Candidate tool

Where can this role actually go next?

Choose the seat you are in now and see the moves people genuinely make from it — up, sideways and into leadership — with what changes in scope, skills, evidence, responsibility and how you get paid.

How this behaves

No years-to-promotion, because nobody can honestly promise them.
No pay ranges we cannot cite.
Sideways moves shown as real destinations, not consolation prizes.
Every route also written out as a list, below.

Where are you now?

Pick the seat closest to your current job. Titles vary between companies, so choose by what you actually own.

Or jump straight to a seat

Sales Development Representative

Creates qualified pipeline through research and outbound, and hands conversations to a closer in a state they can use.

Also advertised as: SDR, BDR, Business Development Representative, Sales Development Executive.

What this seat owns now

Account selection and research inside a defined territory
Outbound across call, email and social, at a cadence you hold yourself to
Qualification quality and the honesty of the handover note

Next step up

More seniority in the same kind of work.

Individual contributor

Account Executive

The usual next step: carry your own number from first meeting to signature.

Scope: You stop handing conversations over and start owning the whole deal, including the parts that go wrong after the demo.
Skills: Discovery that shapes a business case, commercial negotiation, and running a process rather than a conversation.
Evidence: Closed revenue you can describe deal by deal — what the buying process looked like, not just the logo.
Responsibility: Your own pipeline coverage and a forecast other people plan around.
Commercial: Pay usually moves more of the package onto results you control less directly, over a longer cycle.

Reality check: The gap most people underestimate is patience: an SDR month has dozens of small wins, an AE quarter can have none until it has all of them.

Into leading people

A different job, not a bigger one: results through other people.

Management

Team Lead (player-coach)

Coaching a small pipeline team instead of only building your own pipeline.

Scope: Two or three people's output, plus a smaller version of your own.
Skills: Coaching to a standard, giving direct feedback to people who were peers last month, and running a cadence.
Evidence: People you have measurably improved — call quality before and after, ramp that got shorter.
Responsibility: Team pipeline creation, onboarding new starters, and the awkward conversations nobody enjoys.
Commercial: Some of the variable element usually shifts onto team performance rather than yours alone.

Reality check: Being the best SDR on the team is not evidence you can build one. The skill being tested is transfer, not performance.

Sideways into another discipline

Similar seniority, different discipline. Not a demotion.

Specialist discipline

Revenue / Sales Operations Analyst

Into the engine room, using what you already know about how pipeline really behaves.

Scope: You move from working a territory to describing how every territory performs and why.
Skills: Data modelling, precise metric definitions, and writing an analysis that ends in a recommendation.
Evidence: A report or process you built that changed a decision, and the before-and-after that proves it.
Responsibility: System integrity and reporting the leadership team acts on, rather than personal activity.
Commercial: The variable element usually shrinks and the base usually carries more of the package.

Reality check: Field credibility is your advantage here and it fades. Analysts who have never sold spend years earning what you already have.

Specialist discipline

Customer Success Manager

Into the post-sale side, where the relationship starts rather than ends.

Scope: A book of existing accounts instead of a list of strangers.
Skills: Reading account health from usage, running an adoption plan, and holding a commercial line in a renewal.
Evidence: Retention, adoption or expansion you influenced, described with the account's own numbers.
Responsibility: Churn risk and renewal outcomes, often before you are given a formal quota for them.
Commercial: Earnings tend to be steadier and less spiky than an outbound seat.

Reality check: If you liked the hunt, this can feel slow. Plenty of people move back into selling later and are better sellers for it.

What each move does to your pay

We are not publishing salary or OTE ranges against these moves, because we do not currently hold a cited, dated source we would stand behind. What we can explain is the structure — how base, variable and OTE fit together, and what usually changes when you move. How sales compensation is structured.

There are no matching live vacancies on our board right now. Register for job alerts and we will tell you when one appears.

Every route on this map, written out

The same relationships as a list, so they work without the picker, on a phone, with a screen reader and in print.

Sales Development Representative Individual contributor

Creates qualified pipeline through research and outbound, and hands conversations to a closer in a state they can use.

