United Kingdom · Sales · Principal/Manager (12-16 years)

Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

See how AI is changing this job, and get the full read by email.

As a Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy, a good place to start on AI-Driven GTM Strategy & Optimisation is Planning Automation Across a Department, a free Future Fluency module at Level 5. You'd practise working out what in your department's work could be automated, what should not be, and what to recommend.

Free to start, no card.

Keep this job description

Where should we send it?

One email: what AI is changing in this job, the new skills it asks for, where it leads, and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

Your employer, or 'self-employed'

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  • Experience bandPrincipal/Manager (12-16 years)
  • Reports toDirector, Sales Excellence & Operations
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Head of Sales Operations & Strategy · Senior Manager, Sales Effectiveness · Sales Planning & Enablement Lead

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in what real qualifications cover

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Computing for England Pearson Education Ltd · Level 5 · covers 3 of 10 standards
Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 2 of 10 standards
Level 5 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 2 of 10 standards
Level 5 Diploma in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 2 of 10 standards
NCC Education Level 5 Extended Diploma in Computing with Data Science NCC Education Limited · Level 5 · covers 2 of 10 standards
Level 6 Award in Data-led Decision Making Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 6 · covers 1 of 10 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Data Analytics Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Computing for England
Manage Sales Technology Systems Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems
Introduction to Data Science and Big Data NCC Education Level 5 Extended Diploma in Computing with Data Science
Data-led Decision Making Level 6 Award in Data-led Decision Making

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
Automation Fluency building AI into how work runs
Foresight Fluency seeing round the corner
Your Plan Illustration

Built for Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy

4 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Data Analytics Pearson Education Ltd · covers 3 of 10 standards Level 5
  2. Manage Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 2 of 10 standards Level 5
  3. Introduction to Data Science and Big Data NCC Education Limited · covers 2 of 10 standards Level 5
  4. Data-led Decision Making Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 1 of 10 standards Level 6
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skills this role is being asked for

  • AI-Driven GTM Strategy & Optimisation
  • Advanced Data Governance & Quality for AI
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy plan as you set up, starting with the free Automation Fluency module. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

Keep this read. One email with what AI is changing in this job, the new skills it asks for and where to start free. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

3What this role really is

This job means building the systems that help a sales team sell smarter and more profitably. It involves leading a small team, turning data into strategies that shape a significant part of the business, and keeping the sales operation running efficiently.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Salesforce Sales Cloud Strategic

Governing the data model for your segment, evaluating AppExchange partners, making platform-level decisions that impact your team's analytical capabilities and the sales team's workflow. You'll ensure your team can extract and analyse data effectively.

Tableau / Power BI Architect

Defining the enterprise BI strategy for Sales within your segment, managing Tableau Server/Power BI Premium workspaces, and ensuring your team builds robust, scalable, and insightful dashboards. You'll be the one to challenge their visualisations and data integrity.

Highspot / Seismic (Sales Enablement) Strategic

Selecting and owning the platform strategy for sales enablement content within your segment, defining the overall content governance and enablement strategy, and measuring its impact on sales productivity. You'll ensure reps have the right content at the right time.

SalesLoft / Outreach (Sales Engagement) Strategic

Evaluating platform ROI, setting governance for messaging and automation within your segment, and ensuring your team extracts meaningful insights from engagement data to optimise sales motions. You'll understand how reps are using these tools and how to make them more effective.

Anaplan / Pigment (Planning & Modeling) Expert

Architecting complex models from scratch for compensation, capacity planning, and territory optimisation for your segment. This is where you'll get hands-on with the strategic design and validation of critical sales plans.

Snowflake / Google BigQuery (Data Warehouse) Strategic

Influencing the data warehousing strategy, defining data requirements from source systems (e.g., ERP, HRIS) to ensure your team has access to clean, reliable data for their analysis. You'll understand the data architecture and how to get the most out of it.

