The Ultimate Guide To Different Sales Roles

Whether you’re aspiring to enter the world of sales, actively trying to Build A High-Performing Sales Team, or even want to brush up on current sales industry knowledge – regardless of your intention, you’re in the right place because we’ve created the ultimate guide to all of the different roles in a sales team.

Above all, SOCO/ is an expert-led, award-winning sales training company. For example, we’ve spent decades working with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking companies across Asia and the world. Because SOCO / trains tens of thousands of sales professionals across various roles each year, we know the ins and out of the different sales positions out there and the skills needed for each. Therefore, keep reading on to understand the different types of sales roles!

Also read:

• How to Land a Sales Job with No Experience
• 19 Of The Best Sales Podcasts To Listen To Right Now!
• The Ultimate Guide to Different Customer Service Roles

Different Sales Roles

In this guide, we break down each sales role in terms of the responsibilities and skills needed to excel in each position. 

1. Sales Operations
2. Sales Leader
3. Inbound Sales Representatives
4. Outbound Sales Representatives 
5. Business Development Representative (BDR)
6. Sales Development Representative (SDR) 
7. Lead Response Reps (LRR)
8. Account Executive (AE) 
9. Hunter
10. Farmer
11. Account Manager (AM)
12. Key Account Management (KAM)
13. Sales Enablement
14. Revenue Operations (RevOps)
15. Final Thoughts

Sales Operations Role

What is the role of sales operations in a sales team? Well, certainly, the industry standard for sales operations roles usually start at an entry-level role. Therefore they’re often assigned tasks like generating reports and managing the sales tech stack. Although it may seem simple, Sales Operations are responsible for ensuring the sales’ efficiency and effectiveness. 

Skills required by those looking to enter this sales role include but not limited to multitasking. As Sales Operations are hectic and diverse, you’ll need to be able to apply a varied set of skills simultaneously. At the same time, tip-top planning abilities are crucial for Sales Ops as they are responsible for planning their own time and deadlines.

Sales Operations Roles and Responsibilities

• Support the broader team by managing sales administration.
• Oversee analytics. 
• Attainment planning.

Required Skills:

• Analytical Analysis 
• Sales Ops need to analyze large sets of data continually. 
• Trend Analysis 
• Communication 
• Motivation 
• Negotiation 
• Dedication 

Sales Operations Role Summary: 

• Entry-Level Role.
• Experts in maintaining company-wide efficiency and effectiveness.
• Responsible for generating reports, analytics, and administration. 

Sales Team Leader | The Role of a Team Leader in Sales

Sales Leaders are at the helm of the sales process. Hence, they must be excellent multi-taskers as they’re primarily responsible for leading a sales team to success. Sales Leaders are accountable for completing tasks such as planning, coaching, and nurturing a sales representatives team; Therefore empowering the team to drive sales. Naturally, interpersonal skills are a must because they’re also responsible for creating an organization’s Sales Strategy to generate predictable and repeatable revenue.

Sales Team Leader Responsibilities:

• Setting Goals.
• Sales Negotiations.
• Leading development of Sales Strategies.
• Nurturing and motivating the sales team to achieve targets. 

Sales Team Leader Skills:

• A natural Mentor.
• Passionate about collaboration.
• Values training and development.
• Great interpersonal skills.
• Critical thinkers.
• Communication Experts.

Also read: 11 Must-Have Qualities Of ALL Great Sales Managers

Inbound Sales Representatives

Inbound Sales is a sales methodology that above all prioritizes individual buyers’ needs, challenges, goals, and interests. Therefore, what does an inbound sales representative do? Instead of focusing on closing the sale as soon as possible, Inbound Sales Representatives work to meet consumers where they are. 

A typical day for an Inbound Sales Rep involves answering calls or queries, resolving customer complaints, scheduling appointments, assisting existing customers, and following up on outbound calls. Consequently, Inbound Sales Reps need to be incredibly driven, resourceful, and highly independent. Therefore they need to have impeccable communication skills along with being masters of organization. 

Inbound Sales Representative Duties and Responsibilities

• Keep track of potential leads.
• Assist existing customers with queries. 
• Resolve complaints.
• Ensure excellent customer satisfaction.
• Answering calls or queries. 
• Recommending products or services.

