How to Set Up a B2B Sales Team Structure from Scratch
Picking a sales team structure is a lot like preparing for a strategy game.
Due to budget constraints, you only have so many roles you can play at once. And you must arrange them in a way that optimizes sales productivity, team morale, and revenue growth.
With so many potential B2B sales roles and structures, this can be brain-scrambling.
To help you win the game, we’ll walk you through the process of assembling a sales team that knows how to prospect, nurture, and close.
Key Roles in a B2B Sales Team
Here are the most important B2B sales members to have on your team, especially if you’re running outbound sales campaigns.
Business Development Representatives (BDRs)
Often referred to as hunters, business development reps (BDRs) handle the beginning of the sales process.
They’re responsible for outbound prospecting, early-stage nurturing, and lead qualification, with the ultimate aim of booking meetings with qualified leads for their account executives.
To open these opportunities, BDRs use a variety of outbound sales techniques:
Cold emails
Cold calls
LinkedIn outreach
Social selling
Networking
One notable trend is the growing use of AI software to handle these tasks. A new generation of apps has proven highly effective at matching human levels of quality, allowing human BDRs to focus on all-important human aspects.
Artisan is an example of a next-gen app. Its AI BDR is called Ava, and she can handle all of the early and middle stages of the outbound sales cycle, from prospecting to email follow-up.
If you’d like to see how Ava can streamline and scale your sales processes, get in touch to book a demo.
Sales Development Representatives (SDRs)
The term SDR is often interchangeable with BDR.
However, if you want to get technical, SDRs qualify inbound sales leads rather than hunt for them. SDRs reach out to leads, often over email and phone, who “raised their hand” in some way—often by requesting a free demo or consultation.
They then ask these leads a series of qualification questions to assess budget, needs, and authority. If a lead passes the test, they book an appointment with their AE. Leads qualified is the most important SDR metric.
A good SDR acts as a filter. Thanks to their scrutiny, the AE spends their meetings with high-quality leads and avoids leads who waste their time.
Account Executives (AEs)
Account executives, also known as closers, are responsible for nurturing qualified prospects and closing deals. Their success is measured by the revenue they bring in for their business.
The best B2B AEs act as extensions of the target lead’s business, focusing on understanding, assessing, and solving their unique set of problems, sort of like a consultant.
Traditionally, an AE performs the following tasks:
Holds discovery calls to understand the company’s needs
Identifies the right product or service to help the prospect
Conducts sales presentations and product demos
Pitches the solution in a way that aligns with the stakeholder’s interests
Answers questions the lead has about the purchase
Sends and reviews the sales proposal for signature
If all goes well, the AE gets the prospect to sign on the dotted line, and the deal is secured.
Customer Success Managers (CSMs)
Customer success managers, often referred to as farmers, develop customer relationships to generate upsells and referrals, increase retention, and expand accounts.
You might imagine the average CSM as spending their days golfing or buying clients fancy dinners at the nearest Ritz.
While this is definitely common in expensive industries like finance and consulting, the majority of a CSM’s day is spent making sure their clients are getting the most out of the solution.
Daily tasks for B2B CSMs include:
Onboarding new customers
Answering customer emails about the solution, contract, etc.
Analyzing customer usage metrics and satisfaction data to predict churn
Holding meetings to save accounts
Building success plans for customers
Identifying expansion opportunities within accounts
Pitching upsells and cross-sells
It’s best to keep your CSMs doing as much strategic account expansion work as possible. To do so, create a dedicated support team to handle technical issues like password resets so CSMs aren't consumed by small user issues.
Sales Operations Specialists
The unsung heroes of the B2B sales team, sales operations specialists use their unique combination of data savvy and technical expertise to improve the sales process, optimize the sales tech stack, and zap inefficiencies.
Typical job functions of a sales operation specialist include:
Train reps to use the CRM and other sales tools
Evaluate the tech stack to identify potential needs and redundancies
Provide sales managers with data-driven sales insights
Find sales tasks to automate and set up those automations
Create forecasts and track sales KPIs
Ever heard the saying, “You’re spending too much time working in the business and not enough time working on it”?
The sales ops function is the part of your sales organization that is always working on sales strategy and approach so your team can focus on execution.
3 Types of B2B Sales Team Structures
All sales team structures fall into one of three camps: specialized, generalist, and hybrid. Let’s take an in-depth look at each type so you can identify which is best for your business.
1. Specialized Sales Team
A specialized sales team can be structured according to factors like industry vertical, product (for companies with multiple products), and skill level. The most common division, however, is function.
In the B2B world, a sales team often has the following functions and corresponding roles:
Inbound lead qualification (SDR)
Outbound prospecting (BDR)
Deal closing (AE)
Deal expansion (CSM)
Sales support (Sales Ops Specialist)
Sales management and planning (team leader)
Role specialization by function allows reps to master the skills associated with their slice of the sales process.
