Can anyone help? I have just been offered a role as a strategic sales consultant in the consultancy division of a FTSE 100 company. This involves both internal and external clients. I have 5 years experience as a strategic sales consultant working for a couple of small specialist but well known strategic sales consultancies and have worked on projects at a number of market leading blue chips in pharma/fmcg/telecom and other industries as both team member and project manager on a couple of occasions. Also extenisve experience working in Latin America for blue-chip clients. I speak Portuguese and Spanish fluently. I have an additional 12 years experience in industry mainly in technical roles but also more recently as a sales manager for blue chip fmcg.New role will involve selling and delivery of projects. The latter initially working with a project director until I take total ownership of whole process in maybe 12-18 months. Having been out of the consultancy loop for 4 years, I have no idea of what salary, car, other benefits and commission I should be looking at. I am not greedy but need an idea of my market value.Can anyone advise?

Not much call for consultants in this area at the moment. Also unless you want to relocate to Latin America or Iberia, the fact you speak Portuguese and Spanish is of little value. I reckon you're worth about £45k plus car plus benefits plus 5% commission on sales

I'd be pretty miffed if a FTSE 100 player offers a veteran with 12 years experience £45k so I'd be more inclined to think that a range of 60-100k is more reasonable depending on the sales weighting.

Thanks Anon - to be fair, I have 5 years experience in consulting and a further 12 blue-chip, a good chunk of which (about 8 years) was in technical area, not commercial. Any ideas of what kind of benefits I should be trying to negotiate? (Car, pension, etc.?)

Wow! I am fascinated. What is a strategic sales consultant? What are his main responsibilities? How do you become a strategic sales consultant and could you please give me an example of a strategic sales consultancy?Any info on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

The work centres around the identification, prioritisation and implementation of sales initiatives that will have a significant impact on revenue and earnings growth. The highest performing market-leading blue-chip organisations typically achieve double-digit growth by constantly review their sales strategies to look for significant opportunities for improvement in their sales productivity and effectiveness. This kind of activity can have a far bigger impact on top line revenues and bottom line profitabilty than new product development and tactical sales initiatives. I hope that answers your question! Can you help me with mine?

Thanks, I can't help with your question though. During my work I also had to deal with Sales Effectiveness Directors, Sales Operations Directors etc. but I have never heard of a Strategic Sales Consultant before. I know strategy firms do work with sales and marketing too, and I think firms like Deloitte or PA have a sales & marketing group, but I don't know any company purely specialised in Sales Consulting in the UK – I’ve just found a couple in the US.The only company I’ve heard of which might also do this and is specialised for sales and marketing is MarketBridge. The company I work for gets also involved, but at a more tactical, implementation level - well, my boss has got exposure to most or all the process but I don't and also we don't work on client’s site, we are very small -Is there any largish UK company purely specialised for this?Thanks

Thanks for the info. Your company specialises in which area? I know there are a couple of consultancies which specialise in sales - Glendinning, Meridian ISE and Roland Berger. As you say, the large companies would look at this too. If you don't know what a Strategic Sales Consultant would earn, do you konw how much a consultant would earn with the responsibilities I will have? i.e. manage projects under guidance of project director and also sell business? Salary, car, benefits and commissions/bonus? If not, do you know where I could get this info? Cheers.

Hi Martin, thanks for your help. My company is purely specialised for the IT and Telecom Markets. As we are very small my boss chooses to work only with tier-1 companies and primarily with Software and Services divisions. I have also worked on a project for a Big 5 systems integrator. We are in between a market research company and a strategy consultancy, we are very much hands on and the only real management consultant of the company is my boss, but I get to attend workshops with the client's sales people at the end of the projects and he likes me being creative and coming up with ideas about everything (as long as I sell them properly to him and I choose the right time and mood!). What we do is great but my boss is rich and comfortable and likes being small which isn't great for me. I learn a lot but always on the job, as my boss doesn't pay for formal training. Also working for a small company means having very little structure and having a lot of ups and downs. Since I have started working here I know I want a career in Management Consulting and now I think it would be great to be a Strategic Sales Consultant. About your question, have you tried vault.com?

Try ZS Associates - they do something interesting called 'sales force effectiveness'. Sounds like that might be what you're looking for.All the big consultancies will look at a sales force as part of their consulting i imagine.

I live in Mexico and I have a lot experience in Latinamerica. In Latinamerica you'll have to invest in the correct people and give time to get results. The market is moving forward so I think you can have opportunity depending on the portfolio that you are thinking (NorthAmerica is very different than Latinamerica). For some countries, are similar to Europe. Regarding salary and compensation, if you are thinking in a role involving selling and delivery, it seems that you're looking for a Practice Developer o Business Developer with staff (Regional Manager or Director). The salary need to be between 60Kusd and 70Kusd plus salary according results (15-20% variable) and benefits under law (depends by country) that includes car. I hope this can help you. Cheers.