Required Skills:

• Excellent Multi-Taskers.
• Endless energy.
• Natural communicators.
• Passionate, motivated, and resourceful. 
• They are organized and self-sufficient. 

Outbound Sales Representatives

What does an outbound sales representative do? Outbound Sales is the process where a seller, usually represented by a sales agent, initiates customer engagement from its end. Initial contact is made by placing “cold calls” to potential buyers (more commonly referred to as “leads” in sales). So, what does a typical day look like for an Outbound Sales Rep? They’ll be making a ton of calls to promote the product or service, building and maintaining the customer base, and handling customer inquiries and problems. 

Outbound Sales Representativessales Duties and Responsibilities

• Connecting with potential leads.
• Maintaining existing customer relationships.
• Answer any inquiries and complaints. 
• Represent the face of the company. 

Skills Required:

• Excellent Listening Skills
• Confident, Tenacious,, and perfect Interpersonal skills.
• Highly organized, self-motivated, and hardworking. 
• Also read:

Also read: Outbound Sales Explained: Techniques, Strategies & Best Practices & Sell Yourself: 10 Expert Tips For Acing Your Next Sales Interview

Business Development Representative (BDR)

Business Development Representatives are laser-focused on the organization’s customer base and excel in producing Prospecting Strategies. The goal for the Business Development Rep is to identify prospects, initiate the first outreach with potential customers, book meetings, and fill the pipelines for the sales team. 

Business Development Representative Duties and Responsibilities

• In charge of bringing new opportunities to the business.
• Initiate contact with prospects.
• Fill the team’s sales pipeline. 

Skills Required:

• Excellent active listening abilities.
• Expert critical thinkers.
• Perfect time-management.
• Impeccable communication abilities.

Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Sales Development Representatives are responsible for qualifying all leads at the initial stages of the sales funnel and are therefore required to research potential clients, connect with and educate prospects, and qualify leads before handing them off to the sales team’s closers. You’ll usually find Sales Development Reps helping to scale up start-ups looking to grow quickly or even when inbound leads aren’t enough to fill the pipeline.

Sales Development Representative Responsibilities:

• Finding new leads.
• Qualify Leads.
• Research potential clients.

• Mid-Level Position.
• Research potential leads while advising existing customers with queries.

Skills Required:

• Endless creativity.
• Impeccable active listening abilities.
• Easily adaptable. 

Lead Response Reps (LRRs)

Similar to SDR’s, Lead Response Reps (LRRs) are responsible for creating opportunities for account executives by making outbound calls to prospects who have come from inbound sources. Usually, this includes prospects who have shown interest by downloading a video/worksheet, completing a form on your website, reading your blog, or attending a webinar.

Account Executive Role (AE)

Account Executives, also known as Account Handlers, serve as the direct link between a company and its existing client – typically by managing day-to-day affairs and ensuring customer satisfaction. Above all, spending most of their time understanding the customers’ needs and wants to upsell and cross-sell to increase revenue successfully.

In addition, Account Executives are CEOs of their own business with extensive negotiation, sales experience, and project management experience. Honed leadership skills are a must for this position because Account Executives are critically required to mentor their team to achieve their goals. 

Account Executive Vs. Account Manager

What does an account executive do differently from an account manager? In simple terms, Account Executives bring in new business. They are “hunters.” At the same time, Account Managers take care of existing business by “farming” the current client for retention and additional opportunities. However, both roles fall into the sales function. They are responsible for revenue generation, and often, in a small business, one employee handles both roles.

Account Executive Responsibilities:

• Managing the account budget. 
• Creating detailed business plans and campaigns. 
• Manage the entire sale cycle, right up to closing the deal. 
• Finding new potential clients through extensive networking. 

Skills Required:

• Problem-Solving. 
• Extensive knowledge of Marketing and Negotiation practices. 
• Analytically minded.
• A natural leader.

Hunter Sales Role

Also read: A Guide To The Key Account Planning Process

Hunters love to chase leads – so much, so they’re known as the do-ers of sales. What is a sales hunter role exactly? In a hunter role in sales, reps focus on channelling their energy into achieving goals and quotas. However, they have a tendency to rely on initiative alone—typical tasks centre around gathering new leads, pitching to them, and securing that first order. Hunters are your go-getters, the ones out in the field uncovering opportunities in which to sell. 

