VP of Sales: the path to the top of the number
A VP of Sales owns the number, and everyone in the building knows it. You're the person the CEO calls when the forecast slips, and the person reps blame when the comp plan changes. This guide walks the rungs most people climb to reach the job and what changes once you're there.
What changes when the title says VP
As a director, you ran a team and hit a target someone else set. As a VP, you help set the target, then answer for it in the board deck. Your week moves from deal reviews to hiring plans, territory design, compensation, and long talks with finance about what's realistic. You still get pulled into big deals, but mostly as the executive sponsor who shows up for the final call with the buyer's CFO. The biggest shift is that your work now shows up late. A hiring mistake you make in spring won't show in the numbers until much later, and by then it's expensive to undo.
The rungs to VP of Sales
- 1
Account Executive
You carry a quota and close deals yourself. People judge you on attainment, on how clean your pipeline looks in Salesforce, and on whether your forecast calls come true. The reps who move up are the ones who can explain why they won, not just that they did.
- 2
Sales Manager
You run a small team of reps and stop closing your own deals. Your day is pipeline reviews, ride-alongs on calls, and Gong recordings you watch at night. You're judged on team attainment and on whether your reps get better. Plenty of great closers stall here because coaching feels slower than doing.
- 3
Director of Sales
You manage managers, often across a region or a segment like mid-market. You build the forecast your VP rolls up, decide who gets promoted, and push back when marketing's lead quality slips. You're judged on predictability: saying what the region will bring in, then bringing it in.
- 4
VP of SalesThis guide
You own the whole sales org and the annual plan. You set quotas and territories with finance, design the comp plan, hire the directors, and present the number to the CEO and the board. You're judged on growth, forecast accuracy, rep retention, and whether the cost of each new dollar of revenue makes sense. From here the path forks: Chief Revenue Officer if you add marketing and customer success, or CEO at a smaller company if you'd rather run the whole business.
Skills boards and CEOs hire for
These are the things a hiring committee will probe, usually in this order of concern.
The part of the job that wears people down
The number never resets in your favor. Hit the plan and next year's target goes up. Miss it and you have a short window before the CEO starts talking to recruiters, sometimes before you've even had a fair run. That's the honest trade: VP of Sales roles turn over faster than most executive seats, and a lot of that turnover comes from targets set before you arrived.
The other grind is the people work. You'll let go of reps you like, and you'll lose top performers to competitors with richer comp plans. Your managers will bring you problems that are really about a manager, not a deal. None of this shows up in a job description, and it's where most first-time VPs struggle.
How to get noticed for the jump
Directors who make the jump usually have one thing in common: they've already done a piece of the VP's job. Volunteer to build next year's territory plan. Sit with finance when they model the comp plan and ask why each lever is set where it is. Ask your VP if you can present your region's forecast at the quarterly business review instead of feeding numbers into their slide.
Outside your company, the jump often happens at a smaller one. A director at a large company can become the first VP at a younger startup, where the job is building the sales team from scratch. That's a different job from inheriting a big org, and interviewers will ask which one you've actually done. Be ready to tell them straight.
What VP of Sales postings ask for
Hiring the most
- broadridge.wd5/Careers2
- Hello Patient2
- Humanoid2
- Abb1
- Blockworks1
Remote
30% of openings are fully remote.
Posted pay
$192,500 – $247,100
Typical range in the 14 of the newest 37 postings that list pay.
Questions people ask
How long does it take to become a VP of Sales?
It depends far more on results and company size than on time served. Most VPs have closed deals as a rep, managed reps, and managed managers before getting the title. People at fast-growing startups can climb quickly because new seats open as the company grows. At large companies the climb is slower, and the title often comes with a move to a smaller business.
Do you need an MBA to be a VP of Sales?
No. Sales leadership is one of the executive paths where a track record beats a degree almost every time. An MBA can help if you want to move toward Chief Revenue Officer or CEO, where you'll talk finance and strategy more, but hiring committees for VP roles care about the teams you've built and the numbers you've hit.
What's the difference between a VP of Sales and a Chief Revenue Officer?
A VP of Sales runs the sales team. A Chief Revenue Officer usually owns every team that touches revenue, which often means sales, marketing, and customer success, and sometimes revenue operations too. At smaller companies the VP of Sales often does much of the CRO's job without the title.
How is a VP of Sales paid?
Usually a base salary plus a variable bonus tied to company revenue, and often equity at a private company. The pay shown on this page is a starting point. What moves it most is company stage, deal size, whether the role owns a global team, and how much of the package is at risk if the number is missed.