Asana / Monday.com (Project Management) Strategic

Managing the portfolio of all Sales Excellence initiatives for your segment, allocating resources across projects, and reporting progress to leadership. You'll use these tools to keep your team organised and on track.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Sales Compensation Plan Design N/A (Executes calculations based on defined plans) N/A (Proposes minor adjustments to existing plans based on data) Recommends significant changes to compensation plan structures for specific segments to Director, based on detailed modelling and analysis.
Territory Design & Allocation N/A (Performs data cleanup to support territory analysis) N/A (Analyses territory performance data, flags imbalances) Develops proposed territory re-alignments for a specific sales team, presents options to Sales Director.
Hiring for Sales Excellence Team N/A (May participate in interviews as a peer) N/A (May conduct initial screening interviews) N/A (May conduct final-round technical interviews)
Vendor Selection for Sales Tech (e.g., BI Tool, Sales Engagement Platform) N/A (Uses existing tools) N/A (Evaluates features of existing tools) N/A (Researches alternative tools, presents findings)

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Sales Productivity (Revenue per Rep)
This measures the average revenue generated by each quota-carrying sales representative within your segment or region.
Target · Increase average revenue per quota-carrying rep by 10% year-over-year.

If the average rep in your segment brought in £500,000 last year, we'd expect that to be £550,000 this year, thanks to your team's initiatives around process, enablement, and territory design.

Quota Attainment Rate
The percentage of sales representatives who achieve 100% or more of their assigned sales quota.
Target · Increase the percentage of reps achieving 100%+ of quota from 60% to 70%.

If you started with 60 out of 100 reps hitting their numbers, we'd want to see that climb to 70 out of 100, indicating more widespread success across the team, often driven by better territory balancing and clearer comp plans.

Pipeline Velocity & Sales Cycle Length
How quickly deals move through the sales pipeline, from initial contact to close, and the average time it takes.
Target · Decrease the average sales cycle length by 5% for key product lines.

If it typically takes 90 days to close a deal for Product X, your team's work on process optimisation or enablement should help shrink that to around 85 days, meaning revenue comes in faster.

Cost of Sales Optimisation
This looks at how efficiently we're spending money to generate revenue, specifically focusing on compensation expense as a percentage of revenue.
Target · Optimise sales compensation and resource allocation to reduce commission expense as a percentage of revenue by 2%.

If commissions currently make up 12% of revenue, your goal would be to bring that down to 10% through smarter plan design that rewards profitable growth without overpaying for standard sales.

Team Engagement & Development
How well you build, coach, and retain your team, ensuring they feel supported and are growing in their careers.
  • High scores in team engagement surveys, low voluntary attrition within your team, successful internal promotions from your team to more senior roles, positive feedback from direct reports during 1:1s and performance reviews. Frankly, if your team are happy and learning, you're doing something right.
Strategic Influence & Adoption
Your ability to get sales leadership and other stakeholders to buy into and adopt the strategies and processes your team designs.
  • New sales methodologies or processes designed by your team are widely adopted (e.g., 80%+ usage in CRM). Sales VPs actively seek your input on strategic decisions (e.g., go-to-market changes, new product launches). Positive feedback from key stakeholders on the quality and impact of your team's recommendations. Truth is, if they're listening and acting, you're influencing.
Operational Efficiency & Scalability
How well your team streamlines sales operations, making processes more efficient and less prone to manual errors, and building solutions that can grow with the business.
  • Reduction in manual data manipulation for routine reports (e.g., 20% less time spent on QBR prep). Faster turnaround times for critical operational tasks like territory adjustments or quota setting. Documented, repeatable processes that reduce reliance on individual knowledge. Essentially, if things just 'work' better and faster, that's your doing.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Building & Developing a High-Performing Team

You'll spend a good chunk of your week coaching your team members, reviewing their work, helping them tackle tough problems, and celebrating their successes. Seeing your direct reports grow and take on more responsibility is a big win for you.

Mentoring a junior analyst to confidently present their findings to a Sales VP, or helping a Senior Business Partner navigate a complex stakeholder conflict.

Driving Tangible Business Impact through Strategy

You'll be deeply involved in defining the 'how' for hitting our revenue goals. This means designing new compensation plans, optimising territory structures, and seeing your strategic recommendations directly translate into improved sales performance and profitability.

Your team's new territory design leads to a 15% increase in new logo acquisition in a previously underperforming region, or a revised comp plan reduces commission costs by £500K without impacting rep motivation.

Solving Complex Organisational Puzzles

You thrive on taking messy, ambiguous sales challenges – like inconsistent forecasting or declining rep productivity – and breaking them down into solvable problems. You enjoy designing the systems and processes that bring order to chaos.