Different Sales Roles Suited: Account Executive, Field Sales Representative, and Development Business Rep/Manager. 

Farmer Sales Role

In stark contrast to Hunters, Farmers focus on the human element to selling. They prefer to create, maintain, and grow relationships with the customer. They love delivering high-level customer service. They’re in no rush to close a deal, preferring to understand their needs and explain their solution. They keep a keen eye on looking out for new opportunities within the account. They are required to up-sell and cross-sell with accounts throughout the year.

Different Sales Roles: Customer Service Representative, Account Representative/Manager, and Sales Representative.

Account Manager (AM)

The Mid-Level role of an Account Manager is to manage a portfolio of accounts to ensure the business achieves long-term success. They focus on developing positive relationships and handling customer needs. However, their role also entails generating new sales using existing and potential customer networks.

Account Managers are tasked with growing these accounts through up-sells and cross-sells, keeping quality of work high, so clients want to renew/expand contracts, and advising clients on long-term growth strategies.

Responsibilities Summary:

• Develop and maintain impeccable relationships with key accounts, customer stakeholders, and executive sponsors.
• Regularly forecast account metrics – the quarterly sales results and annual forecasts.
• Upselling and Crosselling effectively. 

Skills Required:

• Expert active listener. 
• Demonstrable Presentation, Negotiation, and Communication abilities. 
• Able to multi-task with several projects at the same time. 
• Impeccable attention to detail.

Key Account Management (KAM)

Key Account Managers are responsible for building long-term relationships with your company’s most valuable accounts, which typically make up the majority of the business’ income. Naturally, Key Account Managers also need to develop multiple relationships within critical accounts – strong communication and interpersonal skills are necessary for this sales role. 

While focusing on turning buyers into business partners, Key Account Managers concentrate on providing dedicated resources, unique offers, and periodic meetings. Key Account Managers require an analytical mind when producing regular progress reports of crucial account metrics for their stakeholders, a vital relationship. 

Responsibilities Summary:

• Creating and maintaining key relationships with high-value accounts. 
• Create reports based on account metrics.
• Create and promote offers and resources. 

Skills Required:

• Finely tuned communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrable analytical ability.
• Ability to use creativity and multitasking in tandem. 

Sales Enablement

Sales Enablement professionals or, in some cases, Sales Enablement teams are responsible for providing the Sales Team with all the necessary resources, tools, training, materials, and documentation they need to sell successfully. Sales Enablement usually supports Sales Leaders and Managers in training their teams appropriately, whether through an E-learning platform or a third-party training individual.  

Sales Enablement Trainers don’t just teach Sales Teams to sell; they teach them how to use robust SaaS (Software as a Service) such as a CRM program to maximize the potential by streamlining their sales operation.

Revenue Operations (RevOps)

RevOps, also known as Revenue Operations, is an upcoming growth-driven process that is beginning to be implemented across organisations in various industries. It works by combining four historically separate teams (sales, marketing, customer success and systems) to create a revenue-generating team focused on achieving success by aligning their goals.

RevOps is a bit of a rule-breaker because it focuses on reinventing the traditionally siloed state of marketing, sales, and customer success data and strategies. Thereby creating a more consistent approach to success and growth across an organisation.

Final Thoughts

The Sales Industry is an entire world of its own, with its own language. If you’re new to sales, it’s effortless to get lost in a conversation about how we’ve got to shorten the sales cycle for high-ticket items by having the SDR qualify prospects better…I mean, you get the point! 

If you’ve enjoyed this guide on different sales positions, we think our Glossary of Sales Terms might serve you well. And that’s exactly why we created this! So you can easily understand the conversation at your next sales meeting. Enjoy our ultimate encyclopedia of sales terms.

You can also discover what type of salesperson you are! (Alongside some helpful tips for improving your approach and skills)

More About SOCO Sales Training

SOCO/ is an expert-led, award-winning sales training company. We’ve spent decades working with some of the most innovative and forward-thinking companies across Asia and the world.

Have SOCO train your team in the top sales skills needed to take on 2021 through either Virtual Instructor Led Training through video conferencing software or let your team learn new skills in their spare time using our popular e-learning platform – SOCO Academy.

Not sure which of the top sales training programs is right for you? Book an appointment with one of our program advisors who will be happy to build the right training plan for you.