There is an important cultural element to this. Growth businesses usually need greater commercial discipline, but few benefit from bureaucracy for its own sake. An experienced Sales Director has to know which processes will improve performance and which will simply slow people down.

The role may also involve considerably more personal selling than the title initially suggests. In many scaling companies, the Sales Director remains close to important customers, participates in significant pitches and helps open relationships that the wider team can subsequently develop. Candidates accustomed to managing large sales organisations from a distance may find this environment uncomfortable, while those who enjoy remaining close to customers can often thrive.

There is no particular revenue figure or headcount that determines when a company should hire a Sales Director. The better indicators tend to come from the way revenue is being generated and how much of the commercial organisation still depends on the founders.

Founder-led selling can be remarkably effective. Founders understand why the business exists, can adapt their proposition during conversations and often have a level of credibility and enthusiasm that is difficult to replicate.

The challenge comes when the organisation needs to turn that individual success into a commercial model that other people can reproduce. If important opportunities still require founder intervention, pipeline quality varies significantly between individuals or sales performance becomes increasingly difficult to forecast as the team expands, the business may have reached the point where dedicated sales leadership is needed.

This transition is common within growth and founder-led businesses, where strengthening the leadership team can allow founders to concentrate on the areas in which they add most value rather than remaining central to every commercial decision.

Funding can accelerate that decision. A company raising Series A or Series B investment may suddenly have the capital to increase sales headcount substantially, but recruiting ten additional salespeople without first strengthening leadership can magnify existing weaknesses rather than improve performance.

Similar issues arise within private equity-backed companies where ambitious revenue targets form part of the investment case. Increasing commercial capacity only creates value if the structure around it enables people to perform.

The timing of the appointment is therefore worth considering carefully. Recruiting a Sales Director six months before a major expansion allows them to understand the market, assess the existing team and shape future recruitment. Bringing somebody in after the team has doubled can leave them correcting decisions they had no opportunity to influence.

Previous sales performance matters, but headline numbers require context. A candidate who has delivered £50 million of revenue inside an established market leader has not necessarily demonstrated that they can build a £5 million sales function into a £15 million one. Brand strength, marketing investment, product maturity, pricing and the quality of the inherited team all influence commercial results, which is why assessing Sales Directors solely against revenue achieved can produce misleading conclusions.

For a growth company, it is often more useful to understand what the candidate actually built. Did they inherit a successful team or recruit it? How did forecasting change during their tenure? Were they responsible for creating a sales methodology, entering new markets or establishing a new channel? What happened when targets were missed?

Strong candidates should be able to discuss not only the successes on their CV but the decisions and adjustments that produced them.

The stage of business they have experienced also matters. Someone joining a VC-backed business may need to be comfortable with changing targets, incomplete data and a commercial proposition that is still evolving. Within a private equity-backed company, the environment may place greater emphasis on pace, measurable performance and delivery against an agreed value-creation plan. AIM-listed businesses bring another set of considerations, particularly where market expectations make revenue visibility and credible forecasting especially important.

Sector knowledge can be valuable, especially where sales cycles are technical, regulated or relationship-driven, but businesses should be careful about making an identical industry background the defining requirement. The ability to build teams, introduce commercial discipline and understand how customers buy can sometimes transfer more effectively than a long list of familiar competitor names.

Growth companies increasingly use Sales Director, VP of Sales and Chief Revenue Officer titles, sometimes for roles with very similar responsibilities. The title matters less than defining the scope properly before recruitment begins.

A Sales Director will usually have primary responsibility for sales performance and the people delivering it. A VP of Sales may perform an almost identical role, particularly within venture-backed or technology companies where the title is more common.

A Chief Revenue Officer generally has a broader remit, potentially bringing sales, marketing, customer success, partnerships and revenue operations under a single executive.

Businesses sometimes recruit a CRO when what they genuinely need is an outstanding Sales Director, creating a role whose title promises more strategic breadth than the organisation is ready to provide. The reverse also happens: a company recruits a Sales Director and subsequently expects them to resolve problems across marketing, retention, pricing and the entire customer lifecycle.

Clarifying where responsibility begins and ends makes both the search and subsequent appointment considerably stronger.

Sales leaders tend to interview well. Communication, persuasion and relationship-building are central to their profession, so an engaging interview should never be mistaken for evidence that somebody can build the commercial organisation the business needs.

A good assessment process needs to get beneath the numbers. Candidates should be able to explain how they forecast, how they distinguish genuine pipeline from optimism and how they manage underperformance.

Asking them to describe the composition of previous teams can reveal whether they have genuinely built sales capability or primarily inherited it. Their approach to recruitment is particularly important in a growth company because the Sales Director may be responsible for making a significant number of subsequent hires.

References can be especially useful for senior sales appointments. Former Chief Executives, colleagues and direct reports will often provide different perspectives on the same candidate. A CEO can discuss commercial judgement and forecasting credibility, while former team members may provide much better insight into coaching, expectations and leadership style.

Boards should also establish what they expect during the first year. If the priority is to rebuild the team, enter a new market and improve forecasting, expecting immediate revenue acceleration may be unrealistic. Conversely, a company with a mature proposition and an established team may reasonably expect a new Sales Director to influence performance relatively quickly.

Recruitment is easier when everyone agrees what success actually means.

One recurring problem is hiring somebody from the organisation a business wants to become without considering what allowed that individual to succeed there.

A Sales Director moving from a large company may have worked with dedicated sales operations, significant marketing budgets, established management layers and a recognised brand. Those things do not diminish their achievements, but a growth company needs to understand how they would operate without the same infrastructure.

Another difficulty is confusing an outstanding individual salesperson with an outstanding sales leader. The qualities that make somebody exceptional at winning business do not automatically make them effective at recruiting, coaching and holding other salespeople accountable.

Leadership requires the ability to create success through other people, and this should be tested carefully during the recruitment process.

Businesses can also overcorrect after an unsuccessful appointment. If a previous Sales Director lacked structure, the next specification can become excessively focused on process; if the previous individual was not commercial enough, the board may prioritise personal selling at the expense of leadership.

The better approach is to return to the commercial objectives of the business and define the capabilities needed to achieve them.

The strongest Sales Directors are not necessarily looking for jobs. They may be delivering strong results for another growth business and will only consider moving for an opportunity where the product, leadership team, investors and potential upside are compelling.

Advertising can reach an active candidate market, but a senior commercial search frequently needs to extend well beyond it. Executive search allows businesses to identify and approach relevant leaders directly, including individuals who may not otherwise encounter the opportunity.

Specialist recruitment also allows businesses to compare candidates from different but relevant environments rather than simply searching for somebody with an identical job title. A strong search should identify people who have solved comparable commercial problems, assess how much of their previous success was genuinely attributable to them and determine whether their leadership style fits the stage and culture of the company.

At Fram Professionals, we recruit Sales Directors and senior commercial leaders for founder-led, VC-backed, private equity-backed, AIM-listed and PISCES businesses across the UK. Our work focuses particularly on organisations going through periods of growth, investment or change, where the commercial leadership required for the next stage may be different from the structure that created the company's early success.

For growth companies, recruiting a Sales Director is ultimately about making revenue more scalable and less dependent on a small number of individuals.

The right person should improve commercial performance, but their longer-term contribution is broader: building a team, establishing greater forecasting confidence and creating a sales organisation capable of supporting the ambitions of the business as it grows.

If you are considering recruiting a Sales Director, or would like to understand the relevant candidate market before beginning a search, contact Fram Professionals for a confidential discussion.