BDRs, for example, are experts at cold calling, emailing, and social selling. Meanwhile, AEs focus on cultivating the art of nurturing and closing a deal. Such mastery dramatically increases sales productivity.
Specialized sales teams are ubiquitous in B2B SaaS and tech sales. Take Salesforce, for example. In addition to dividing their sales organization by function, they also assign reps to specific company sizes. Therefore, you’ll see titles like “Small Business AE”, “Growth AE,” and “Enterprise AE.”
This size-based specialization allows reps to deeply understand their type of target account. After all, the CRM needs of a tech startup are a far cry from those of a Fortune 500 company.
Pros of the specialized sales team structure:
Reps develop deep expertise of their function and target industry
Stronger client relationships through focused account management
Faster deal closure due to specialized knowledge and skill-set mastery
Cons of the specialized sales team structure:
Increased personnel and training costs
Limited ability to move sales reps to different roles
Customers can get confused when they’re handed off to a new sales rep
2. Generalist Sales Team
In a generalist sales team, often called an island structure, salespeople handle the entire sales process, from generating leads to upselling clients.
They also sell across multiple product lines, industries, and customer segments, rather than specializing in one area.
Generalist sales teams are common in consulting, financial services, and real estate, where prices are high and deep seller-customer relationships are necessary. They’re also popular among startups and small businesses that sell a few similar products to one or two industries, making it reasonable to expect a single sales rep to master the entire job.
Startups typically begin with generalist sales teams. As they grow and reps become overwhelmed, they start to specialize.
Pros of a generalist sales team structure:
Greater adaptability to market shifts
Better cross-selling opportunities as reps understand the full product portfolio
Deeper customer relationships because reps work with buyers from initial contact to renewal
Cons of a generalist sales team structure:
Less technical depth means reps often need to involve product specialists for complex questions
Limited mastery over specific parts of the sales process
More extensive training required to maintain competency
3. Hybrid Sales Team
A hybrid sales team structure combines elements of different sales models to create a flexible and adaptable approach.
For example, you could use a product-based hybrid approach, where you use different sales structures for different product lines.
The major benefit of a hybrid approach is that it can be designed to fit your specific company’s needs, while capturing the benefits of generalist and specialist structures.
It’s also ideal for mid-sized, growing businesses that need both specialization and agility.
Close, a CRM software company, uses a hybrid structure—specifically, a mix of the generalist and specialist structures:
“Each sales rep follows their leads through from start to finish, when they are turned over to our customer success team. However, marketing and growth are responsible for leads, rather than the sales team.” — Steli Efti
AI business tools complement hybrid sales structures especially well. Platforms like Artisan provide broad oversight of the sales process and assistance with specialized tasks.
Want to see how Artisan can boost your sales team’s productivity and increase sales revenue? Get in touch to book a demo.
How to Build a B2B Sales Team Structure
Now that you understand the common roles and structures, let’s walk through how to build the right sales team structure for your business.
Step 1: Assess Your Business Needs and Sales Goals
Before you start designing your structure, some reflection is necessary.
Evaluate your company’s product complexity, market expansion, resources, culture, and customer expectations. This will help you identify a structure that aligns with your business goals, target audience, and budget.
Below are five key considerations and how they might influence your decision:
Product complexity: The more complex your product suite, the more specialists you need. The less complex, the easier it is to run a generalist structure.
Market expansion: This determines the optimal mix of roles like BDRs, AEs, and CSMs needed to effectively penetrate new markets while maintaining existing customer relationships.
Resources: Different team structures require different levels of financial investment. For example, a small generalist sales team under one sales manager is less resource-intensive than a large sales team composed primarily of specialists.
Company culture: While generalist sales teams tend to foster a hands-off management style and competitive culture, specialist teams create, and depend on, cross-functional collaboration—like the SDR updating the AE on the new lead they’ve just handed them.
Customer experience: Do customers in your market expect your sales reps to have deep product knowledge? If yes, you might need a specialist structure. Is it best practice in your industry to work with customers from contact to close? Then go with generalists.
You may find that your business needs a combination of specialist and generalist structures. That’s perfectly fine. Tailoring your structure to your specific needs is how you create a team that’s cost-effective, scalable, and conducive to team morale.
Step 2: Define the Sales Process
Clearly defining your B2B sales process reveals the specific skills and activities required at each stage of the customer journey.
For example, if your process involves extensive prospecting and qualification, you might need dedicated BDRs. If it requires complex technical demonstrations, you'll need sales engineers working alongside AEs.
An analysis of your sales process also shows bottlenecks stifling revenue. Measuring stage-to-stage conversion rates can tell you where deals typically stall and where you might need extra support. For instance, if accounts rarely renew despite the efforts of your AEs, you might need to hire some CSMs to focus on generating that outcome.
