Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Sales Pro
💰 $ - $
🎯 Role Definition
The Sales Pro is a quota-carrying sales professional responsible for driving revenue growth through prospecting, qualifying, presenting, negotiating, and closing business. This role combines hunter mentality with consultative selling, leveraging CRM tools (Salesforce, HubSpot) and sales enablement assets to build a predictable pipeline, achieve monthly and quarterly targets, and create long-term customer value. Ideal candidates demonstrate strong relationship-building, negotiation, and time-management skills and have experience in B2B or B2C sales environments — including SaaS, technology, professional services, or product-based industries.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Sales Development Representative (SDR) / Business Development Representative (BDR)
- Inside Sales Representative or Junior Account Executive
- Customer Success Associate with ramp to revenue-generating role
Advancement To:
- Senior Account Executive / Enterprise Account Executive
- Sales Manager / Team Lead
- Strategic Account Manager or Regional Sales Director
Lateral Moves:
- Customer Success Manager
- Product Specialist / Solutions Consultant
- Sales Enablement / Revenue Operations
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Proactively identify and generate new qualified leads using a mix of outbound prospecting (cold calling, cold emailing), inbound lead follow-up, social selling (LinkedIn Sales Navigator), and referrals to build a strong, predictable sales pipeline.
- Conduct high-quality discovery conversations to understand prospect business objectives, pain points, technical requirements, budget, and decision-making process, and translate those insights into tailored value-driven sales strategies.
- Deliver compelling product demonstrations and presentations — virtual and in-person — that clearly articulate business outcomes, ROI, and competitive differentiation for target buyer personas.
- Create accurate, timely proposals and commercial quotes, incorporating pricing strategy, discount approvals, scope of work, and terms to accelerate the sales cycle and maximize margin.
- Negotiate contract terms and close deals while protecting company interests and ensuring customer satisfaction; collaborate with legal and finance to finalize complex commercial agreements.
- Manage an active sales pipeline in the CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, or equivalent), keeping records up to date, logging activities, and ensuring forecast accuracy for weekly and monthly revenue targets.
- Achieve and consistently exceed assigned revenue quotas and KPIs (quota attainment, conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length) through disciplined territory and account management.
- Develop and execute territory and account plans that prioritize high-potential prospects, key accounts, and opportunities for cross-sell and upsell to maximize lifetime customer value.
- Build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships with key stakeholders across prospect and customer organizations — from champions and users to executives and procurement.
- Coordinate and lead cross-functional efforts with marketing, product management, customer success, and sales engineering to close complex or enterprise opportunities and ensure smooth post-sale transitions.
- Use sales enablement resources and competitive intelligence to counter objections, position the product effectively against competitors, and continually refine messaging based on market feedback.
- Conduct regular pipeline reviews and forecasting with Sales Leadership to identify risk, accelerate stalled opportunities, and prioritize high-probability close activities.
- Implement consultative selling techniques to map product value to customer outcomes, create business cases, and obtain executive buy-in for multi-year contracts or strategic engagements.
- Manage renewals, upsells, and expansion opportunities within an assigned book of business, proactively driving retention initiatives and championing customer success outcomes.
- Participate in RFP and RFQ responses by gathering requirements, aligning solution scope, and ensuring timely, accurate submissions to increase win-rate on competitive deals.
- Prepare and present periodic sales reports, account reviews, and post-mortem analyses to provide transparency on performance, pipeline health, and operational improvements.
- Leverage analytics and CRM reporting tools to identify trends, optimize territory coverage, and recommend strategic adjustments to product pricing, packaging, or go-to-market approaches.
- Lead negotiations that involve multi-stakeholder procurement cycles, coordinating internal subject-matter experts to accelerate approvals and close dates.
- Maintain deep product, industry, and market knowledge — including buyer personas, regulatory constraints, and competitive landscape — to position offerings effectively and anticipate customer needs.
- Mentor and coach junior sales colleagues by sharing best practices in prospecting, discovery, objection handling, and closing, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement.
- Represent the company at industry conferences, trade shows, and customer events to build brand awareness, generate pipeline, and strengthen strategic partnerships.
- Monitor and maintain accurate sales documentation, contracts, and customer records to support revenue recognition, audit readiness, and compliance with internal sales policies.
Secondary Functions
- Support marketing by providing field feedback on lead quality, messaging effectiveness, and customer objections to improve campaign conversion and targeting.
- Collaborate with product and engineering teams to relay customer feature requests, competitive gaps, and usability issues that inform the product roadmap.
- Assist in the development and maintenance of sales collateral, case studies, playbooks, pricing sheets, and ROI calculators to empower the wider sales organization.
- Participate in pilot programs and early customer deployments to validate product fit, gather testimonials, and create referenceable success stories.
- Help standardize onboarding checklists and post-sale handoffs to Customer Success to ensure a seamless customer experience and positive time-to-value.
- Conduct ad hoc market research and competitive analysis to support strategic bid decisions and identify white-space opportunities within assigned territories.
- Support occasional administrative tasks related to order processing, invoice follow-ups, and coordination with operations to expedite delivery or implementation timelines.
- Engage in continuous learning programs, certifications, and training to keep sales methods, tools, and product knowledge current.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- CRM proficiency (Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics) — pipeline management, activity logging, and forecast hygiene.
- Proven experience with outbound prospecting tools (LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Outreach, SalesLoft) and email sequencing platforms.
- Strong presentation and demo skills using tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and product sandbox environments.
- Contract and commercial negotiation experience, including familiarity with NDAs, SOWs, and standard commercial terms.
- Sales forecasting and quota management — ability to produce reliable short- and long-term revenue forecasts.
- Experience with quoting and CPQ tools, configuring pricing and discount approvals.
- Proficiency with Google Workspace or Microsoft Office (including advanced Excel/Sheets for pipeline analysis).
- Knowledge of CRM analytics and sales reporting tools (Tableau, Looker, or Salesforce Reports).
- Industry-specific knowledge for verticals such as SaaS, technology, healthcare, or finance (as applicable).
- Basic understanding of technical integrations, APIs, and product architecture when selling complex solutions.
- Experience responding to RFPs/RFIs and preparing tailored proposals and statements of work.
Soft Skills
- Excellent verbal and written communication — able to craft clear value-focused messages for different buyer personas.
- Strong consultative selling and active listening skills to uncover needs and influence decision-makers.
- Resilience and persistence; comfortable with rejection and sustained prospecting activity.
- Empathy and customer-centric mindset focused on delivering measurable business outcomes.
- Time management and prioritization — ability to manage a high volume of leads, meetings, and administrative tasks.
- Negotiation and persuasion with a focus on win-win outcomes.
- Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management across sales, marketing, product, and operations.
- Adaptability to changing market conditions, competitive dynamics, and product updates.
- Problem-solving orientation with creativity in structuring deals to meet customer and company objectives.
- Coachability and a continuous improvement mindset — open to feedback and new sales methodologies.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- High school diploma or GED; equivalent combination of education and sales experience accepted.
Preferred Education:
- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Economics, or a related field.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Business Administration
- Marketing
- Communications
- Economics
- Information Technology / Computer Science (for technical sales)
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years of quota-carrying sales experience (inside or field sales), with demonstrated success in pipeline generation and deal closure.
Preferred:
- 3+ years in B2B sales or SaaS sales with consistent quota attainment.
- Experience selling to mid-market or enterprise customers, managing multi-stakeholder buying cycles and longer sales cycles.
- Track record of upselling/expansion inside existing accounts and meeting retention targets.