best title for my unique situation?

Hey gang - I'm coming up on promotion season at my 35 person startup, and I wanted to get some advice from y'all... what title should I advocate for?


Since January of this year, I've held the title of Sales Lead. I oversee 2 SMB/junior reps, my founder (who's essentially an AE focused on larger/strategic deals), and a Sales ops/admin guy. Founder has no interest in running the day to day of a sales team, which is why I "oversee" him (aka update your SFDC). Prior to Sales Lead, I held an AE title at this same company for 2.5 years. I've got about 5 YXP all in.


I like managing reps, but I don't love it. What I'm passionate about is learning our market/ICP through selling (also, commission), and bringing that intel back to our team to use & improve. If I go the "Head of Sales" or similar route, would that pigeonhole me into only management in the future? Is there a way to maintain my IC/light management combo but with a new title?


Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!


Matt

๐ŸŽฏ Career Development
๐Ÿ’ฏ Promotions
9
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
5
Sales Rep
If you were to leave right now for a role, what would it be? Thats your title
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Adding to this, I think what you ask for is what you want your next job to be. How do you translate the title into the function?
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
4
Bravado's Resident Asshole
My old manager was "head of sales" but was a working manager and closed his own deals on top of helping others close.
saasslingingslasherr
Executive
0
Sales Lead
Did he/she ever mention if this was helpful when it came to prospecting? I'm wondering if the higher title helped cold email.
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
1
Bravado's Resident Asshole
Yes, being in the throws of things keeps your skills sharp. It was super helpful this way, but itโ€™s also going to be a small business type of approach. Scaling and proper management is tough when the manager is also focused on their own pocket.
jefe
Arsonist
4
๐Ÿ
Head of Sales.

I run the company's entire sales function and manage the team but also sell.
saasslingingslasherr
Executive
1
Sales Lead
Thanks Jefe! You're right.
Filth
Politicker
3
Live Filthy or Die Clean
Revenue Czar
TennisandSales
Politicker
2
Head Of Sales
at a small start up like yours titles really dont mean too much.

BUT

I think head of sales would be a solid title for the description. Who is in charge of hiring new reps? im sure founder has some say but does it land on you?

i dont think this will pigeonhole you at all going forward.
butwhy
Politicker
2
Solutions Engineer
"What I'm passionate about is learning our market/ICP through selling (also, commission), and bringing that intel back to our team to use & improve."

That's Business Development - not BDR, but usually I have seen it as Business Development Manager or Director of Business Development. It's a super cool high level role I have considered getting into a couple times.
saasslingingslasherr
Executive
0
Sales Lead
@butwhyI've always wondered about the nuances between Bus Dev & Sales. Do you know more about this or anyone who has made the transition?
butwhy
Politicker
1
Solutions Engineer
Most Bis Dev people I have met were long term AEs who just transitioned either at a current company or a slightly smaller one. It seems to be a pretty natural evolution of responsibility once you are more senior in the space.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
๐ŸฆŠ
What do you want to do exactly?
Mobi85
Politicker
0
Regional Sales Manager
Master of the Sales Universe at XYZ company has a good ring to it.
Rallier
Politicker
0
SDR Manager and Consultant
What ever the next role you want is, use that title word for word
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