Sales Manager vs Head of Sales

Sales Manager and Head of Sales side by side

In a small team one person does both, and that is usually correct — a Head of Sales with six reports will be coaching daily whatever the title says. The distinction earns its keep in the brief rather than in the org chart: write down who owns the number and who owns the plan, because a hire who thought they were getting the second and arrives to find the first is the most common early leaver at this level.

The question behind the question

Most businesses asking this are really asking something else: can we keep running sales the way we are running it? The title is a proxy for how much of the commercial thinking is about to be handed over.

A useful test is to list the last five decisions that changed the number — a pricing change, a segment you stopped chasing, a territory split, a decision to hire two more sellers, a choice to walk away from a deal type. Then ask who you want making the next five. If the honest answer is the founder or the Managing Director, you want a Sales Manager and you want to keep those decisions. If the answer is that you want somebody else to make them, that is a Head of Sales, and the brief needs to say so.

Why the wrong choice is expensive in both directions

A Head of Sales hired into a Sales Manager job usually leaves. They were sold ownership, they arrive to find the plan already set, and the part of the role they came for does not exist. That is a resignation at nine months and a search you have to run twice.

A Sales Manager hired into a Head of Sales job usually stays, which is worse. The team improves, the coaching is real, and nobody notices for a year that the model was never built — the segmentation is still whatever it was, the hiring plan is still reactive, and the forecast is still a feeling. The cost is a year, not a salary.

What to write down before you advertise either

Both roles fail on the same ambiguity, so both briefs need the same four lines settled: who sets the target, who decides coverage and segmentation, who owns the hiring plan, and who the role reports to. Our hiring brief builder walks through this, and the answers are what the first interview should test.

If you cannot answer them yet, that is worth knowing before a candidate asks — and a good candidate will ask in the first conversation.

Common questions

Is Head of Sales just a bigger Sales Manager title?

Sometimes, and it is worth checking. If the role is coaching a single team against a target somebody else sets, it is a Sales Manager job whatever the advert says. Titles are cheap; the ownership line in the brief is what candidates will hold you to.

Can a Sales Manager be promoted into Head of Sales?

Often, and it is one of the better routes because they already know the customers and the team. The step is real, though: it is a move from improving performance to deciding what the plan should be, and it is worth being explicit about which decisions transfer and when.

Do we need a Sales Manager if we already have a Head of Sales?

Once the Head of Sales has more sellers than they can coach properly while still doing the strategic half of the job. The signal is usually that one-to-ones start slipping, or that the plan work only happens at weekends.

Which is the right first leadership hire?

It depends what is broken. We cover the specific case of a first leadership hire, including the player-coach option, in a separate guide, because the answer for a five-person team is genuinely different from the answer for a fifteen-person one.