The sales director must form a sales strategy, a task requiring business sense and planning skills. Innovation and creativity are crucial qualities that make the execution of this task easy. The director's strategy should yield profits by maximizing on market opportunities available.
The sales director acts as an ambassador and requires effective people skills as she represents the company to outside entities. She speaks for the company in seminars and during meetings with potential clients. Such functions are platforms to create lasting business relationships with potential suppliers and current clients. Additionally, she must accept responsibility for, and communicate, bad news like price increases or revenue dips to clients and investors, respectively. The sales director is accountable for any increase or drop in sales within a given financial period.
The sales director needs to be a calm and clear-headed person to effectively direct a group of sales staffers with different personalities. He needs to organize the department and delegate duties to acquire efficiency at the work place. People tend to work better when they know exactly what they are supposed to do. For instance, the sales director should send sales representatives with people skills on field assignments and keep other staffers in-house and on the phone if they need a script to close the deal.
To successfully expand business, the sales director must have effective sales and negotiation skills. He needs to tap into all the company's available opportunities. In addition, he negotiates with suppliers and consumers to magnify available opportunities. This is done by comparing different options in the market and choosing the best option based on costs and expected returns. Effective negotiation and sales skills help "steal" these opportunities from competitors.