effectively. Understanding the basics of business administration and sales processes is also important. And even that’s not all.
Also, in order to drive company success in this role, you must have extensive work experience, meet a range of qualifications, keep an eye on market trends, and constantly improve your skills.
-
Who Does a Vice President of Sales Work With?
In their work, VPs of sales have to work closely with professionals of all levels. They are expected to collaborate with their sales teams and manage their work. Apart from this, people in these roles also work closely directly with the company’s top management. In most companies, this means reporting straight to the organization’s CEO concerning all sales targets, strategies, and key metrics.
-
What Is a VP of Sales Salary?
Lastly, whether you are looking for or posting VP sales jobs, one more question that you might have is how much money people in this role make. Just like with any other job, the compensation for this position can vary significantly depending on the region, company, industry, the candidate’s work experience, and other factors.
According to LinkedIn, the Vice President of sales salary can be anywhere between $110,000 and $300,000. Currently, the average pay for these sales professionals in the US is around $200,000.
