A quick disclaimer before you continue reading this post – not all companies follow the same structure, and not all of them cover all these roles either. However, to explain the main positions within the sales department, we’ve created a standard organisational chart of the department.
CRO
The CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) is the executive person who looks after all those processes that generate revenue for the company.
It is the CRO who ensures that Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success remain aligned and working towards the same objective.
Marketing
VP of Marketing
The VP of Marketing develops and implements the marketing plan, establishing the objectives for the broader team, whilst reviewing the use of their budget.
There are various roles that report to the VP of Marketing, such as content creators, SEO and digital marketing specialists, and the acquisition team, amongst others.
Sales
VP of Sales
The VP of Sales creates the sales department strategy and ensures that the team reaches the set objectives, managing the department’s budget.
Sales Ops
Sales Ops implement the Outbound Sales Methodology. They extract metrics and carry out the implementations in the CRM to extract data that helps improve the sales process.
They become the right hand of the sales reps, developing a sales playbook, helping sales reps improve their pitch, and supporting them in the technical and admin side of their roles.
Sales Enablement
Whilst Sales Ops focus on the tactical side of sales and ensure the smooth day-to-day for sales reps, Sales Enablement focuses on preparing sales reps to interact with clients (training, content generation, performance analysis…).
Sales Manager
Sales Managers specialise in sales and team leadership. They also tend to design the sales strategy for young startups.
SDR Manager
SDR Managers have two areas of responsibility.
Part of their role involves managing the onboarding and training of new SDRs. They help SDRs sell more and better, they become coaches. In those companies where there is not a specific SDR Manager figure, their responsibilities fall to senior leadership in sales or even marketing.
Another aspect of their role is prospection. They will continue to generate new leads, and they are usually trusted with larger accounts.
SDR
SDR‘s role is to generate and qualify leads. We may find outbound and inbound SDRs, although this segregation isn’t common. Most times, SDRs will work with both.
AE
The responsibilities of an Account Executive start with meeting the potential clients generated by SDRs. From here on, they will be trusted to close the sales, having shown the client a demo of the product and negotiated the contract.
Inside Sales
Despite the popularity of the SDR/AE model, not all companies follow this methodology (here’s why, if you’re wondering).
Instead of differentiating the two steps of the sales process, their sales reps develop the full sales cycle: from lead generation to closing the sales. This is the role of an Inside Sales.
Customer Success
Customer Success is the department that manages the relationship with the client after they’ve signed the contract with the Account Executive.
VP of Customer Success
A VP of Customer Success defines the strategy for the department, developing a customer journey map and standardising the interventions at every point. They also develop the team’s metrics and establish a tracing system.
Technical onboarder
This is the person in charge of implementing the solution for the customer. This is the least technical position within the department.
Customer Success
In those teams where there is no technical onboarder, Customer Success also manages the implementation.
Customer Success becomes the point of reference for the client. They manage renewals, encourage upsells, and work together with the client to ensure they use the solution to its fullest potential.
Support
This is the most technical position within Customer Success, having a close relation with IT. They solve bugs and technical problems that Customer Success can’t.
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