Next step up: Account Executive — The usual next step: carry your own number from first meeting to signature. Scope changes: You stop handing conversations over and start owning the whole deal, including the parts that go wrong after the demo. Evidence needed: Closed revenue you can describe deal by deal — what the buying process looked like, not just the logo.
Into leading people: Team Lead (player-coach) — Coaching a small pipeline team instead of only building your own pipeline. Scope changes: Two or three people's output, plus a smaller version of your own. Evidence needed: People you have measurably improved — call quality before and after, ramp that got shorter.
Sideways into another discipline: Revenue / Sales Operations Analyst — Into the engine room, using what you already know about how pipeline really behaves. Scope changes: You move from working a territory to describing how every territory performs and why. Evidence needed: A report or process you built that changed a decision, and the before-and-after that proves it.
Sideways into another discipline: Customer Success Manager — Into the post-sale side, where the relationship starts rather than ends. Scope changes: A book of existing accounts instead of a list of strangers. Evidence needed: Retention, adoption or expansion you influenced, described with the account's own numbers.

Account Executive Individual contributor

Runs deals end to end in a defined segment and is measured on closed revenue against a quota.

Next step up: Enterprise Account Executive — Fewer, larger, longer deals with procurement and security in the path. Scope changes: Several buying centres in one organisation rather than one buyer with a budget. Evidence needed: Complex wins described by the process: who blocked it, how you found out, and what you changed.
Into leading people: Team Lead (player-coach) — The player-coach seat: a reduced number plus a couple of sellers. Scope changes: Your deals plus responsibility for someone else's. Evidence needed: Sellers around you who improved because of something specific you did.
Sideways into another discipline: Customer Success Manager — Into retention and expansion, where the commercial skill is applied to customers you keep. Scope changes: A defined book of accounts and their long-term health. Evidence needed: Renewals saved, expansion closed, or churn you saw coming and stopped.
Sideways into another discipline: Partnerships Manager — Revenue through other companies rather than direct selling. Scope changes: A partner portfolio instead of a territory of end customers. Evidence needed: Partner-sourced pipeline and revenue, with your part in it stated honestly.
Sideways into another discipline: Revenue / Sales Operations Analyst — From running deals to describing why deals behave the way they do. Scope changes: The whole funnel's behaviour rather than your slice of it. Evidence needed: A process or definition you fixed, and what it changed commercially.

Enterprise Account Executive Individual contributor

Long-cycle, multi-stakeholder deals where orchestration matters as much as selling.

Deeper individual contributor route: Strategic / Principal Account Executive — The senior individual-contributor route: fewer accounts, deeper relationships, no reports. Scope changes: A handful of named accounts, planned over years rather than quarters. Evidence needed: Long-term account growth and executive relationships that survived changes on both sides.
Into leading people: Sales Manager — Out of the deal entirely, onto the team's number. Scope changes: A team's whole pipeline instead of your own accounts. Evidence needed: Coaching that changed results, and a hiring bar you set and held.
Sideways into another discipline: Partnerships Manager — Using enterprise relationships to build indirect revenue. Scope changes: Alliances and channel partners rather than direct accounts. Evidence needed: Partnerships that produced pipeline, not just signed agreements.

Strategic / Principal Account Executive Individual contributor

The senior individual-contributor destination: a handful of the most complex accounts, no management line.

Into leading people: Head of Sales / Sales Director — From the most senior selling seat into owning the function. Scope changes: The whole sales organisation, its structure and its plan. Evidence needed: Commercial judgement applied beyond your own accounts — pricing, structure, hiring.
Sideways into another discipline: Enterprise Account Executive — Back to a broader enterprise patch, by choice. Scope changes: More accounts, shorter horizons, more deals in flight. Evidence needed: Recent closed business, which strategic seats can make harder to demonstrate.

Team Lead (player-coach) Management

A reduced personal number plus responsibility for a small team. Usually the test of whether management suits you.

