What is a Chief Sales Officer (CSO)?
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering… “What’s the difference between a CSO and a CGO?” We get it. There’s confusion and overlap between various sales titles used at different organizations. What’s more, titles are often changing and adapting to industry trends.
The fast-growing, competitive nature of the SaaS industry has created an environment where new titles are needed to accommodate for completely new positions. Slightly different titles – à la Sales Development Rep vs. Business Development Rep – are created to sound more relevant, modern, and in line with company values and culture.
What’s more, a central question in fast-growing, successful start-ups becomes: “How can I reward employees who have been here since day one?” This question is often answered by creating a variety of new C-Suite level positions for the first handful of employees who were key in getting the company up and running.
Keep reading to find out exactly what the chief sales officer does, average salary for CSOs, career outlook, and available CSO jobs.
In sales, the acronym CSO generally stands for Chief Sales Officer. CSOs are part of senior management, responsible for overall direction and strategy for the company’s sales team and business growth.
Chief Sales Officer Job Description
C-suite sales management has the responsibility of leading sales and new business growth for the entire organization. Their roles are directly tied to revenue and managing many people, and therefore comes with a lot of challenges and opportunities.
The chief sales officer sets the overall direction and strategy for the company’s sales team, aligns sales processes to meet and exceed KPIs, and manages people and teams to help them perform their best. CSOs aren’t necessarily taking sales calls or closing deals, but rather supporting and directing the sales engine within their company.
CSOs may also act as thought leaders within the sales industry, specifically within the intersection of sales and their company’s industry. Responsibilities may include speaking engagements, participating in conference panel discussions, and sharing insights via webinars and podcasts. During these presentations, senior sales executives also share and represent their companies.
Chief Sales Officer Salary
The average chief sales officer salary in the United States is $229,428 annually, (source: Indeed). These positions may not come with performance-based additional pay, but instead shares of the company or overall profit sharing when the business expands.
CSO Career Outlook
With the abundance of automation, software, and online marketing tools available on the market today, it may be worth wondering if sales positions will still be growing in a few years.
If you’re looking to grow your career in the sales industry, don’t worry – as the market outlook for sales executives is positive! 8% growth is projected for top sales executive opportunities through 2030, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Chief Sales Officer Jobs
Looking for available CSO jobs? Here are a few resources to help your search:
- Chief Sales Officer Jobs on LinkedIn
- Chief Sales Officer Jobs on Indeed
- Chief Sales Officer Jobs on Glassdoor
Which sales role is right for me?
The right sales role for you depends on your experience and expertise, but sales can be a good industry to get your start if you are entering the job market for the first time!
Some key characteristics of great sales and customer support professionals include:
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Great communicators
- Passion for what they are selling
- Willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done
- No fear calling and following-up with potential clients
- Positive attitude
- Creative and passionate about helping others
- Ability to multi-task across different platforms and forms of communication
- Ability to work well under pressure and with a team
Does this sound like you? Kixie is hiring, and we’d love to hear from you! We are looking for jovial, hard-working colleagues to share our journey as we change the landscape of business telephony.