Architecting a new QBR process that reduces prep time by 30% while providing deeper insights, or designing a sales capacity model that accurately predicts hiring needs for the next 18 months.

What frustrates people
  • The 'Gut Feel' Override: Spending weeks with your team building a meticulously data-driven territory plan, only to have a Sales VP redraw the lines based on their 'experience' or a personal relationship, creating imbalances you'll have to clean up next year.
  • Being the 'Sales Prevention Department': You're often the one enforcing the discount approval matrix or the Rules of Engagement, which means you and your team are sometimes seen as blockers by reps trying to close a deal quickly. It's a tough spot to be in.
  • The 'Garbage In, Garbage Out' Reality: Your team's analysis is only as good as the data in Salesforce, which is often incomplete, inconsistent, or outright wrong. A significant portion of your team's time, and yours, will be spent on data cleansing, not just analysis.
  • The Compensation Plan Backlash: No matter how fair and balanced you and your team make the new comp plan, a vocal minority will complain it's unfair, and leadership might pressure you to make one-off exceptions that undermine the entire structure.
  • Forecast Whiplash: Being held accountable for the accuracy of the sales forecast when you are fundamentally reliant on the often overly optimistic or sandbagged projections from the sales leaders themselves. It's a constant battle to get realistic numbers.
  • Weaponised Dashboards: Building a beautiful dashboard to provide insight, only to see leaders use it to punish reps for low activity metrics without understanding the full context, causing the sales team to distrust your work and your team's efforts.
  • The QBR Fire Drill: The recurring, last-minute scramble to pull, clean, and visualise data for Quarterly Business Reviews because requirements were vague or changed at the 11th hour. You'll be managing your team through this, trying to build better processes to prevent it next time.
What this role does not give you
  • A purely hands-on, individual contributor role where you're just doing the analysis yourself. You'll be leading a team and focusing on strategy and oversight.
  • A quiet, predictable environment. Sales is dynamic, and so is this role. Expect urgent requests and shifting priorities.
  • The ability to make decisions in a vacuum. You'll need to build consensus and influence others constantly.
  • A role where you only interact with data. You'll be spending a lot of time with people, both your team and senior leaders.

8Who you work with

Your work directly shapes the operational efficiency and strategic direction for a significant portion of our sales organisation. You're responsible for making sure we hit our revenue goals, not just by selling more, but by selling smarter. This means optimising everything from how we pay our reps to how we decide who sells what. Frankly, your team's output underpins critical business decisions, and your impact is felt across the entire go-to-market function.

Inside the business
  • Regional Sales VPs (your primary 'clients' for strategy and operations)
  • Finance Business Partners (you'll work closely on budgets, comp plans, and forecasting)
  • HR Business Partners (for talent planning, hiring, and performance management within your team)
  • Product Marketing (to ensure sales enablement content aligns with product launches)
  • Sales Enablement (to make sure our reps have the right tools and training)
  • Legal (for contract and policy reviews, especially around compensation)
Outside the business
  • Sales Technology Vendors (you might evaluate or manage relationships with CRM or sales enablement providers)
  • Industry Peers (sometimes you'll represent us at conferences or in working groups)

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven experience leading and developing a team of analysts or business partners in a Sales Operations or Sales Excellence function.
  • Demonstrable track record of designing and implementing complex sales compensation plans, territory structures, and capacity models that have driven measurable business impact.
  • Expert-level proficiency in at least one major CRM platform (e.g., Salesforce) and one BI tool (e.g., Tableau, Power BI), with a strong understanding of data architecture.
  • A deep, practical understanding of various sales methodologies and how to embed them into daily sales workflows.
  • Strong experience presenting strategic recommendations to senior leadership (VP level and above) and influencing decisions without direct authority.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced Platform Architecture & Integration

Important within 12 months. As the sales tech stack grows, understanding how different platforms (CRM, BI, Sales Enablement, AI tools) integrate and share data becomes critical. You'll need to guide your team in building robust, scalable integrations.

