Sales director salary · base and OTE · 2026
What a sales director earns, in base, OTE and day rates
A sales director earns a median advertised salary of £100,000, and a head of sales £75,000, in ITJobsWatch’s count of 2026 IT-sector job ads. Exec Capital’s 2026 guide puts sales director base pay at £70,000 in smaller businesses up to £220,000-plus at enterprise level, with on-target earnings typically 1.5 to 2 times base.
In sales, the base is only half the offer: commission and bonus decide what the seat pays. When you hire a sales director through us, permanent, fractional or interim, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
In the press
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders disagree on when a fractional hire makes sense. Read it before you decide whether your sales seat needs an owner every day or a senior lead for a defined mandate.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a sales director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Sales Director candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
Live roles · last 3 months
Live Sales leadership jobs
No live Sales leadership roles in the last three months. Showing live fractional executive roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CISO (Contract / Project Based)
Cambridge Spark · United Kingdom
est £1,500/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Head of Medical Compliance, Governance & Diligence (Fractional)
CNX Therapeutics Ltd · Greater London
est £1,000/dayGreater London - FractionalSyndicated
Head of Applied Legal – AI Product (Fractional)
Stealth Startup · London
est £1,600/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Product Practice Leader - 9 Month Contract
Tails.com · London
est £1,000/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional CPO
Log my Care · City of London
est £3,250/day3 d/wk - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Finance Directors
PWF Associates Limited · Manchester
est £750/dayManchester - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional legal counsel
Nifina · London
est £750/dayLondon - FractionalExclusive
Fractional COO
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate n/aLondon - FractionalSyndicated
Fractional Financial Controller
MarcoPolo Learning · City of Westminster
est £750/day2 d/wk
Live sales and revenue leadership roles
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a Sales Director brief and a shortlist of three to five.
01/ the role
What a sales director does, and what sets the pay
A sales director runs the sales team and answers for the number: the targets, the forecast, the pipeline, territories and key accounts, and the hiring and management of the people who sell. In most UK companies the title marks the most senior commercial leader. Where a company also has a Chief Revenue Officer, the CRO usually owns marketing and customer success as well, and the sales director runs direct sales beneath them.
Company size sets the base more than anything else. Exec Capital’s 2026 guide runs from £70,000 in smaller businesses to £220,000-plus at enterprise and listed-company level. Sector and deal size set the variable part. Whether the brief is winning new business or growing existing accounts changes the candidates you see and how you pay them.
Sales has its own professional body: the Institute of Sales Professionals is the membership body for the profession, with sales qualifications and accreditation for employers. Membership is a signal worth asking about. It is not a requirement for the role.
02/ scope
How to hire a sales director
1. Scope the seat
Write down the target, the team, the channels, the pipeline the new person inherits and who they report to. Say whether the job is new business, account growth or both. A brief that mixes the two without saying so draws the wrong shortlist.
2. Choose the route
A permanent sales director suits a company with a sales team that needs a senior owner every day. If you need a senior lead to build the first repeatable sales motion for part of the week, hire a fractional head of sales. If the remit spans sales, marketing and customer success, hire a fractional CRO. For full-time cover on a fixed term, hire an interim CRO or sales leader.
3. Assess against the work
The CIPD’s guidance on selection methods favours clear, objective and structured processes, with skill-based tasks alongside interviews. For a sales director, the best task is a real one: a review of your current pipeline and forecast, or a plan for the first quarter. Ask for the targets they were set and what they delivered, and check it with references.
4. Put the commission plan in writing
Acas says an employer should include commission entitlement in the written statement of employment particulars, and that the contract should say what happens to commission earned but not yet paid when employment ends. Agree the target, the rate, any accelerator and the payment dates before the offer.
5. Check before the offer
For an employee, you must check their right to work before they start.
What we do on a sales director brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim and part-time sales leaders. We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ rates by stage
Sales director salary base, OTE and day rates
Advertised salaries from ITJobsWatch, and base, OTE and day-rate ranges from Exec Capital’s 2026 guides. ITJobsWatch counts IT-sector job ads and quotes advertised base, not agreed OTE. Exec Capital is a recruiter publishing its own ranges.
04/ economics
Fractional or interim: what a sales director costs by the day
Not every company needs a full-time sales director. Exec Capital publishes fractional sales director day rates of £500 to £1,000, commonly for four to twelve days a month. For interim cover, its 2026 guide gives £600–£900 a day for running a team through a vacancy and £900–£1,500 for a transformation brief. These are a recruiter’s published rates, not survey results.
A day rate does not compare one for one with a salary. An employee brings employer’s National Insurance, pension and commission on top of base; a contractor funds their own costs. Tax status is set by how the engagement runs in practice. Under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), a medium or large client makes the status determination; a small client outside the public sector leaves it to the worker’s own company. Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
For the fractional route in full, see fractional head of sales jobs. For the wider revenue seat, see the fractional CRO salary page and interim CRO jobs.
05/ vetting
How we vet sales directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Sales Director tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
06/ head of sales salary
Head of sales salary: where it sits against a director
In ITJobsWatch’s count of 2026 IT-sector job ads, the median head of sales salary is £75,000, against £100,000 for a sales director. Treat both as advertised base pay: they come from job ads, not agreed packages, and they leave out commission.
The gap reflects scope. A head of sales usually runs a team or a segment and carries a number; a sales director owns the whole sales function, the forecast and the plan. In a smaller business the head of sales is often the most senior seller, doing the director’s job without the title. Pay the scope, not the title.
For an official cross-check, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports employee earnings by occupation, although its groups are broader than either title. To bring in a head of sales for part of the week, see fractional head of sales jobs.
07/ sales director ote
Sales director OTE: base, commission and the plan
Sales director OTE is on-target earnings: base salary plus the variable pay earned by hitting target in full. Exec Capital’s 2026 guide puts OTE at typically 1.5 to 2 times base, £160,000–£260,000 in the mid-market and £250,000–£450,000 at enterprise level. An OTE is worth only as much as the target behind it is achievable, so ask how recent targets were set and met.
GOV.UK separates short-term performance pay, such as bonus and sales commission, from long-term schemes such as company shares. The CIPD’s introduction to reward makes the same split between fixed base pay and variable pay, which is not guaranteed.
Commission is pay for tax purposes. HMRC treats a cash bonus as earnings, with PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll, and its National Insurance manual lists bonuses and commissions as part of gross pay in the period they are paid. Budget employer’s National Insurance on the variable part too.
08/ questions
Sales director salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a sales director.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
