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face it sales in it and Tech can be complex which is why we made this Ultimate Guide to Tech sales positions first you will learn the five main stages of a tech sales funnel then you'll learn about the 11 different sales positions in what part of the funnel they cover finally you can download our infographic for quick access to this information whenever you need it most there's a lot to cover so let's get started five stages of the tech sales funnel there are five main stages in the tech sales funnel stage one lead generation the first stage is lead generation in this stage marketing and sales work together to bring in potential customers called leads these are people or businesses that have the potential to buy your product or service there are a few different ways to bring in these leads first your marketing team can generate inbound leads also called mqls marketing qualified leads also there are several sales functions such as account Executives Business Development managers and Business Development Representatives that will reach out to new potential clients and develop relationships we will cover each of these in-depth later in this video These leads will then get passed on to stage two stage two lead qualification stage two is qualifying these leads qualifying a lead means researching the person or business that expressed interest in your product to find out if they are hot or cold hot leads are potential prospects or buyers in the short to midterm cold leads on the other hand have no immediate need or intention to buy the product they are only gathering information the actual qualification of these leads are done by sales roles like SDR or inside sales reps stage three is lead conversion stage 3 is converting these leads into actual customers this stage is all about your sales team meeting presenting pitching closing deals and getting contracts signed on to stage four post sales and customer success vendor lock-in is the key for this stage of the funnel your customer success and account management teams will ensure that each customer is getting the most out of your product or service then they will sell in upgrades and additional features and maintain customer retention this is all to lead to a successful fifth stage Stage 5 renewal sales stage five is all about re-engagement and renewal renewal sales reps will engage a current customer before their license expires to make sure that they decide to renew this can also be part of the am or CSM responsibilities in a well-functioning sales Org the customers will cycle back to stage four customer success where the csms and account management teams will continuously engage with the clients I.T and sauce sales positions those are the stages of the sauce sales funnel now let's take a deeper look at each role and where they fit starting with bdr bdr stands for business development representative and in this role you will be in charge of the first two stages of the sales funnel the initial contact with a potential client through outbound prospecting and qualifying the leads that are generated by marketing this will involve cold Communications such as cold calls cold emails networking and social selling once you have generated interest in your product or service you will meet and qualify the lead basically you will assess the budget the need the timeline as well as the person who has the authority to actually make the purchase decision from there you will schedule a time for the lead to meet with an account executive AE and pass the lead on to them generally as a bdr you will be engaging with mid-range to large Enterprises and you will not be responsible for closing deals rather your focus will be on outbound prospecting and moving the qualified leads onto the next stages of the sales funnel bdr is a great entry-level position that can allow you to move into almost any other sales function the next position is more specialized to only handle the second stage with the funnel it is called SDR or sales development representative and it is also an entry level position SDR sales development representative as a SDR your main responsibility is to qualify mqls mqls are marketing qualified leads which means these are leads that have been generated through your company's marketing efforts first you need to assess whether the prospect is a hot lead or a cold lead you will do this through Outreach to the person or business that has expressed interest in your product or service to understand if the product will suit their needs you will need to find out the size of the company their budget or how much money they can spend for a solution The Authority or who has the purchase decision making power the need or what problems they are facing if they don't find a solution and their timeline or how soon they can make a purchase and how urgent it is for them after you have this information and you are certain that there is a definite interest in your product the mqls are converted into sqls sales qualified leads and SQL is a lead that has been qualified by the sales team and is now ready to be converted converting a lead means closing the deal and getting the contract signed as an SDR you will not be responsible for converting leads your focus will be on moving the inbound leads and potential buyers to the next stage of the sales funnel which is meeting with an account executive or other direct sales function hold on so what is the difference between an SDR and a bdr as a bdr your focus is on outbound prospecting and qualifying leads you are generating through your cold Communications emails phone calls networking whereas as an SDR you will be more focused on qualifying inbound leads that are coming from marketing another role with a similar function is the ISR so let's talk about that role next ISR inside sales representative inside sales reps or ISR is named for the