The Vice President of Sales is responsible for managing all sales of a company and its subsidiaries. This is a senior executive position at the highest levels of the company, located immediately below that of the president.
The distinction between a sales manager and a vice president of sales is based on the nature of their responsibilities. While sales managers focus on the tactical actions performed by sales reps, one sale at a time, the VP of Sales plays a more strategic role in sales channels and results.
The Vice President of Sales is both a leader able to organize the sales force from top to bottom of the organization and a strategist who will develop new markets to advance it.
As a member of the management team, the Vice President of Sales develops his strategies in collaboration with the team in place and implements them with the sales managers under his responsibility.
The Vice President of Sales acts in the interest of the brand and makes it evolve in a context of global competition. As a sales manager, his goal is to offer the company’s products or services at the best price in order to increase sales.
The Responsibilities of a Vice President of Sales
The primary function of a Vice President of Sales is to lead his team of sales managers and to ensure that he respects the accountability of the results obtained at the sales level. In addition, the Vice President of Sales is responsible for performing a set of strategic actions such as:
- Develop new sales channels and markets
- Managing technological change
- Supervise and motivate sales managers
- Establish the pricing structure and remuneration of directors and representatives
- Recruit high-performing sales managers
- Coordinate sales with marketing activities
To access this executive position, the candidate will generally have a university education and more than 10 years of sales experience, an experience ideally acquired within companies operating in the same sector.
The candidate must have concrete sales experience and have achieved good results by leading successful sales teams where his interpersonal skills have allowed him to develop fruitful partnerships externally. The ideal candidate must also have made a concrete contribution to the development of new sales channels.
The VP of Sales is comfortable with tables and numbers. He establishes revenue objectives, cost analyses and knows how to deploy strategies adapted to the different market segments, in a logic of optimal resource management and sales performance.
On a daily basis, this executive framework will be able to implement new methods, quality procedures and performance indicators to drive change. He will be able to adapt quickly to events and transform the company’s business model to the new realities of hyper-segmented and hyper-competitive markets.
The Current Challenges of a Vice President of Sales
In the current context, the Vice President of Sales must be an actor of organizational change in a world where communication, marketing activities and traditional sales are migrating massively to digital platforms and e-commerce.
Today’s vice presidents of sales are often responsible for the vast project of digital transformation, that is to say from a business model that aimed at customer acquisition and loyalty towards a relational and multichannel approach. In this new business environment, this executive must lead the digital transformation by ensuring that they provide high-quality service for users looking for an improved customer experience.
To implement change in the company, the VP of Sales must have an excellent knowledge of his organization and be an excellent team motivator who keeps the sales force engaged. Equipped with the skills of today’s high-level managers, he knows how to be visionary and take calculated risks to keep the company growing.
The skills of a vice president of sales
The skills of a vice president of sales are multiple and his decisions have a direct impact on the profitability of the company. He or she must:
- Be endowed with good judgment to make calculated decisions
- Be a good coach to motivate your sales managers
- Be diplomatic to maintain good relations with the sales team
- Know how to be creative to contribute to the improvement of sales processes
- Be ambitious to develop markets and not settle for existing markets
- Know how to conduct productive meetings with management and convince them
- Be curious and knowledgeable about the digital transition
- Knowing how to transmit values of excellence and accountability
- Know how to innovate at the organizational level
We invite you to contact Recruscope for the recruitment of a Vice President of Sales by direct approach or to share your skills in this area.
