Let's be honest, the success or failure of most companies depends on the sales of their products or services. This makes it crucial to hire the right sales staff, as revenue and profit are at stake. Fortunately, there is a large pool of candidates who are attracted to this dynamic field because of their mindset and personality. However, it can be challenging to attract candidates with the right drive, motivation, and skills to excel in this role.
The content and style of your sales job description and ad can significantly impact the type of applicants you receive. To ensure that you attract the right people, we suggest starting with a job description template and customizing it to fit your specific role and company culture.
Here are some job description examples for popular sales positions to get you started.
What Do Sales Professionals Do?
While the primary objective of a sales role is to secure sales, expand business, boost revenue, and attain targets, there are several intricacies, side duties, and factors that impact profitability, brand image, and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is crucial to hire skilled sales professionals who can proficiently handle all aspects of the job.
Depending on the type and size of the company, the sales team may be responsible for:
- Achieving individual sales targets and goals
- Preparing detailed business plans
- Providing exceptional customer service to existing clients and maintaining ongoing relationships
- Managing the entire sales cycle
- Identifying potential customers
- Sourcing potential customers and generating new sales
- Implementing the company's sales strategy and methodology
- Overseeing the team's performance
- Focusing on long-term business development through a more extended sales cycle
- Reducing customer churn by ensuring satisfaction
- Developing proposals and negotiating deals
- Meeting with customer representatives and delivering sales presentations
Sales Positions and Titles
The tasks and duties of the sales department are conducted by positions titled as:
- Sales Representatives/Sales Representative/Sales Rep
- Account Executives
- Account Managers
- Customer Success Executive
- Sales Development rep
- Sales Enablement Officer
- Sales Operations Managers
Sales Responsibilities and Duties
The duties and responsibilities of a sales representative are crucial aspects of the role and are likely to determine their overall performance. Meeting sales targets is typically a top priority in this role, but there are also other essential tasks that can impact a company's profitability and reputation.
Sales executives and sales teams may be responsible for:
- Generating leads through telephone calls and other means of communication
- Responding to customer inquiries and needs
- Meeting with potential customers at various locations, such as the sales office or trade shows
- Managing their daily work schedule and performing business administration tasks, such as updating customer records in the company CRM system
- Processing sales transactions, closing deals, and converting customer leads
- Balancing the till and preparing banking
- Creating detailed business plans and sales proposals
- Conducting product or service demonstrations
- Receiving and managing stock inventory
- Collaborating with marketing staff
- Attending conferences and workshops
- Monitoring budgets and expenses
- Performing credit checks
- Managing customer complaints and relationships
- Finding new business opportunities and customers
- Reducing customer churn
- Managing the sales team as a Sales Manager or Sales Director
- Assessing potential sales outlets as a Sales Director
While these duties may be generic, you can make them more engaging and meaningful by providing specific details on how the responsibilities should be achieved. For example, "Hitting sales goals by effectively pitching our product's features and benefits to both junior and senior-level buyers."
Essential Sales Skills
A sales team plays a crucial role in achieving a company's revenue, profit, and growth targets. The performance of the sales team can determine the success or failure of the business. Therefore, it is vital to hire sales managers and sales representatives with a combination of soft and hard skills to ensure a recipe for success.
To fulfill the sales role and sales process, the sales team needs to possess the following skills:
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
- Problem-solving abilities and the drive to find solutions
- Self-motivation and the ability to work independently
- Leadership skills and motivation for sales leaders
- The ability to interpret nonverbal cues (Sales Development Representatives/Account Managers)
- Time management, organization, and task prioritization
- Knowledge of industry and market trends (Sales Specialists)
- Proficiency in using sales reporting, analysis, and CRM tools
- Presentation skills (Regional Sales Managers/Chief Sales Officer/Sales Consultants/Outside Sales Rep/Sales Development Rep)
- Active listening and customer service skills
- Ability to build and maintain relationships
- Teamwork and collaboration with other team members
- Politeness and trustworthiness
- Analytical and numeracy skills
- Confidence and adaptability
- Negotiation skills and a target-driven approach
- Strategic thinking
- Recruitment, training, and mentoring for Sales Operations Managers/Sales Managers
Sales Education and Qualifications
The education and qualifications depend on the position and seniority level of the role, but could include:
- A Bachelor’s Degree in Sales, Business Administration, or Marketing
- A proven track record selling similar products and services on a B2C or B2B basis
Sales Training and Experience
Sales executives are typically expected to possess a combination of relevant experience and training that can enable them to perform their role effectively:
- Demonstrated proficiency and an extensive comprehension of the sales process
- Previous sales manager or sales industry experience
- Proficiency in using computers, POS systems, spreadsheets, and inventory or stock databases
Frequently Asked Questions about Sales Job Descriptions
Here we answer your sales job description frequently asked questions.