What Should Your VP Of Sales Be Doing? Let’s Take A Look.

The Vice President of Sales; essentially your commander of business. This means they scrupulously study the numbers, feverishly forecast and set targets like some sort of militaristic practice. In the context of SaaS sales this means their job is to call out competitive weaknesses, ever-enforcing more feature velocity, pledging bug-fixes or features that they’ll pack into the next release, while revealing and advocating for the customer struggle. They stretch everyone from their sales reps to your product engineers to their limits and they aren’t afraid to upset people in the process. For this reason VP of Sales positions are notorious for high turnover due to being a bad fit with the company culture, or general burnout from the high workloads, long hours and conflicting priorities. Whatsmore, a lot of weight falls on your VP of Sales shoulders from balancing the interests of your CEO. It’s understandable how it can feel isolated and lonely when your job is to constantly challenge others!

Whether you’re a startup or an established enterprise, no one wants a high turnover of staff since it proves expensive and highly inefficient for your business. Furthermore, a bad VP of Sales hire is particularly ruinous since this individual will touch virtually every part of your business – from the beginning of the sale right until the end. It’s a big task to embark on, but we’re here to give you the tools on when and how to hire a sales leader with a strong skill set and that couples well with your company culture. If you are in the Orlando, Florida area and are looking for your next VP of sales, this is where you want to go:

https://www.jaycegrayyeconsulting.com/orlando-fl-recruitment-agency/

It’s pivotal for you to solidify your needs and assess your current stage of growth. As an early startup, don’t mistake your VP of Sales as the person to get you your first sale! Hiring a VP of Sales before they have the right tools to work with is like putting a doctor into theater without the right surgical equipment, or worse, without a patient. It’s futile if they don’t have the resources to get their work done, so here’s a brief checklist to vet check that you’re ready to make the hire:

• Your value proposition is solid and there’s a clear market need for your product
• You understand your market and the buyer journey
• Your revenue is growing steadily and you have a refined sales process to facilitate this
• The product is ready (especially for customers that require customization)

As a more established startup or enterprise, it’s sometimes too late if your Founder is being pulled away from the heart of the brand and trying to run the sales team alone. Without a VP of Sales, this might land you a hotch-botched attempt at a sales plan and lack of intention when it comes to the buyer journey. The result? A big mess for your next sales hire to come into with unrealistic expectations of them, limited change of success and heightened likelihood of high-employee turnover. In turn, you lose any chance of your competitive advantage against other startups in your industry. So when’s the right time for you to make the hire?

• You have a number of sales reps who are making steady progress and working with a defined sales process
• You’re financially stable to afford the investment of a VP of Sales
• You’re prepared to hand over responsibility to this hire so they can build a successful sales team with full autonomy



Now that it’s clear if you’re ready to make the hire, we’ve given a sample of the roles and responsibilities of your VP of Sales to help you along the recruitment process.

What Do They Do? Your VP Of Sales Job Description 

1. Advise: Leading the sales teams to meet and exceed your goals and make further recommendations on existing deals
2. Recruit: Actively seeking out new sales talent whether that be Sales Development Reps, Account Executives, Sales Team Managers or Team Leaders. They should always be in touch with the latest talent (rather than reaching out when there is a pressing need) and have a good perception of soft skills such as the ability to learn, work within a team, negotiate, communicate, empathize, as well as knowing how to appropriate their skillset.
3. Process: Optimizing the sales process and general operations (whether that be creating sales scripts, email templates and reusable demo agendas, clarifying which features speak to which prospects, writing the product road map, etc) all while having the ability to understand the idiosyncrasies of all types of customer.
4. Strategy: Having an awareness of the B2B landscape and overseeing the bigger picture, innovating ways the company can upsell or cross-sell to its existing customers. They should always be thinking ahead to which verticals or industries their team should target next, as well as considering the most effective way to spend the company’s budget.
5. Collaborate: Working with other executives, e.g marketing, product, engineering, operations, finance, to drive strategic direction and resource allocation for the company
6. Close business: But only closing the big deals which require their finesse. Day to day deals are the responsibility of the sales team they lead, and your VP of Sales responsibility is to train newcomers to the best of their ability. Consider the saying “Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime”; the same principle applies to the relationship between your VP of Sales and their sales reps!

What Should They Be Doing To Perform Their Role?

It would be totally inappropriate to describe a “day in the life of a VP of Sales”, for reasons that no single day looks the same for them. What our job recruiters can do though, is outline the activities you should expect of them in order to fulfill the duties outlined above. 

• Setting the tone: Your VP of Sales has a huge impact on company culture, particularly their team of sales executives and reps (that are ultimately the face of the company and establish trust with your customer). It therefore follows that their voice will be mirrored by the team and for this reason they must be conscientious of how their general narrative and behaviors affect others (both positively and negatively).
• Studying the sales funnel and making a plan of action: They should never be complacent with the status quo and never relying on the past to bring the success of today. They always know what their sales team is working on and the actions which need to be taken to keep the funnel clear from obstructions. There should be lessons and new ways to improve from every situation, therefore they should be obsessively monitoring, assessing and upgrading investments in people, processes and technologies. 
• Hosting regular meetings: with the entire sales team at one time. These meetings are a key opportunity for them to motivate and build rapport even with junior reps, therefore they should recognize key performances from the previous week, share important updates and set focal points until the next meeting. This way, a level of transparency is set across the sales team and ensures that everyone is aligned with the sales agenda.
• Set up 1-1’s with report leaders: in order to check in with how their teams are performing and if there’s anything they need support with. Rather than acting as a disengaged outsider, your VP of Sales should be deeply invested in their sales organization, valuing each and every member to ensure they feel supported and able to thrive – no one’s voice should go unheard.
• Coaching and general service to the team: from walking the floor, to making sure the kitchen is full of snacks, the office air con is working; anything to keep the team happy and comfortable while they act as the face of the business and assure its growth!
• Working closely with Marketing: By collaborating with your marketing department, your VP of Sales has the opportunity to solidify what qualifies as a lead. Stronger leads = supported sales reps = happier sales team, proving more efficient by retaining new hires, and overall more cost effective for the business. For more on marketing check us out at

       https://www.jaycegrayyeconsulting.com/marketing-recruitment/

• Networking: The best VPs of Sales are great with interpersonal communications, public speaking and networking, so whether they’re interviewing a potential employee or attending a conference, they always leave a great impression of your company. 

Key Takeaways

There’s a recurring theme here: your VP of Sales is very much a people person! Sure they’re confident and great at public speaking but they’re also listeners, multi-taskers and strategizers. Don’t underestimate these soft skills which are crucial to leading a successful sales team. Beyond that, it’s equally important to have someone that’s on board with your company values, someone that genuinely believes in the business they are selling so they convey this to their team. The best sales leaders genuinely believe in what they are selling. You want to make sure your VP of sales is a top performer to ensure you have a seamless workflow with the entire sales team. 

To avoid the colossal mess of making a premature hire, do make sure your company is ready to keep up with the growth the VP of Sales can bring because once you’ve made the hire, things can ramp up fast. Remember to plan ahead to avoid fire fighting when things scale up, and consider whether you’re prepared to reinvest back into the business for continued growth.

We hope this makes you feel confident going into the hiring process. Want to learn more? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us or take a look at our blog section to read more of our insights!