Next step up: Sales Manager — Drop the personal quota and own the team's number outright. Scope changes: A full team, with no deals of your own to hide behind. Evidence needed: Team attainment under your management, and people you hired who worked out.
Sideways into another discipline: Enterprise Account Executive — Back into a selling seat, deliberately. Scope changes: Your own deals again, usually larger ones than before. Evidence needed: Your own closed business, plus the credibility of having led.

Sales Manager Management

No personal quota. The team's number, the team's forecast, and the team itself.

Next step up: Head of Sales / Sales Director — From one team to the whole function and how it is designed. Scope changes: Structure, segmentation, coverage and plan — not just delivery against someone else's plan. Evidence needed: A team you built and a plan you designed, with what you would do differently.
Sideways into another discipline: Head of Revenue Operations — Into revenue operations leadership, taking field credibility with you. Scope changes: The operating model across sales, marketing and customer success. Evidence needed: Process or forecast changes you led that survived contact with the field.
Sideways into another discipline: Head of Customer Success — Into post-sale leadership, owning retention rather than acquisition. Scope changes: The customer base and the coverage model over it. Evidence needed: Commercial results after the signature: renewals, expansion, churn reduction.

Head of Sales / Sales Director Management

Owns the sales function: its plan, its structure, its hiring and its performance.

Next step up: VP Sales — Multiple teams or segments, and leaders reporting to you. Scope changes: Several teams, often across segments or geographies. Evidence needed: A leadership bench you built, and a plan that held for more than one good quarter.
Next step up: Chief Revenue Officer — All revenue functions, and the coherence between them. Scope changes: Sales, Customer Success, Partnerships and often Marketing. Evidence needed: Whole-funnel ownership, not just the closing end of it.
Sideways into another discipline: Head of Revenue Operations — Owning how the plan is built and inspected rather than delivering it. Scope changes: The company's revenue operating model. Evidence needed: Planning and forecasting work you personally led.

VP Sales Management

Several teams or segments, held to predictability rather than a strong quarter.

Next step up: Chief Revenue Officer — Beyond sales, to everything that touches revenue. Scope changes: Every revenue function and the joins between them. Evidence needed: Cross-functional results, especially retention and expansion, not only new business.
Deeper individual contributor route: Strategic / Principal Account Executive — Back to carrying a number, deliberately and senior. Scope changes: A few strategic accounts instead of an organisation. Evidence needed: Relationships and commercial judgement at executive level.

Chief Revenue Officer Management

Owns every revenue-generating function and, harder, the coherence between them.

Onward moves from this seat are not described yet.

Revenue / Sales Operations Analyst Specialist discipline

Keeps the CRM honest and turns pipeline data into answers leadership can act on.

Next step up: Revenue Operations Manager — From producing analysis to owning process and forecast infrastructure. Scope changes: The funnel end to end rather than the reports about it. Evidence needed: Changes you designed and shipped, with the commercial effect stated.
Sideways into another discipline: Sales Enablement Manager — Into enablement, where the output is behaviour rather than a system. Scope changes: Ramp, training and the content sellers use. Evidence needed: Ramp or performance improvements you can attribute to a programme.
Sideways into another discipline: Sales Development Representative — Into a selling seat, to learn the motion from inside it. Scope changes: A territory and a personal target instead of the whole funnel. Evidence needed: Pipeline you personally created.

Revenue Operations Manager Specialist discipline

Owns process across the funnel and the forecast infrastructure the plan runs on.

Next step up: Head of Revenue Operations — From owning process to owning the operating model. Scope changes: Planning and cadence across sales, marketing and customer success. Evidence needed: A planning cycle you ran, and change that stuck after you stopped pushing it.
Into leading people: Sales Manager — Across into leading sellers, using the process credibility you built. Scope changes: A quota-carrying team rather than the systems around one. Evidence needed: Field-facing work where you changed how people sold, not just what they recorded.
Sideways into another discipline: Sales Enablement Manager — Into enablement leadership, with the data to prove what is broken. Scope changes: Capability across the revenue teams. Evidence needed: Diagnosed capability gaps and what you did about them.