Map out every little action required to turn leads into loyal customers and ask the following questions:
Is a generalist capable of handling all of this?
Is there a segment of the process that’s a full-time job in itself?
Where do we see friction in the sales process and need more help?
Step 3: Determine Roles and Responsibilities
Defining roles involves asking the following questions:
What actions will team members perform?
How will I measure their success?”
Which parts of the sales process will they cover?
Here are the main B2B sales titles and their responsibilities:
Sales Development Rep (SDR): Qualifies inbound leads and works closely with marketing to generate new leads.
Business Development Rep (BDR): Focuses on prospecting and qualifying new leads through cold outreach (calls, emails, LinkedIn) to book meetings for their AEs.
Account Executive (AE): Manages the full sales cycle through to close. They conduct demos, handle negotiations, and own revenue targets for small to mid-sized accounts.
Enterprise Account Executive: Manages complex, long sales cycles with large organizations and multiple stakeholders.
Customer Success Manager: Maintains and grows existing customer relationships post-sale by boosting customer satisfaction and identifying upsell opportunities.
Sales Manager: Leads and coaches a team of sales representatives, sets strategy and quotas, forecasts revenue, and ensures their team hits targets. A good sales manager can exponentially improve a team’s chances of hitting its targets.
Sales Operations Specialist: Manages the sales tech stack, analyzes sales data, creates reports, and optimizes sales processes.
Sales Engineer: Provides technical expertise during the sales process, answers complex product questions, and helps customize solutions for prospects.
Keep in mind that sales tools reduce the burden of responsibilities on BDRs and SDRs. If you’re using a platform like Artisan, this will shape the way you define roles, freeing up more time for human-centric tasks.
If you would like a walkthrough of how Artisan helps your sales team scale results, get in touch to schedule a demo.
As you define roles and responsibilities, ask the following questions:
Is your structure scalable enough to hit growth targets over the next one to two years?
Does your structure align with how our customers prefer to buy?
Are you going to have to spend too much on sales enablement to hit targets?
With roles and responsibilities clearly defined, it’s time to start thinking about your management hierarchy.
Step 4: Create a Reporting Structure
A clear, standardized reporting structure ensures all reps know who to go to for questions, resources, and coaching.
Here’s an overview of best practices for creating a reporting structure:
Keep your rep:manager ratio under 8:1.
Define clear handoff procedures between specialized roles, like BDR to AE.
Create separate management roles for different functions. For example, SDR managers and AE managers.
Document clear escalation paths and compensation schemes to avoid conflicts.
Build scalable structures that can flex and grow without major organizational disruption.
A hack for adding clarity to your management structure is to use an organization chart. It lets you visualize reporting lines and the makeup of teams.
Step 5: Hire the Right People
No matter how special your team structure, it won’t produce the results you’re after without sales professionals who have the right skill sets.
Here are the main skills and traits to look for in each of the major sales roles:
Sales Development Rep: SDRs must be masters of your lead qualification framework, attentive listeners, and capable of coming off as knowledgeable, confident, and personable.
Business Development Rep: These reps should be confident on the phone, coachable, and skilled at conversation. Persistence in the face of constant rejection is also key.
Account Executive: AEs must possess the skills of the BDR, but also deep product knowledge, executive presence, and advanced late-stage sales skills like closing, negotiating, and presenting.
Enterprise AE: An Enterprise AE needs more business and industry acumen than a regular AE as they have to find creative ways to break into large accounts.
Customer Success Manager: The best CSMs are problem solvers with incredible product and industry knowledge. They’re also talented at building relationships with customers.
Sales Operations Specialist: Sales ops pros should be familiar with your sales technology and adept at data analysis techniques and workflow automation.
Other specialized structures might call for additional skill sets and experiences. For instance, if your sales team is divided into industry-focused subdivisions like healthcare, you’ll want to find AEs with previous experience working in that industry vertical.
Finally, when recruiting reps, think about coachability. In interviews, business guru Alex Hormozi asks candidates to roleplay sales situations with him. Then, he offers some feedback and asks them to try again. “If someone can take the feedback without an ego, then you have someone who’s coachable.”
Level Up Your B2B Sales Team Success With Artisan
The right sales team structure makes a world of difference. It leads to improved sales outcomes, revenue, and scalability, without breaking the bank. But the right sales team structure coupled with next-gen AI sales software? Well, that’s when the magic really happens.
Artisan is at the forefront of sales automation. Its AI BDR Ava handles all early and middle stages of the outbound sales cycle. This includes finding leads, sending personalized messages, and running campaign optimization processes in the background.
Want to see how Artisan scales your processes and gives your sales team more time to focus on closing deals? Get in touch to arrange a demo.
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