IT Sales Department Structure | Complete Guide| Part 2

Margo Prylypska
5 min readApr 13, 2020

We all know the importance of sales for any company. Whether you’re looking to expand your product sales or willing to outstand in the tough market of competitors, “Sales Team Structure” can do wonders and bring you on the roadmap of success.

Here is “IT Sales Department Structure” Part 2, a guide for you.

Basically, the duty of the “Sales Team” is to define “the workflow for a sales department.” And, it can be done only with the help of a model in order to maintain an efficient workflow. Not only the “Sales Department” helps you to cut the cost, but you reach out to the customers effectively and efficiently.

Before deciding anything regarding “IT Sales Department Structure,” it’s important to have a piece of knowledge about the different sales team models and determine which one is best for your “Company’s Goals, needs and wants.”

So, without wasting any time further, let’s break down the “anatomy of the modern sales team,” and we will then head towards “IT Sales Department Structure.”

Let’s rock and roll!

Anatomy of the Modern Sales Team

Understanding the roles of the “Sales Team” is important because if you don’t have any “Comprehension or Grasp” about it, then you might end up taking a few wrong decisions. We have identified a few core roles within the sales team. Let’s break them down.

· Hiring Manager: The job of the hiring manager is to find the talent as well as on-boarding them into the company/organization. More established and larger companies ask the “Human Resources Manager” to handle this job for them.

· Sales Trainer/Sales Coach: The obligation of “Sales Trainer” is to help the new employees of the company with “All the sales processes.” Except for a few companies, this role is most likely to be handled by the “Sales Trainer.”

· Administration: The duty of the Administrative Unit is to help the “Sales Team.” However, a lot of small companies skip this role because they don’t have enough “resources” for this post.

· Sales Development Reps (SDR): The key role of SDR is to qualify “Leads” for the company. They reach out to prospects and qualify them by asking questions that focus on customer needs and identify the decision-making process.

· Lead generation Manager: Responsible for developing leads, and gathering data, names, phone numbers, emails etc.

Other roles of the modern sales team are:

· Customer Service

· Account Manager

· Sales Representative

Now, it’s finally the time that we discuss the “Best IT Sales Department Structures” that are dominating the sales market nowadays.

3 Best IT Sales Department Structures

We will be discussing the following structures:

· The Assembly Line

· The Island

· The POD

IT Sales Department Structure #1: The Assembly Line

The Assembly Line is known for providing you with “Linear Structure.” This structure specializes in letting you know the sales process of an organization. In the Assembly Line structure, every single step has a specific job associated with the sales-cycle. The job is assigned to the person who’s perfect for the job.

All the assignments of the assembly line are listed below:

· Lead Generation Team

· Sales Development Team

· Account Executive Team

· Customer/Support Team

Let’s break down the pros and cons of “The Assembly Line” structure.

Pros

· It helps you improve the overall performance of your sales team because you get “Accurate” data from each part of the team

· It provides a “Specific Task” to every member of the team. This can help you mitigate stress and help the team members to focus on the project better

· You can experiment with different new things to keep the “Graph” always above “Good Mark.” This will help you to approach new ways with creativity and effectiveness

Cons

· It doesn’t work great for the smaller organizations because the “The Assembly Line” requires a big team to get the process going

· The work can be repetitive and monotonous

Let’s now talk about the second one.

Sales Team Structure #2: The Island Structure

This structure is basically for the “Small Companies,” where the whole company is relying on the CEO as the primary salesperson. The Island Structure is specially designed for those who can’t afford to have “Big Team.”

The aim of this structure is to double the current sales of your product.

Let’s talk about the pros and cons of “The Island Structure.”

Pros

· Improves the performance of your company with “few resources,” and this structure is ideal for those who have a “Limited Budget.”

· It helps the customer to directly make relationships with the BOSS because, in this structure, the CEO is the sales representative and Account Executive

· Allows you to “set goals” of the company and give the responsibility to each of the “Team Member” to reach the milestone

Cons

· Salespersons have great skills in handling the “Customers,” but if the CEO has no skills, then this structure is of no use

· Provides you fewer chances of generating “Leads” because you the company representatives are busy dealing with the current customers

Now, it’s time to move to the next structure.

Sales Team Structure #3: The Pod Structure

The Pod Structure basically helps you identify the experts in the company. You can identify the generating leads expert, bring new customers expert, and how to target the potential clients (Marketing Expert).

The Pod Structure is the mixture of “The Assembly Line” and “The Island Structure” because it has specific roles for the company members and a job for the “CEO” as well.

Let’s break down the pros and cons of “The Pod Structure.”

Pros

· Helps you to achieve your Company goals and keep the success journey going with great steps

· Enable better communication with the team and reduce frictions

· The sales team can become flexible and alert with this model

Cons

· No competition between the co-workers makes this structure a little boring

· One individual has to deal with the multiple roles, which isn’t good for the “Big Tasks.”

So, that’s all from the topic “IT Sales Department Structure,” but before we go, let’s break down the tips for how to structure a sales team for success.

· Stay-Future Focused

· Stay Customer-Centric

· Stay Data-Driven

· Stay-Hungry

Have any questions in mind? Feel free to comment down below.

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Margo Prylypska

I’m a Sales Professional with over 10 years experience in sales management and commercial development with great interest in IT market and software development.