Sales Manager Job Description
A sales manager job description template for a first-line team-lead role — coaching, forecasting, hiring, and team-quota variable pay explained.
A Sales Manager at this level runs one team — commonly six to ten Account Executives or SDRs — not a department. That distinction matters because the title gets used loosely: at some companies it means a first-line manager coaching individual reps day to day, and at others, usually larger organizations, it means someone managing other managers, which is a materially different job closer to a VP of Sales. This posting is the first kind.
The other question worth asking directly in an interview: is this a player-coach role, where the manager still personally carries a reduced deal load or a handful of strategic accounts, or a pure management role where the manager's own selling has stopped entirely? Both exist under the identical title "Sales Manager," and the answer changes what a typical week looks like more than almost anything else in the posting. This is a pure management seat — no individually assigned accounts — though the manager still joins key deals as an executive sponsor when a rep needs that.
Compensation follows the same base-plus-variable structure as the individual-contributor roles being managed, but the variable here is tied to the team's aggregate quota attainment rather than to any one deal. That's a real change in what the job is: a Sales Manager's paycheck depends on coaching a team of people with different skill levels to a consistent number, not on personal selling ability alone.
Brindlow · Portland, OR
Full-time · Hybrid
$95,000 – $115,000 base ($160,000 – $200,000 OTE)
About the role
The Sales Manager leads a pod of seven Account Executives at Brindlow, working closely with the SDR team that feeds them pipeline, selling supply chain visibility software to mid-market manufacturers and distributors. You'll own the team's quarterly number and report into the VP of Sales.
This is a hybrid role based in our Portland office, three days a week in. It's a coaching-and-forecasting seat rather than a player-coach one: you won't carry your own account list, but you will get personally involved in deals that need an executive sponsor to get unstuck.
What you'll do
- Manage and coach a team of seven Account Executives, running weekly 1:1s focused on pipeline and skill development, not just the number.
- Own the team's quarterly quota and build a weekly forecast accurate enough to present directly to the VP of Sales.
- Review pipeline for real risk rather than just stage, and get personally involved in the deals that need it.
- Hire and ramp new Account Executives, including running the interview loop and structuring a 90-day ramp plan.
- Run deal reviews and pipeline meetings that make reps better at selling, not meetings that exist to check a box.
- Partner with the SDR manager to align on the volume and quality of pipeline feeding the AE team.
- Join executive-level calls on strategic deals as a sponsor when a rep needs air cover to get a deal unstuck.
- Report team performance, forecast accuracy and new-rep ramp progress to sales leadership.
What we're looking for
- 4+ years of quota-carrying B2B sales experience, including at least one year in a formal or informal team-lead capacity.
- A track record of coaching individual contributors to better performance, not only personally hitting a number yourself.
- Comfortable owning a team forecast and defending it in front of executive leadership.
- Experience hiring and onboarding sales reps, including a clear sense of what a strong AE candidate looks like in an interview.
- A solid grasp of pipeline math — coverage ratios, stage-by-stage conversion — well enough to diagnose why a specific rep is missing.
- Direct, clear feedback delivery, including the kind of feedback that's uncomfortable to give.
Nice to have
- Prior experience as a top-performing individual contributor AE before moving into management.
- Experience managing a team selling into manufacturing, distribution or another operations-heavy vertical.
- Familiarity with a forecasting or deal-intelligence tool beyond the core CRM, such as Clari or Gong.
- Experience building or rewriting a sales playbook or onboarding curriculum for a growing team.
Benefits
- Medical, dental and vision coverage, with employee premiums covered in full.
- 401(k) with a 4% company match.
- Base salary plus variable tied to team quota attainment.
- Hybrid schedule: three days a week in the Portland office.
- Twenty-five days of paid time off plus company holidays.
Salary range
As posted for this sample role. Real pay varies by employer, location and experience.
$95,000–$115,000/ yr
ATS keywords for this role
The applicant tracking system (ATS) — the recruiting software a hiring team searches and filters applicants with — will screen for these. Weight shows how central each one is to this specific posting.
Required and central (3)
Important (7)
Mentioned in passing (5)
Frequently asked questions
Is this a player-coach role, with my own accounts, or pure management?
Pure management. This role carries no individually assigned account list, and compensation is tied to the team's aggregate quota rather than to any deal you personally close. The manager does join deals as an executive sponsor when a rep needs it, which is different from owning the deal. This split varies by company, so it's worth confirming directly in any Sales Manager interview.
Does "Sales Manager" mean the same thing as "VP of Sales"?
No, though the titles get blurred. A first-line Sales Manager — this role — runs one team of individual contributors directly. A VP of Sales, or a second-line manager, typically manages other managers and owns broader strategy rather than day-to-day rep coaching. Title conventions aren't consistent across companies, so check the reporting structure a posting actually describes rather than assuming from the title alone.
How is a Sales Manager's variable pay typically calculated?
Usually as a percentage tied to the team's attainment against its aggregate quota, sometimes with an additional kicker for the team finishing above 100%. It's a team number rather than a personal one, which is the core difference from how the reps who report to a Sales Manager are paid.
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