{"id":14993,"date":"2018-06-04T14:03:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T14:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/?p=14993"},"modified":"2021-04-16T11:10:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-16T09:10:57","slug":"skills-need-become-sales-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/skills-need-become-sales-director\/","title":{"rendered":"The Skills You Need to Become a Sales Director"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How do you advance into the role of Sales Director? Perhaps you entered this career path as a <a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/courses\/za\/uct-sales-management-short-course\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sales Representative<\/a>, a Buyer or moved over from another relevant professional position. A sure way to strengthen your promotion opportunities is to take advantage of further training, or continuing education through online short courses to <strong>highlight and develop your sales capabilities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>New Skills Academy<a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"https:\/\/be-a.co.uk\/5-skills-needed-to-make-it-as-a-sales-director\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a> says a Sales Director is someone who:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-left: 5px; margin-bottom: 34px;\">\n<li>Has great <strong>organisational<\/strong> skills: from managing a sales team to finding time for presentations, a Sales Director will need to develop a sales-oriented pitch to a wide variety of audiences to drive business growth<\/li>\n<li>Has great <strong>motivational<\/strong> skills: anyone responsible for managing a team will need to have the ability to drive a team forward and inspire creativity and input from each individual<\/li>\n<li>Is <strong>enthusiastic<\/strong>: a person with a dull personality is not a good seller &#8211; to engage with your prospects, it\u2019s essential to believe in the product you\u2019re selling, be consumer-oriented, and pitch with enthusiasm<\/li>\n<li>Can <strong>manage stress<\/strong>: tight deadlines and sales targets bring with them a pool of pressure, especially when you\u2019re expected to be motivational and organised during the difficult moments &#8211; if you\u2019re stressed, your team will be too, so it\u2019s essential to keep your cool as often as possible<\/li>\n<li>Is a great <strong>communicator<\/strong>: whether it\u2019s face-to-face, on the telephone, or in emails or reports, strong communication skills will be needed to ensure you\u2019re always explaining yourself properly and giving good instruction and direction<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Find out from five leaders in the sales arena on what they believe got them to a place of securing this role.<\/p>\n<ol style=\"margin-left: 5px; margin-bottom: 34px;\">\n<li>Nazley Brooks, Head of Sales in Sales and Enrolments at <a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/?utm_source=PPC&amp;utm_medium=adwords_ppc&amp;utm_campaign=generic_brand&amp;AdID=221848703748&amp;CID=369209932&amp;AgID=33781852372&amp;KW=getsmarter&amp;&amp;ef_id=c:221848703748_d:c_n:g_ti:kwd-8324646173_p:_k:getsmarter_m:e_a:33781852372&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3LzF9_-52wIVp7DtCh151QtdEAAYASAAEgJalvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GetSmarter<\/a> describes how it&#8217;s essential to <strong>learn new things<\/strong> in this career path and not be left behind in this constantly-changing environment.<\/li>\n<li>Anthony Iannarino, Sales Leader and creator of <a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"https:\/\/thesalesblog.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Sales Blog<\/a> says it\u2019s important to remember as a Sales Director, you are now not a salesman, but a leader, expected to take on the quota of every individual in your team. The only way to reach these quotas is to <strong>focus on your team\u2019s success<\/strong> and growth.<\/li>\n<li>John Barrows, previous Director of Sales and Training at <a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"http:\/\/basho.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Basho Technologies<\/a>, and Owner of <a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"https:\/\/jbarrows.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">JBarrows Sales Training<\/a> describes how the role of a Sales Director is to act like<strong> a scientist rather than an artist<\/strong> &#8211; be as objective as possible, and replicate methods in the past that saw success.<\/li>\n<li>Babette Ten Haken, Founder and President of <a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"https:\/\/babettetenhaken.com\/blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sales Aerobics for Engineers<\/a> says being a top seller does not necessarily mean you will be an amazing Sales Director. It\u2019s important to work towards <strong>making everyone <\/strong>in<strong> the team a better overall working professional<\/strong> instead of trying to make everyone an expert Sales Rep constantly chasing after the quarterly quota.<\/li>\n<li>DeWet Herbst, Director of Sales and Marketing at <a style=\"color: #2f2f2f;\" href=\"http:\/\/coastaltimbermouldings.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Coastal Timber Mouldings<\/a> describes how he doesn\u2019t necessarily see becoming a Director as an accomplishment, but rather the real accomplishment is the results that can be seen from hard work and dedication. \u201c<strong>Do not judge your accomplishments by the title<\/strong> you have at your company, rather give yourself a pat-on-the-back for the results that you achieved,\u201d he says.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Which skills do you need to advance in your career to Sales Director?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; margin-bottom: 34px;\">Download a course prospectus to find out how this online short course can help you become a Sales Director.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-programme-block\">\n<div class=\"related-programme\" onclick=\"window.open('https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/courses\/za\/uct-sales-management-short-course', '_blank')\">\n    <div class=\"row\">\n        <div class=\"col-12 col-md-11\">\n            <div class=\"related-programme__school-logo-container\">\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/universities\/university-of-cape-town\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"related-programme__school-logo-link\">\n                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/UCT_logo.png\" alt=\"School Logo\" class=\"related-programme__school-logo\">\n            <\/a>\n            <\/div>\n            <div class=\"related-programme__copy\">\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/universities\/university-of-cape-town\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"related-programme__school-name\">\n                University of Cape Town (UCT)            <\/a><br>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/courses\/za\/uct-sales-management-short-course\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"related-programme__programme-name\">\n                Sales Management online short course            <\/a>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"col-md-1 related-programme__chevron-column\">\n            <div class=\"related-programme__icon-container\">\n                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-btn\" src=\"https:\/\/www.getsmarter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/blog\/assets\/icn_arrow-circle_right.svg\" alt=\"Read More Icon\">\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn from five Sales Professionals what it takes to develop your sales capabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":40958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[122,127],"article-format":[],"class_list":["post-14993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-advice","tag-business-management","tag-career-advice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v26.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Skills You Need to Become a Sales Director - GetSmarter Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How do you advance into the role of Sales Director? 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