In the very dynamic world of sales, some professionals manage to sublimate their talent into an extraordinary financial windfall.
After 5 to 6 years of experience, receiving annual 6-figure “packages” is a largely achievable objective. Even if you don't have any previous sales experience.
The ingredients? Nothing more and nothing less than sweat, questioning, and a will... Granitic.
In this new episode of Sales Education, get ready to learn more about:
⚡️ The highest paid Sales jobs
⚡️ The various factors that influence the salary
Get ready to dive into the heart of sales success! Discover our free Sales & Business Development Bootcamp program and transform your professional future.
Whether you're considering a career in sales or are just curious about the secrets of top salaries, follow us to find out more.
1. VP Sales and Sales Director
Obviously, the best paid profiles are experienced sales positions.
A VP Sales (Vice President of Sales) defines the sales strategy and supports the Sales teams in its execution. In the most developed organizations, he is located between the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and the Head of Sales, who are also paid appropriately.
This position is clearly aimed at structuring the team. For example, through the definition of the commission plan, the organization of the team, the segmentation of missions, the choice of markets to conquer. But he continues to intervene in pure sales for the most strategic deals, for example alongside the CEO.
All these responsibilities vary according to the structure of the company, its size, its sector of activity, etc. In summary, its missions include:
⚡️ Define the commercial strategy
⚡️ Supervise and monitor the performance of sales teams
⚡️ Participate in the sale to key accounts
The remuneration of a VP Sales starts at around €100,000 per year including bonuses. The salary for an experienced profile reaches up to €300K per year.
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A word to conclude about the Sales Director (Head of Sales): in the same organization as a VP Sales, his role will be more operational and for example delimited geographically to one or more countries. In a less mature organization, its scope of missions will be expanded.
Depending on his level of experience and the sector of activity in which he works, a Sales Director earns between €80K and €200K per year.
2. Account Executive
The Account Executive's role is to convert prospects (leads) into customers.
He is an experienced salesperson with at least 2-3 years of experience in B2B sales, and a first experience as a Business Developer, SDR/BDR or Inside Sales (See Akimbo's Sales lexicon).
His responsibilities are almost all related to customer appointments. They include:
⚡️ The qualification of prospects and their needs
⚡️ Highlighting the advantages of the solution, for example during a “demo”
⚡️ Negotiating the terms of the contract
The main objective of the Account Executive always remains the same: closer, that is to say that prospects put their signature on the sales contract.
More and more often and when prospects are more difficult to reach, the Account Executive also carries out their own prospecting.
👉 Discover the Account Executive (AE) job sheet
The remuneration of Account Executives starts with a fixed salary of €45 to €50,000 per year to which is added a variable objective of €20K to €50K.
They then increase their remuneration by 5 to 10 K€ per additional year of experience, and their package often represents twice their fixed remuneration.
👉 Discover the Account Executive (AE) job sheet
3. KAM: Key Account Manager
The role of a Key Account Manager is to manage a portfolio of existing customers by developing lasting relationships and increasing sales through up-selling and cross-selling.
They act as strategic advisors to their clients, identifying new opportunities for collaboration.
Their action involves selling and achieving business goals by:
⚡️ Building customer trust
⚡️ Understanding their needs and positioning themselves as an expert
⚡️ Anticipating market developments
⚡️ Managing internal communication and negotiating contracts
As for the Account Executive, becoming an Account Manager requires at least a first successful sales experience. The role of KAM then follows that of AM.
👉 Learn more about being a Key Account Manager (KAM)
For (Key) Account Managers at the beginning of their career, the annual gross remuneration is around €40K for the fixed portion, and €15K for the variable portion.
For experienced Key Account Managers, you should expect an average gross annual package of 50 to 80K € for the fixed part, and 20 K € for the variable part.
4. BizDev: Business Developer
The main role of a Business Developer is to execute the company's business strategy from an operational perspective.
Its missions are even broader than those of an Account Executive because the prospecting dimension is clearly assumed. Business Developer is a first position in B2B sales for profiles with a first professional experience, or an objective of 1-3 years for a young graduate.
👉 Discover the 6 key skills of a Business Developer
The salary of a junior Business Developer is between €32K and €38K plus an additional variable portion of €10K to €20K.
The gross annual fixed salary of a senior BizDev exceeds €70,000 in fixed terms with 50% to 100% variable, like an Account Executive. As you can see, the difference between the two roles is minimal.
5. Sales Ops: Sales Operations
The role of Sales Ops is to improve sales processes to promote business growth.
Important point: he is never in front of customers. So he is no longer a real salesperson, even if he works for the sales team.
Missions include, for example, identifying key accounts to be prospected, automating prospecting and recurring tasks, optimizing customer appointments, harmonizing commercial practices, or sometimes helping to recruit sales forces.
👉 Discover the Sales Ops job (definition, salary, missions)
A Sales Ops with generally 2-3 years of professional experience and an above average level of education will start with a fixed minimum wage of around 42 - 43 K€.
After 2 to 3 years in the profession, his salary will be between 45 and 55K €, with an annual increase of around 5 K €. As a general rule, it will rarely exceed a salary of 80 - 90 K€.
6. Factors influencing wages
Sales remuneration depends on several elements, in addition to experience and skills. Here are some key factors to consider:
1. Industry: for example, complex industries with a high demand for talent, such as cybersecurity, finance, or the cloud, generally offer higher salaries.
2 ️. Team size: generally more mature companies work on larger deal sizes, with higher premiums as a result.
3 ️. Exposure to customers: the level of exposure to customers varies from one sales position to another. Sales representatives who are in direct contact with customers, who manage key accounts or work on complex sales, negotiate higher salaries because of their expertise and relationships with customers.
4 ️. Fundraising: Fast-growing startups that have recently raised money are more generous in terms of salaries and commissions to attract and retain top sales talent.
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For all your questions about Akimbo, the team agenda is available below. And don't forget! We are available to answer your questions in order to launch your future career as a Business Developer.