API Management & Orchestration · Data Lake/Warehouse Integration · Low-Code/No-Code Automation · Security & Compliance in Integrations

  • This quarter: Map out the current data flow between your core sales systems (CRM, BI, Enablement) and identify key integration pain points.
  • Next 6 months: Research and evaluate potential low-code/no-code automation platforms that could streamline a key sales process for your team.
  • Next 12 months: Lead a project to improve the data quality and integration of a critical sales data source into our central data warehouse.
  • Ongoing: Stay updated on new integration capabilities of our existing sales tech stack and potential new tools.

Quick win: Identify one manual data transfer process your team does regularly and research if a simple API integration or low-code automation could replace it.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attend industry conferences (e.g., Sales Ops Summit, Revenue Operations Summit) to stay abreast of best practices and network with peers.
  • Participate in online courses or workshops focused on advanced data analytics, AI in sales, or leadership development.
  • Read books and articles on sales strategy, organisational behaviour, and change management to continuously refine your leadership and strategic thinking.
  • Seek out mentorship opportunities from senior leaders within or outside the organisation to gain different perspectives on leadership and career growth.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven GTM Strategy & Optimisation

Critical within 12 months. AI is already moving beyond just automating tasks; it's now informing strategic decisions. Competitors are using predictive AI for hyper-segmentation and identifying optimal sales motions, giving them a significant edge. If we don't, we'll be left behind.

  • Predictive Analytics for Sales Motions
  • Dynamic Segmentation & Personalisation
  • AI-Powered Scenario Planning
  • Ethical AI in Sales

Advanced Data Governance & Quality for AI

Critical within 6-12 months. As we rely more on AI for strategic insights, the quality and governance of our underlying sales data become paramount. 'Garbage In, Garbage Out' is amplified with AI. You'll need to ensure your team is building a robust data foundation.

  • Data Lineage & Metadata Management
  • Data Quality Automation
  • Data Privacy & Security for AI
  • Master Data Management (MDM) for Sales

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Sales Methodology Implementation & Optimisation
  • Advanced Territory & Quota Architecture
  • Sales Compensation Plan Design & Management
  • Pipeline Velocity & Health Analysis (Strategic)
  • Sales Capacity & Productivity Modeling (Strategic)
  • Rules of Engagement (ROE) & Deal Desk Management (Policy)

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Principal, Sales Strategy & Planning (L4)

    3-5 years in previous role

    Skills to master

    • Architecting complex sales systems (comp plans, capacity models), influencing senior stakeholders without direct authority, acting as a subject matter expert for the entire function. You'd have owned the 'what' and 'how' for major strategic initiatives.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully designed and implemented 2-3 major sales strategy programmes (e.g., new comp plan, territory redesign) end-to-end.
    • Consistently sought out by Sales VPs for strategic input and problem-solving.
    • Demonstrated informal leadership by mentoring junior team members and leading project teams.
    • Proven ability to present complex analytical findings to executive audiences with confidence and clarity.
  2. 2

    Senior Sales Excellence Business Partner (L3)

    5-8 years in previous role (with strong leadership potential)

    Skills to master

    • Leading significant workstreams for a business unit, managing projects from start to finish, making data-backed recommendations to leadership, and mentoring junior analysts. This path requires a clear demonstration of readiness for people leadership.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Successfully managed multiple complex projects (e.g., QBR prep for a large segment, sales methodology rollout) on time and within scope.
    • Consistently received positive feedback on mentorship and guidance provided to junior team members.
    • Proactively identified and proposed solutions to significant sales operational challenges.
    • Developed strong relationships with Sales Directors and other cross-functional leads, seen as a trusted advisor.
  3. 3

    Finance Business Partner (supporting Sales)

    4-7 years in previous role (with strong desire for sales ops focus)

    Skills to master

    • Deep understanding of sales P&L, budgeting, forecasting, and financial modelling. You'd need to develop specific sales operations knowledge like territory design, comp plan mechanics, and CRM data structures. The transition is about applying financial rigour to sales strategy.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Owned financial planning and analysis for a significant sales division or region.
    • Demonstrated ability to translate financial goals into operational plans.
    • Proactively sought opportunities to understand sales processes and challenges beyond just the numbers.
    • Strong analytical and modelling skills, with a keen eye for detail and accuracy.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This role can lead to leading larger teams, specialising in strategic planning, or eventually running an entire go-to-market organisation. It builds a foundation for turning selling into a repeatable, scalable process.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy is actually changing.