Head of Revenue Operations Specialist discipline

Owns the operating system of the revenue org across sales, marketing and customer success.

Onward moves from this seat are not described yet.

Customer Success Manager Specialist discipline

Owns retention, adoption and expansion once the deal is signed.

Next step up: Head of Customer Success — From a book of accounts to the whole post-sale function. Scope changes: Every customer, and the coverage model over them. Evidence needed: Retention and expansion outcomes, and a team or process you improved.
Sideways into another discipline: Account Executive — Into new business, where nobody has bought anything yet. Scope changes: Prospects and a quota rather than a book of accounts. Evidence needed: Expansion or renewal revenue you drove commercially, not just relationships you maintained.
Sideways into another discipline: Partnerships Manager — Into partnerships, building revenue through other organisations. Scope changes: Partners rather than customers. Evidence needed: Relationships you turned into commercial outcomes.

Head of Customer Success Management

Owns retention and expansion as a function, and usually the whole post-sale experience.

Next step up: Chief Revenue Officer — From post-sale leadership to owning all of revenue. Scope changes: New business as well as retention, plus partnerships and often marketing. Evidence needed: Commercial ownership across the funnel, including new revenue.
Sideways into another discipline: Sales Manager — Across into new-business leadership, where nobody has bought yet. Scope changes: A team carrying acquisition quota instead of a retention number. Evidence needed: Deals your team won that you can explain, not just accounts you kept.

Partnerships Manager Specialist discipline

Builds revenue through channel, alliance and referral relationships rather than direct selling.

Into leading people: Head of Sales / Sales Director — Into commercial leadership where partnerships are one route among several. Scope changes: The whole sales function, direct and indirect. Evidence needed: Direct revenue accountability, not only influenced pipeline.
Sideways into another discipline: Account Executive — Back to direct selling, with a shorter feedback loop. Scope changes: Your own territory and quota. Evidence needed: Directly sourced and closed revenue, which partnerships roles can obscure.

Sales Enablement Manager Specialist discipline

Owns onboarding, training and the content sellers actually use in front of a buyer.

Next step up: Head of Revenue Operations — Into leadership of the whole revenue operating function. Scope changes: Operations, analytics and enablement together. Evidence needed: Programmes and process you led across teams, with results that outlasted you.
Sideways into another discipline: Revenue Operations Manager — Into the operations line, owning process rather than capability. Scope changes: Funnel definitions, forecast process and systems. Evidence needed: Process work with measurable commercial effect.

We do not publish how long any of these moves takes, and we do not publish pay figures against them. Both vary far too much by company and market for a number to be honest, and we will not print a figure we cannot cite. Where we hold a dated, cited source, it appears against the specific role in our pay guides.

There is no single sales career ladder. Company size, funding stage, segment and luck change which of these moves exists at all, and the same title means different things in different businesses. Treat these as routes people genuinely take, not as steps you are owed or a sequence you have to follow in order.

39 routes across 16 seats.

Common questions

What this tool will and will not tell you

Is there one sales career ladder?

No. Company size, funding stage and segment change which moves exist at all, and the same title means different things in different businesses. The explorer shows next steps, sideways moves into other GTM disciplines, and both the management and senior individual-contributor routes side by side.

How long does each step take?

We do not say, because we hold no citable source for it and it varies enormously by company and market. What we describe instead is what changes: scope, skills, the evidence you need, responsibility and how the commercial package usually shifts.

Do you show salary or OTE for each role?

Only where we hold a cited, dated source. We currently publish the structure — how base, variable and OTE fit together — rather than ranges we cannot stand behind.

Is moving sideways a demotion?

No. Sellers move into Revenue Operations, Customer Success, partnerships and enablement regularly, and back again. Each move trades one kind of leverage for another, and the explorer says what you give up as well as what you gain.

Once you know which move you want

Read the full guide for the role, then let us know what you are looking for.

Career path guidesSDR, AE, leadership and Revenue Operations, in depth.Register your interestTell us the move you want and we will be straight with you about it.Live vacanciesEvery role we are currently working on, updated as it changes.