Sales professionals’ average basic pay exceeded that of their colleagues in marketing, finance and HR across most levels.

The average basic salary for a middle manager in sales is just over £38k – 5.6% higher than the national average for this level.

Average pay for a Head of Sales is £57,060, slightly behind a Head of Finance on £58,000, but comfortably more than that of Heads of Marketing on £53,963 and Heads of HR on £52,603.

Sales representatives in the South East remain the highest paid (£27,490 on average), with pay a striking 16% more than the national average. Those in London were the next highest earners with average pay of £26,716, 13% above the national average. In contrast, sales representatives in the North East and North West are paid just under 10% below the national average, whilst sales representatives in Northern Ireland are paid 21% below the national average.

Pay awards for sales professionals averaged 3.2%, and are expected to remain roughly unchanged in the coming year at 3%. Once again directors received the highest increase in earnings, up this year by 6.8%, whilst junior managers received the lowest increase at 1.3%.

Outside director level, fewer sales professionals received bonuses compared with last year, but the value of bonuses rose. Bonuses for the 31% of senior sales managers who received them were on average £7,780, whilst the 36% of sales directors who collected a bonus received on average £21,600.

“With the UK economy still in recession, organisations will need to hold on to their most experienced salespeople and attract the brightest talents if they are to tough it out until the economy recovers,

said David Thorp, Head of Research and Professional Development at The Chartered Institute of Marketing.

“Organisations appear to have recognised this and our latest study confirms that businesses are rewarding their most experienced salespeople well for their vital contribution.”

A full copy of the Croner Sales Rewards 2009-2010 report is available for £350 from Croner Reward on +44 (0) 1785 813566.

Reproduced with the kind permission of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) 2009. http://www.cim.co.uk