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Data Analytics, worked against Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy.

Data Analytics Level 5

Applied to your work in Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy

The objective of this unit is to enable learners to understand and apply data analytics techniques for decision-making. Learners will be able to apply descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytic methods, utilising statistical methods, to convert raw data into actionable insights and determine the best course of action.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy
  • Sales Methodology Implementation & Optimisation
  • Advanced Territory & Quota Architecture
  • Sales Compensation Plan Design & Management
  • Pipeline Velocity & Health Analysis (Strategic)
  • Sales Capacity & Productivity Modeling (Strategic)
  • Rules of Engagement (ROE) & Deal Desk Management (Policy)
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. This is a significant step up, owning the entire Sales Excellence strategy for a major business unit or even globally. You'll manage multiple teams (including other Managers) and make key tech stack decisions for the function.

    • Global Sales Operations Strategy Defining standardised processes and metrics across different geographies and business units.
    • Sales Tech Stack Ownership Making ultimate decisions on major CRM, BI, and enablement platforms, including budget and roadmap.
    • M&A Integration (Sales Ops perspective) Leading the integration of sales processes, data, and teams during mergers and acquisitions.
    • Advanced Change Management Driving large-scale, complex change programmes across a global sales organisation.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

Let's be honest, a big chunk of Sales Excellence work can be repetitive or involve sifting through mountains of data. What if you could offload some of that grunt work to AI, freeing up your team to focus on the really strategic stuff? That's exactly what we're doing here at Zavmo.

We're not just talking about theory; we're actively integrating AI tools into our daily Sales Excellence workflows. For a Manager like you, this means empowering your team to work smarter, not harder, and giving you more time to focus on coaching, strategy, and influencing key stakeholders. Imagine the impact if your team could deliver insights twice as fast.

Automated Performance Narratives

Imagine your team's weekly territory performance reports writing their own first drafts. Generative AI can synthesise key metrics from dashboards – pipeline created, deals closed, conversion rates – into concise, insightful paragraphs. This highlights anomalies and trends automatically, giving your team a huge head start and letting them focus on deeper analysis and recommendations, not just drafting. It's a game-changer for QBR prep.

Proactive Pipeline Anomaly Detection

Instead of your team manually scrubbing pipelines, AI models can scan the entire sales pipeline for deals that are at risk but haven't been flagged. It can identify deals with no recent activity, stalled stages, or engagement patterns that historically lead to 'closed-lost' outcomes. This means your team can proactively alert managers to at-risk deals, improving forecast accuracy and giving reps a chance to intervene before it's too late. Think of it as a super-powered early warning system.

Competitor Intelligence Synthesis

Your team needs to stay on top of what competitors are doing, but manual research is a time sink. An AI research assistant can monitor and synthesise competitor intelligence related to GTM strategy. It can summarise earnings call transcripts for mentions of sales hiring, analyse pricing page changes, and aggregate customer reviews to identify competitive weaknesses. This gives your team a rapid, consolidated view of the competitive landscape, feeding into better sales plays and strategic planning.

Policy & Process First Drafts

Rolling out a new initiative – like updated Rules of Engagement or a new discount approval process – always means a ton of documentation. Your team can use AI to generate the first draft of these documents. Provide bullet points for a new policy, and the AI can generate a clear, comprehensive policy document and an FAQ for the sales team. This drastically cuts down on the time spent on administrative writing, letting your team focus on the substance of the change.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy?

Common routes in include Principal, Sales Strategy & Planning (3-5 years in previous role), Senior Sales Excellence Business Partner (5-8 years in previous role (with strong leadership potential)) and Finance Business Partner (supporting Sales) (4-7 years in previous role (with strong desire for sales ops focus)). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy progress to?

This role can lead on to Director, Sales Excellence & Operations (3-5 years in Manager role), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Manager, Sales Excellence & Strategy?

Increasingly, AI-Driven GTM Strategy & Optimisation and Advanced Data Governance & Quality for AI. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

More jobs in sales

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.

If you leave this industry

The skills built here, strategic planning, data analysis, process optimisation and people leadership, transfer well. They can lead to similar leadership roles in other B2B SaaS companies, or into management consulting, private equity, or other fields that value operational discipline and data-driven strategy.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my free Automation Fluency module What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.