Your VP of Sales has just unexpectedly announced his resignation. While this is undoubtedly bittersweet news, there is one silver lining – your CEO will now have to find a new Sales VP, a position you have eyed since your first day as a junior sales rep, on through to your current role as the sales manager.

The question is, how do you prove to your CEO that you deserve that sales management promotion? How do you convince him that he should promote you, instead of hiring from outside or promoting someone else from within?

By letting your data do the talking.

Under my watch, all the outbound prospecting reps regularly surpassed their goals.

– Sales Manager

In a high management position, a big part of your job is motivating your charges to put forth their best efforts. How good are you at inspiring the people you manage and enabling them to hit their goals?

As it turns out, pretty damn good.

Showing that you have a team full of star performers – not just one “A” player and a bunch of mediocre “B” reps” – who regularly hit their goals is impressive. Your whole team not only did well in output-based goals (like making a set number of calls each day / week / month) but also converted efficiently, across connects, meetings scheduled and opportunities sourced as well.

We grew our sales pipeline substantially during my tenure as sales manager.

– Sales Manager

Because all the outbound prospecting reps you managed were able to hit their goals, as a result, your sales pipeline grew substantially over your tenure. This shows two things:

1) You recognize the importance of planning and looking ahead, never resting on your laurels of a successful quarter in terms of bookings, and always gearing up for the next month or quarter. It is important that the sales pipeline remain regularly replenished, something you take very seriously.

2) You believe in sales and marketing alignment. Growing the pipeline should be equal parts the domain of both your outbound prospecting team and the marketing department. You are a firm believer in the concept of “1 Team,” suggesting that as a VP of Sales, you will strengthen the bonds with your marketing counterpart.

My sales coaching efforts were well-received by reps, who subsequently showed improvement.

– Sales Manager

You know the before-and-after photos that weight-loss products use to “prove” the effectiveness of their program? Well, this is similar – except the “after” actually happened!

First, pull up a report showing one of your rep’s sales funnels before he was enrolled in a comprehensive sales coaching program under your wing. This report clearly suggests that the rep struggled mightily, especially in comparison to the rest of the team.

Fast forward to three months later, and Josh’s overall performance has simply surged. He has taken immediately to your sales coaching efforts, and was responding in kind. You can then share with your CEO some of the specifics that you worked with Josh on – his qualifying skills to ensure only the best opportunities enter at the top, his online presentation skills for demos, his negotiation skills to get the best deals, etc.

My sales team and I sold a lot of product.

– Sales Manager

‘Nuff said.

With the aforementioned reports and sales metrics at your back, how can your CEO prove that you don’t deserve that sales management promotion to Sales VP?

He can’t.

Congratulations on your well-deserved promotion!