Use this Sales Manager job description template to attract candidates who can coach a sales team, improve opportunity execution, and build forecasts grounded in pipeline evidence. Specify team composition, customer segment, hiring responsibilities, quota ownership, and whether the position includes a defined individual selling component.

A Sales Manager leads a team of sellers, improves execution through coaching, and maintains an evidence-based view of pipeline and performance. Unlike an individual account executive, the manager is accountable for team capability, operating discipline, and appropriate escalation rather than personally owning every customer conversation.

A Sales Manager develops a capable sales team through practical coaching, evidence-based forecasting, and responsible deal oversight. Their key responsibilities include:

• Coaching sellers through specific observed skill gaps.

• Reviewing pipeline quality and forecast assumptions.

• Setting clear expectations and supporting fair accountability.

• Coordinating resources for complex customer opportunities.

• Hiring and developing a capable sales team.

Sales Manager Job Description Template

We are looking for a Sales Manager to develop a capable sales team, improve deal execution, and create a disciplined operating rhythm that supports sound commercial decisions.

In this role, you will translate business priorities into clear expectations, coach against observed behaviors, and address performance concerns fairly. Your forecasts should reflect customer evidence, not pressure to present a reassuring number, and your leadership should reinforce responsible selling and realistic delivery commitments.

Sales Manager Roles and Responsibilities

A Sales Manager supports a sales team through coaching, planning, and clear performance expectations. Daily work includes reviewing opportunities, improving sales conversations, managing forecasts, and helping representatives resolve obstacles.

The key roles and responsibilities of a Sales Manager include:

• Translate commercial priorities into clear team expectations, territory or account responsibilities, and practical operating plans aligned with available resources.

• Conduct regular coaching using observed calls, opportunity evidence, and skill development goals rather than relying solely on outcome metrics.

• Review pipeline quality and challenge unsupported stage progression, missing customer commitments, or unresolved risks before they distort team forecasts.

• Prepare forecasts with explicit assumptions and explain changes to leadership, distinguishing actual customer developments from internal seller expectations.

• Support complex opportunities by helping sellers clarify strategy, access specialist resources, and navigate appropriate approval paths without taking over every deal.

• Monitor team performance across relevant leading and outcome measures, investigating differences in context before drawing conclusions about individual capability.

• Recruit and onboard sellers through structured selection, clear role expectations, product learning, and supported practice relevant to the sales motion.

• Address performance concerns promptly with specific feedback, documented expectations, practical support, and coordination with the appropriate people team.

• Coordinate with marketing, revenue operations, customer success, and delivery leaders to improve handoffs and resolve recurring commercial process friction.

• Review proposed pricing or contractual exceptions within delegated authority and escalate requests that exceed established financial or operational boundaries.

• Maintain a respectful team environment that encourages accurate reporting, early escalation, knowledge sharing, and responsible treatment of prospective customers.

• Identify repeatable lessons from won, lost, and delayed opportunities and adapt coaching, enablement, or process design accordingly.

Sales Manager Requirements and Qualifications

Look for evidence that coaching addresses observable behavior and forecasts distinguish customer evidence from optimistic deal narratives.

Common Sales Manager qualifications and requirements include:

• Experience leading sellers or demonstrating sustained coaching and coordination responsibility in a comparable commercial setting.

• Ability to diagnose skill gaps through observable behavior and provide specific, actionable developmental feedback.

• Sound judgment in pipeline inspection, opportunity qualification, forecasting, and interpretation of sales performance data.

• Clear communication of expectations, priorities, difficult feedback, and the reasoning behind management decisions.

• Ability to coordinate cross-functional resources without shifting accountability for the team's commitments.

• Commercial understanding of pricing, negotiation, customer fit, and approval boundaries appropriate to the sales motion.

• Commitment to consistent performance management, accurate reporting, and respectful leadership under pressure.

• A relevant degree or equivalent practical experience demonstrating the judgment, communication, and applied skills needed for this position.

• Experience hiring and onboarding salespeople within the target customer segment or market.

• Familiarity with territory planning, sales enablement, CRM reporting, or sales process improvement.

Who Does a Sales Manager Report To?

A Sales Manager may report to different leaders depending on the team structure. Common reporting lines include:

• Sales Director

• VP of Sales

• Head of Revenue

State the number and type of direct reports in the actual vacancy and clarify whether other team leads report into the position.

