What does a Sales Head do?
A sales head owns the revenue number for a company or region — quota setting, territory design, the field team and the cost of running it. Indian organisations use this title where global charts say Head of Sales, VP Sales or Chief Revenue Officer, and the position generally reports to the CEO or managing director.
A sales head usually has around 10–20 yrs of experience and earns typically ₹30L–₹90L/yr including variable pay in India. The day-to-day blends Revenue ownership, Sales forecasting, Territory & quota design and more — this page gives you a ready-to-use sales head job description template you can copy, plus the exact skills and salary employers expect.
Sales Head job description template
Copy the 8 responsibilities, 6 requirements and 8 skills below into your job post, then edit the parts that are specific to your company — pay band, location and reporting line.
Select the text above to copy it manually if the button is unavailable.
What are a Sales Head's key responsibilities?
A sales head is typically responsible for the 8 duties below, which cover the day-to-day work most employers expect the role to own outright. Paste them into your job post as they are, or cut the ones another team already handles — a responsibility list that claims work the hire will not actually do is the fastest way to lose a candidate at offer stage:
- Own the annual revenue target and break it into regional and rep-level quotas
- Design territories, coverage models and the incentive plan for the field team
- Hire, ramp and manage regional managers and account executives
- Run weekly pipeline reviews and commit a forecast to the leadership team
- Approve discounting, deal-desk exceptions and enterprise contract terms
- Own the selling cost budget — headcount, travel, CRM licences and channel spend
- Build channel and partner relationships that extend reach beyond direct selling
- Work with marketing on lead quality and with finance on margins and collections
What qualifications does a Sales Head need?
Employers hiring a sales head in India usually ask for the 6 qualifications below, typically alongside 10–20 yrs of experience. Keep only the ones you will genuinely screen on: every extra must-have narrows the pool, and in the Indian market a long mandatory list filters out strong candidates whose background simply reads differently on paper:
- 10+ years in sales with at least 4 years managing a quota-carrying team
- Proven record of hitting or beating an annual revenue number
- Experience designing incentive plans, territories and forecasting methodology
- CRM discipline and comfort running the business off pipeline data
- Strong negotiation skills at CXO level and through enterprise contract cycles
- Willingness to travel across regions and manage distributed field teams
What skills should a Sales Head have?
These are the 8 skills employers name most often on live sales head listings in India. Treat the first few as the ones worth screening for directly and the rest as signals a candidate can pick up on the job — asking for all of them at once is what turns a reasonable role into an unfillable one:
Listing the three or four skills you genuinely screen on — rather than all 8 — is what keeps a sales head posting from filtering out candidates who could do the job.
What does a Sales Head earn in India?
Typical salary (India)
typically ₹30L–₹90L/yr including variable pay
Experience range
10–20 yrs
These are typical ranges and vary by city, company and skills. For live, role-specific pay data, see the OnJob salary guide.
Sales Head job description — FAQs
What is the difference between a sales head and a sales manager?
A sales manager coaches a pod of reps against a territory quota. The function owner sets the company number, designs those territories in the first place, approves the incentive plan and answers to the CEO for the forecast. The step up adds budget ownership, pricing authority and accountability for the cost of selling.
How much of a sales head package is variable pay?
Variable pay forms a large slice at this level — often a third or more of total earnings — tied to annual revenue attainment and sometimes gated on margin or collections. Startups tend to push a higher variable share; services and manufacturing firms lean more fixed. Confirm how attainment is measured and when payouts land before signing.
Is Sales Head equivalent to VP Sales or Chief Revenue Officer?
Head of Sales and VP Sales cover the same ground in global org charts. Chief Revenue Officer usually sits a rung higher because it absorbs marketing, partnerships or customer success alongside selling. Indian listings mix all four labels freely, so read the revenue scope and reporting line rather than the words on the posting.
What does a sales head earn in India?
On-target earnings typically range from ₹30L–₹50L per year at growth-stage companies to ₹70L–₹90L or more in enterprise software and large corporates, split between fixed pay and incentive. Sector matters a great deal: enterprise SaaS and BFSI pay above FMCG distribution for comparable team sizes and geographies.