Sales team org chart example
A B2B sales organization of about twenty-five under a chief revenue officer: regions for the closers, a separate team for the openers, solutions engineers on loan to both, and the operations that keep the number honest.
How a sales organization is usually structured
A sales org is drawn around a number, and the number has an owner: the VP of sales. Below them, the closers are organized by territory (regions) or by segment (enterprise, mid-market, SMB), each with a director or manager and a stacked column of account executives. Six to eight AEs per first-line manager is the range that works; twelve is the range that shows up in the attrition figures.
Sales development — the SDRs who book meetings — is a separate team with its own manager, not a junior layer inside each region. Two reasons: SDR work is measured differently, and the SDR manager's real job is a pipeline into AE roles. Solutions engineers sit in a small team of their own and are dotted-lined into the regions they support, because an SE who reports to a regional director ends up doing demos for one region's deals and nobody's architecture.
Two functions belong beside sales, under the CRO, rather than under the VP of sales. Revenue operations (CRM, territories, comp plans, forecasting, enablement) has to be able to say no to sales. Customer success owns renewals and expansion, which are revenue but not new logos, and mixing the two teams under one VP is how renewals get ignored in the last week of the quarter.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | Chief Revenue Officer, VP Sales, VP Customer Success, Head of Revenue Operations |
| Managers | Regional Sales Director, Sales Manager (segment), SDR Manager, Solutions Engineering Lead, Customer Success Team Lead, Sales Enablement Manager |
| Individual contributors | Account Executive (Enterprise, Mid-Market, SMB), Senior Account Executive, Sales Development Rep, Business Development Rep, Solutions Engineer, Customer Success Manager, Account Manager (Renewals), Sales Operations Analyst, Deal Desk Analyst |
| What appears at scale | Area VP, Channel or Partner Manager, Sales Engineering Manager, Onboarding Specialist, Revenue Analyst, Sales Recruiter |
Where these charts go wrong
Sales charts fail by growing a region to fourteen AEs before adding a manager, by putting SDRs under individual AEs, by drawing SEs as a region's property, by hiding customer success under sales, and by a chart that is really the territory plan — with people who haven't been hired drawn as if they had, and without marking them open.
Questions people ask
- How many account executives per sales manager?
- Six to eight. Below five the manager is an expensive AE; above ten, coaching stops and the chart is where you'll see the attrition first. Regional directors above them typically hold three to five managers.
- Should SDRs report to the AEs they support?
- No. SDRs get their own manager, who reports to the VP of sales. Pairing an SDR with an AE for a territory is fine and common — draw it as a dotted line if you want — but the solid line goes to the SDR manager, who is measured on meetings and on turning SDRs into AEs.
- Where do solutions engineers sit?
- In a small team under the VP of sales or the CRO, with dotted lines into the regions or segments they support. An SE who reports to a regional director becomes that region's demo person; a team of SEs keeps the skill shared.
- Should customer success be under sales?
- Beside it, under the CRO. Customer success owns renewal and expansion revenue; sales owns new revenue. They share the number and shouldn't share a manager, or renewals get traded for new logos every quarter-end.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Security & facilities servicesSites stacked under supervisors; a 24-hour control room.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product departmentProduct, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Consulting firmThree practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practiceA clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police departmentPatrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management companyThe owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.