Director of Sales Resume Example
Directors of Sales get hired when they prove they can build a predictable revenue engine, not by listing individual sales wins.
This resume is for professionals who lead multi-team sales organizations and own regional revenue strategy, but aren't yet responsible for global GTM or total company P&L.
- Evidence of multi-team or regional revenue ownership
- Proven track record of scaling sales organizations through hiring and process design
- Demonstration of strategic decision-making that shifts business outcomes
- Executive summary focused on revenue scale and organizational growth
- Experience bullets prioritized by strategic outcomes and team performance
- Skills categorized by leadership, strategy, and operations
Brian Tanaka
Summary
Experience
- Directed a team of 12 Enterprise AEs to achieve $48M in new business revenue, representing 114% of the annual target for the fiscal year.
- Scaled the regional sales organization from 5 to 12 headcount within 18 months, implementing a structured hiring process that reduced time-to-hire by 28%.
- Prioritized high-intent enterprise accounts over mid-market volume, resulting in a 35% increase in average contract value (ACV) and improved resource allocation.
- Established a weekly deal-review cadence and coaching framework that resulted in 4 internal promotions to senior leadership roles within two years.
- Owned a $22M annual recurring revenue (ARR) quota for the West region, finishing 2019 at 122% of target through strategic expansion of existing cloud accounts.
- Defined a new sales stage methodology within the CRM to improve forecast accuracy from 72% to 91% over four consecutive quarters.
- Spearheaded a cross-functional initiative with Product and Marketing to launch a dedicated healthcare vertical, securing $6.5M in pipeline within the first 6 months.
- Mentored 5 junior sales managers on pipeline management and executive presence, standardizing reporting across the business unit.
- Led a team of 8 Account Executives to 108% of an $18M quota, focusing on security and observability solutions for Fortune 500 clients.
- Implemented a value-based selling curriculum that increased the team's win rate against primary competitors by 32%.
- Recruited and onboarded 4 top-performing reps, achieving 100% ramp-to-quota within their first two quarters of employment.
- Chose to consolidate underperforming territories to increase lead density for high-performing reps, driving a $3.2M increase in regional output.
- Exceeded individual sales targets for 10 consecutive quarters, culminating in a $5.8M fiscal year and recognition within the top 5% of the national sales force.
- Developed a territory management plan for the Bay Area that increased active pipeline by 45% through targeted outbound prospecting into greenfield accounts.
- Drove the adoption of Azure cloud services across 15 enterprise accounts, resulting in $2.4M in incremental cloud consumption revenue.
Education
Skills
Sales Leadership · Coaching · Pipeline Management · Forecasting · Hiring · Salesforce · Sales Strategy · Org Design · Executive Communication · Revenue Planning · Multi-Team Leadership · Sales Operations · GTM Strategy · Cross-Functional Leadership
What makes this resume effective
- This resume meets the hiring bar for a Director of Sales by demonstrating multi-team revenue ownership, organizational scaling through structured hiring, and strategic market positioning.
- See how Brian highlights his impact at Salesforce by scaling the team from 5 to 12 reps while simultaneously increasing average contract value by 35%.
- Notice how the experience at Databricks focuses on operational improvements, such as increasing forecast accuracy from 72% to 91%, which signals executive-level reliability.
How to write better bullet points
Managed a team of AEs and hired new people.
Scaled the regional sales organization from 5 to 12 headcount within 18 months, implementing a structured hiring process that reduced time-to-hire by 28%.
It quantifies the scale of growth and the specific operational improvement used to achieve it.
Focused on enterprise accounts to get bigger deals.
Prioritized high-intent enterprise accounts over mid-market volume, resulting in a 35% increase in average contract value (ACV).
It demonstrates a strategic shift in market focus and ties it to a clear financial outcome.
Improved the sales process in Salesforce.
Defined a new sales stage methodology within the CRM to improve forecast accuracy from 72% to 91% over four consecutive quarters.
It shows technical leadership and the ability to provide predictable revenue insights to the executive team.
Director of Sales resume writing tips
- Link team growth directly to revenue output to show you scale organizations efficiently.
- Highlight specific process changes, like CRM methodologies, that improved forecasting or pipeline visibility.
- Focus on multi-team outcomes to prove you can lead through other managers.
Common mistakes
- Focusing too much on individual deals rather than team-wide strategy, which makes you look like a manager instead of a director.
- Omitting the 'how' behind team success; hiring managers need to see the systems you built to repeat success, not just numbers.
- Neglecting cross-functional impact; directors must show how they influenced the broader GTM strategy alongside Product and Marketing.
Frequently asked questions
Is this resume right for someone with 10+ years of experience? Yes if you manage managers or large segments; no if you are an individual contributor seeking your first management role.
Yes if you manage managers or large segments; no if you are an individual contributor seeking your first management role.
Yes, if you have moved into leadership roles where you manage managers or large segments. No, if you are still an individual contributor looking for your first management role.
What if my background is in a different industry than SaaS? Yes, because systems for scaling teams and hitting quotas are industry-agnostic. Focus on your transferable leadership frameworks.
Yes, because systems for scaling teams and hitting quotas are industry-agnostic. Focus on your transferable leadership frameworks.
The core principles of leadership—scaling teams, setting strategy, and hitting quotas—remain the same. Focus on the transferable leadership systems shown in Brian's experience at Databricks and Splunk.
What if I don't have exact metrics for every bullet? Use directional improvements or ranges. Prioritize explaining the strategic 'how' behind your methodology over precise estimation.
Use directional improvements or ranges. Prioritize explaining the strategic 'how' behind your methodology over precise estimation.
While Brian uses specific percentages like the 32% win rate increase, you can use ranges or directional improvements. Emphasize the 'how' of your strategy even if the exact result number is estimated.
How much should I change before applying? Keep the outcome-oriented bullet structure but customize key skills to match the specific vertical or product type in the job description.
Keep the outcome-oriented bullet structure but customize key skills to match the specific vertical or product type in the job description.
Keep the structure of the outcome-oriented bullets. You should customize the 'Key Skills' to match the specific vertical or product type mentioned in the job description.
What do hiring managers focus on at this level? They seek indicators of a mature leader, specifically the ability to build a predictable revenue engine through forecast accuracy and hiring.
They seek indicators of a mature leader, specifically the ability to build a predictable revenue engine through forecast accuracy and hiring.
They look for the ability to build a predictable revenue engine. In this resume, Brian highlights forecast accuracy and hiring efficiency, which are high-signal indicators of a mature leader.
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