Extract from IDS Executive Compensation Review 318

Sales professionals

Sales professionals are regarded as pivotal to winning business and growing revenue, and to gauge the current state of the job market for senior sales employees we have conducted our own pay analysis and spoken to recruitment specialists.

Recruitment for senior sales professionals is at a peak according to recruiters in the field, and as competition is so great organisations are focussing increasingly on their reward policies to give them an edge in the battle for top talent. The article looks at the various recruitment and retention strategies that employers are using to recruit and retain top sales professionals, and detailed salary analysis is given in both the text and tables. Data shows basic salary and on-target-earnings across four job titles from sales mangers to sales directors, as well as a detailed analysis of earnings as a proportion of basic salary. A further table looks at various sales advertisements appearing in June 2007, with many naming leading UK organisations.