fact that you will not meet with clients face to face instead you will communicate with customers via telephone or online this is to maximize the number of potential buyers you can call as an ISR your main function is to engage with the leads that are generated by marketing and convert them into customers the main clients you will engage with are small to medium-sized Enterprises otherwise known as smes Your Role is similar to a sales development representative SDR you will be covering the second stage of the funnel qualifying leads however you will also be in charge of the third stage converting those leads this means you will need to meet with clients demo the product and get the contract signed inside sales means there is an outside sales so what is the difference between inside sales and outside sales as an inside sales representative you will Prospect assess and it close leads using remote Communications instead of in-person meetings outside sales encompasses various sales positions such as bdr account executive sales manager Etc that use face-to-face meetings and interaction to Prospect and assess leads and close deals as of 2022 when we're recording this the Gap is closing outside sales roles have Incorporated online tools to help them sell speaking of outside sales let's talk about the account executive account executive before we dive into this one I want to remind you that we are talking about account Executives in sauce and I.T not in advertising the rules are similar but there are some key differences that we talk about in our guide to working in an advertising agency available on our website I'll put a link in the description below as an account executive or AE you will be in charge of the first three stages of the sales funnel with your main goal being to convert leads into full-fledged customers when working as an AE you will meet with clients to demo the product give presentations on the benefits of your service build strong relationships with your clients and close deals in Japan this can be done through high touch sales or meeting with clients regularly in work settings over dinner and entertainment to strengthen those foundations of the relationship this is where the Trope of the Japanese business meetings and karaoke bars comes from AES are generally focused on more high-profile customers like large Enterprises this type of position can also be called Business Development outside sales or sales manager depending on the company account Executives can often get confused for the similar sounding but very different account manager so let's talk about that role next am account manager an account manager or am is our first post sales role and is generally responsible for the fourth and fifth stages of the tech sales funnel as an account manager or am you will engage with the client after the deal has been closed to ensure that their needs and expectations are being met this means meeting with your clients on a daily basis to follow up on any issues they're having offering solutions to problems the clients May encounter in the future and Reporting results from the previous usage of your product in essence you are the face of your company to your client and you will be engaging with them most out of any of your other sales counterparts in the account manager role your targets are tied to the revenue generated from the account these targets could include upselling or cross-selling or renewal sales as an account manager you will be managing several Accounts at the same time these can range from smbs to large Enterprises you will need to manage your time appropriately for the size of each account while maintaining focus on key accounts your title will change depending on the accounts you are handling such as an Enterprise account manager if you are working with Enterprise clients or a key account manager if you are working with accounts that are crucial to your business if you want to learn more be sure to check out our video on account managers our next post sales role also covers stages four and five of The Funnel CSM customer success manager as a customer success manager you are responsible for ensuring that your customers are experiencing the full benefits of the product this means making sure that your clients are using every feature of your product or service you'll also be handling implementation taking care of issues that your customers are having anticipating and resolving issues that your customers May encounter and Reporting on the results from the previous usage this includes cross-selling and upselling new products or features that the customer would benefit from it also includes coaching and training sessions for your customers and even productizing those customers needs productizing is adapting the product you provide by creating new features based on your customer requests success rules will not usually have direct sales targets but you may have upselling or cross-selling bonuses this position can also be titled technical account manager client success manager Client Solutions manager or Solutions consultant depending on the company if you want to learn more we have a deep dive video on customer success I will put a link at the end of this video renewal sales this role can mainly be found at larger companies as a renewal sales or renewal specialist you will focus only on stage five of the sales funnel you'll engage with customers before their contract is set to renew to ensure that the renewal happens this requires you to work through any contract terms or pricing renegotiations keeping the customer at their current level of the subscription or enforcing price increases as your product and service change other situations that you will deal with would be the customer not paying the renewal fee but still using the product or service as well as changes with the point of contact or POC on the customer side this may be