The Sales Manager's objective is to develop the company's sales. He/she has various tools and strategies at his/her disposal, starting with his/her team, which he/she is responsible for recruiting, training and managing (federating teams, motivating, monitoring).
He/she is responsible for applying the company's sales strategy, which he/she has established in conjunction with his/her management team: pricing policy, qualitative and quantitative sales objectives, margin levels, targets, incentives (bonuses and gifts) and budget.
He/she establishes sales objectives for his/her employees and analyzes their results. He/she organizes regular meetings to review the situation with them and to implement actions to optimize sales.
The sales manager develops his customer portfolio and builds loyalty. He/she fills out and enriches his/her excellent knowledge of the market by conducting regular competitive analyses. According to the data collected, he/she organizes or updates his/her commercial action plan in order to propose offers adapted to his/her clients.
He/she maintains close links with any major accounts in his/her customer portfolio by proposing tailor-made or almost tailor-made commercial offers.
His/her customer portfolio can be national, international or regional, so he is often on the move and always negotiating. The sales manager has real stamina and a very strong resistance to stress.
His/her functions vary a lot depending on the size of the company that employs him: he can be alone without a team for an SME and work in close collaboration with the General Manager, or he/she can be at the head of several sales force teams and spend much more time managing these employees than on the sales field.
The Sales Manager combines a perfect mastery of management and commercial action:
A minimum of 2 years of higher education is required to become a sales manager. To reach the responsibilities of sales manager, several years of successful experience are generally required. Recruiters prefer to hire graduates from business schools with a minimum of 5 years of higher education, renowned for their commercial and managerial training.
BTS, Bachelor's degree or professional license in the fields of sales, technical sales, marketing (negotiation - customer relations, sales, marketing techniques, etc.)
Master's degree in the fields of sales, marketing (negotiation - customer relations, commerce, marketing techniques...)
Business school diploma and Specialized Master's degree from a business school.
The position of Sales Manager is not accessible to beginners, because it is necessary to demonstrate experience and the qualities expected for such a challenging position, the salary levels are therefore high.
The sales manager receives a salary ranging from 45 to 80 K€ gross per year. It is established according to his responsibilities and of course, his results. If he/she progresses to a position of sales director, his/her salary can reach up to 150 K€.
Most of the time, the remuneration is made up of a gross annual salary + a variable salary composed of bonuses and annual bonuses which can often double the basic amount.
