Structuring Your Sales Without a VP of Sales: A More Agile Approach for SMBs

How to Structure Your Sales Without Hiring a VP of Sales

Hiring a full-time VP of Sales may seem like the only solution for structuring your sales department. However, for many SMBs, this option is expensive, inflexible, and premature. The good news is that today, there are more flexible, accessible, and equally effective approaches for structuring your sales without increasing your payroll.

In this article, we show you how to strategically structure your sales without hiring a VP of sales, while ensuring growth, performance, and clarity in your processes.

Why SMBs Don't Always Need a VP of Sales

Hiring a full-time VP of Sales may seem like a logical way to structure a sales team. However, in many cases, it's a premature, or even counterproductive, decision for an SMB.

A high cost that is difficult to justify

A VP of Sales commands an average annual salary of $150,000 to $200,000, not including benefits, bonuses, and performance expectations. For a growing company, this investment can quickly become a burden if the sales foundations aren't yet solid. Before investing in senior leadership, you need to ensure the environment you're building is ready for it.

Responsibilities that exceed current needs

A VP of Sales is often hired to manage a team, oversee processes, and develop sales strategy. But what if the company has only one or no salespeople? Or if the sales cycle hasn't yet been clearly defined? They risk finding themselves executing rather than leading, which devalues their contribution.

A lack of organizational agility

 Hiring a senior executive also imposes a form of rigidity: more layers of decision-making, an impact on corporate culture, and an adjustment of internal roles. In an SMB where agility is a competitive advantage, hiring too early or too senior can hinder the natural evolution of the sales process.

What It Really Takes to Structure Your Sales

Before thinking about hiring, it's essential to ensure the foundations of the sales department are in place. Too often, leaders want to hire to "solve a problem" when they haven't yet defined what the problem is.



Here's what you need to put in place to effectively structure your sales, regardless of the size of your current team:

1. A clear map of your sales cycle

Do you really know what happens between the moment a customer hears about you and the moment they sign? If every salesperson follows a different method, you lose efficiency, clarity... and conversions.

A sales cycle map allows you to:

• Visualize each key step
• Identify friction points
• Standardize your team's practices

This clarity becomes a powerful lever to improve your results.

2. A personalized sales plan, aligned with your reality

It's not enough to have sales goals. You need a concrete strategy to achieve them.

This involves a structured sales plan, which includes:

• Your priority targets and personas
• Your differentiating messages
• Channels to prioritize (networking, LinkedIn, calls, etc.)
• Tools and scripts to use

A good sales plan gives you clear direction, while remaining adaptable.

3. Tools that support your growth

Structuring your sales isn't about accumulating software.

It's about choosing the right tools that support your efforts:

• A simple but well-configured CRM
• A dashboard to track opportunities
• Templates (emails, proposals, follow-ups)

These are the tools that allow us to move from an artisanal mode to a reproducible operation.

4. A sales culture aligned with your vision

Structure isn't enough. The people involved need to understand and embrace your selling style.

This involves:

• Clear training (not just a forgotten PowerPoint)
• A shared vision of what “selling well” means
• Recognition of the commercial effort, even before the sale

What It Really Takes to Structure Your Sales

 When it comes to structuring your sales, there seem to be two opposing options: either you manage it yourself, with whatever resources you have, or you hire a VP of Sales... which, as we've seen, isn't always realistic. Fortunately, there's a third option, more suited to SMBs: hiring an external Revenue Director.

A strategic profile, without permanent hiring

 The External Revenue Director plays the same strategic role as a VP of Sales, but in a flexible and focused manner. They integrate into your company for a defined period of time to:

• Understanding your business reality
• Structuring Your Sales Department (or Building It From Scratch)
• Align your strategy with your growth objectives
• Train and supervise your salespeople

Implement concrete tools to monitor results

So you benefit from expertise without the burden of a permanent position, allowing you to remain agile while building solid foundations.

A tailor-made solution for SMBs

 The External Revenue Director adapts to your level of commercial maturity:

• No vendor in place? He's structuring the foundations.
• A small team to supervise? He professionalizes the practices.
• Stagnant sales? He identifies the obstacles and corrects them.

This personalized approach makes all the difference: we don't impose a generic structure, we build yours, with you.

A lever for growth… which remains under your control

 The other key benefit of an external Revenue Director is that they work with you, not instead of you. The goal is to transfer skills, build autonomy, and leave behind a structure that continues to generate results, even after the assignment is over.

Summary

Hiring a full-time VP of Sales may seem like a necessary step in structuring your sales department. But for an SMB, this choice is often costly, inflexible, and poorly adapted to the reality on the ground.

What you really need isn't a title on the organizational chart, but a clear, coherent sales system that's aligned with your goals. A structure that helps you target better, convert better, track better... and, most importantly, sell better.

This is exactly what DETA offers, by playing a key role in your growth: that of an external Revenue Director. In concrete terms, this means that our team acts as an integrated strategic arm of your business, to:

• Identify your sales challenges and opportunities
• Structure your sales approach from A to Z
• Train your teams on solid foundations
• Monitor results rigorously until the desired performance is achieved

Our expertise doesn't stop at theory. At DETA, we support Quebec SMBs on the ground, in action, with a single mission: to transform your sales into a lever for sustainable growth, without needing to hire a VP of Sales.

Do you want to structure your sales intelligently, without heavy hiring or wasting time?

DETA offers you a tailor-made alternative.