delegated to customer success or account management teams or handled by a renewal sales specialist and this position may also be titled renewal sales renewal sales representative renewals software renewals Etc now let's move on to the more senior roles all of these will cover multiple stages of the sales funnel starting with BDM business development manager Business Development can have two meanings depending on the company and revenue model the first definition type 1 is developing an existing business line through engaging new clients and Prospects and leads the second definition type 2 is developing new business lines and revenue streams through Partnerships or other means both will have titles that can range from business development manager to business development director and other variations generally both types of BD managers are individual contributors however only one operates in the tech sales funnel type 1 developing an existing business as a business development manager in Tech you will be responsible for developing an existing business by handling the full sales cycle from prospecting and cold Outreach to closing deals and occasionally meeting with customers post sale to maintain those relationships as you can see this position covers the first four stages of the sales funnel and can often be the first hire when entering a new market type 2 is developing new business lines and although this doesn't fit within the tech sales funnel I think it's a good idea to go through what they do as a business development manager that is focused on developing new business lines you will be in charge of Outreach to synergistic Partners across any industry this will require you to think outside of the box and to build mutually beneficial alliances with organizations that may seem unrelated at first glance you may also need to seek out new opportunities for Acquisitions of businesses and industries that you feel would benefit your company this means that you will need to keep your finger on the pulse of upcoming Trends topics and Technologies across all Industries this type of BDM works as part of the funnel and outside of it you will need to cold Outreach and generate interest in your products you will be working towards Partnerships more than direct sales SM sales manager the term sales manager can also refer to two different types of positions type 1 is an individual contributor or playing sales manager you will be responsible for managing the full sales funnel or 360 selling the second type of sales manager is a sales team manager in this role you will manage a sales team and act as a leader or mentor to ensure that your sales team is performing up to the Target set by your organization type 1 individual contributor you will cover Outreach to prospects and potential leads engaging those leads and closing deals thus converting those leads into customers covering every stage of the sales cycle these types of sales managers are also referred to as Hunter sales or outside sales type 2 leading a team the second type of sales manager is a sales team leader which means that you will be guiding your team to perform their best by setting sales targets managing kpis and motivating your team now on to the sales senior leadership roles sales director as a sales director or director of sales you will be a leader within a sales organization you will be in charge of setting targets budgets kpis and motivating your team members to ensure that the team is performing up to expectations a sales director will report to the country manager cro or head of sales in HQ your primary objective will be to achieve your business's Revenue targets consistently as a sales director you can be the first hire in a market in which case you would cover all five stages of the sales funnel other titles for this position include business development manager VP of sales or head of sales so what's the difference between a sales director and a sales manager the primary difference between a sales director and a sales manager is your involvement in the Strategic elements of a business as a sales director you will manage the sales managers in the sales organization which means you will be responsible for creating the strategy that the sales managers will be responsible for implementing now on to the final position CM country manager a country manager or cm is a leadership position in a market that is not the company's original geographical Market you will lead all of the day-to-day activities within that given Market in Japan because this is such a relationship driven Market you will potentially need to sell to Priority customers and maintain close relationships with partners and other Executives which means you're going to be covering all five stages of the sales funnel you will report directly to HQ and the c-suite you will be hiring training and managing a team of high performing sales functions and post sales functions followed by technical support and marketing once the revenue for the business unit has been established a country manager will usually be the first hire in a new market and if you are the first hire you will be responsible for the entire sales funnel this can also be titled as managing director sales director or business development director summary still with me that was a lot to remember so here's a graphic that shows the stages of the funnel that each role covers as you can see the more senior the position the more stages and responsibilities you have this is especially true for companies just starting out or just entering a market for the first time as the team grows there will be more specialized positions hired in after the sales leadership positions the second hire is usually a post-sales role like account manager or CSM to make sure that each customer feels satisfied with the service check out our customer success video to learn more about what those teams do foreign