Specify the actual supervisor and approval boundaries.

How to Assess Sales Manager Skills Effectively

Use a fictional pipeline review with weak deal evidence and uneven team performance. Ask candidates to challenge the forecast constructively and propose coaching tied to observable selling behavior. Use fictional scenarios, consistent instructions, and shared scoring criteria. Assess reasoning without requesting confidential information or unpaid work on live business problems.

A structured evaluation process helps recruiters assess candidates across the following areas:

• Coaching: Provide a fictional discovery-call transcript and ask for a coaching conversation focused on a specific behavior and a measurable practice goal.

• Forecast Review: Share opportunities with conflicting evidence and evaluate which assumptions the candidate challenges before submitting the team forecast.

• Performance Management: Present a seller missing expectations and assess diagnosis, support, documentation, and a fair approach to accountability.

• Resource Allocation: Give competing requests for specialist support and ask how the candidate prioritizes customer need, commercial evidence, and team learning.

• Hiring Judgment: Ask for interview criteria and an onboarding outline that distinguish essential capability from teachable product or process knowledge.

• Leadership Under Pressure: Role-play pressure to inflate pipeline or approve an unsuitable concession, evaluating candor, escalation, and protection of customer commitments.

How to Detect AI Cheating When Hiring a Sales Manager

Hiring a Sales Manager requires evaluating candidates on sales coaching, forecasting, pipeline inspection, target planning, and team leadership. During remote interviews, candidates may use AI tools to generate answers or receive real-time assistance, making it harder for recruiters to determine whether they genuinely possess these skills.

Sherlock AI helps recruiters detect AI-assisted cheating during Sales Manager interviews. It can identify potential use of AI answering tools, deepfakes, candidate impersonation, and suspicious screen activity during remote interviews.

When hiring a Sales Manager, recruiters can combine Sherlock AI with practical interview exercises, such as reviewing a sample pipeline forecast, coaching a discovery-call scenario, or developing a plan to address a team performance gap. These exercises help evaluate a candidate's sales leadership judgment, while Sherlock AI helps identify potential signs of cheating during the interview.

Screen Sales Manager Interviews for AI-Assisted Cheating

Hiring a Sales Manager requires confidence in a candidate's ability to evaluate sales performance, coach effectively, and make informed resource decisions. Sherlock AI helps hiring teams identify potential AI-assisted cheating and impersonation during remote interviews, supporting a more reliable candidate evaluation process.

Explore Sherlock AI to learn how you can detect AI-assisted cheating during remote interviews and make more informed hiring decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a Sales Manager do?

A Sales Manager leads salespeople and improves the conditions under which they succeed. They coach skills, review opportunities, manage performance, and coordinate resources while keeping leadership informed about pipeline quality and credible revenue expectations.

What are the duties and responsibilities of a Sales Manager?

Responsibilities include coaching, forecasting, hiring, onboarding, performance management, and cross-functional coordination. Some managers also sell directly, but that responsibility should be defined so candidates understand how individual opportunities compete with their obligation to develop the team.

What makes a good Sales Manager?

A good Sales Manager creates clarity and encourages honest reporting. They inspect evidence without humiliating sellers, tailor coaching to observed gaps, and address problems early rather than relying on pressure or personally rescuing every opportunity.

Who does a Sales Manager work with?

They work with sales representatives, senior commercial leaders, marketing, revenue operations, finance, customer success, and people teams. Specialist sales engineers and delivery leaders are important partners when opportunities involve technical complexity or implementation risk.

What skills should a Sales Manager have?

Key skills include coaching, feedback, prioritization, forecasting, commercial judgment, and conflict resolution. Strong managers also interpret performance data in context, recognizing differences in territory, opportunity quality, experience, and the maturity of the sales process.

What qualifications are required for a Sales Manager?

Relevant sales leadership or equivalent coaching experience and a degree or equivalent practical experience are suitable requirements. A strong individual sales record can help, but it does not by itself demonstrate the ability to develop others.

How do you assess a Sales Manager candidate?

Use a coaching role-play, forecast review, and performance-management case. Assess whether the candidate identifies root causes, gives useful feedback, sets fair expectations, and protects accurate reporting when the team is under commercial pressure.