If you’ve ever searched “what does a sales rep actually earn in the UK” and come away more confused than when you started, you’re not alone. Sales salaries are messy. A “Sales Executive” job advert might mean £24,000 a year, or it might mean £24,000 base with £60,000 on target. A “self-employed” field sales role might sound risky until you see what the top performers are actually bringing home.
This UK sales salary guide pulls together current data for 2026, base pay and on-target earnings (OTE), for every major direct sales role, from entry-level telesales through to Sales Director. Whether you’re weighing up a move, benchmarking a new hire, or just curious whether you’re being paid fairly, you’ll find real numbers here rather than vague ranges.
UK Sales Salary Guide: Quick Summary at a Glance
| Role | Typical Base Salary | Typical OTE |
|---|---|---|
| Telesales / Internal Sales Executive | £22,000 – £28,000 | £30,000 – £45,000 |
| Field Sales Representative (employed) | £26,000 – £38,000 | £38,000 – £46,000+ |
| Self-Employed / Commission-Only Field Sales | £0 – £27,000 (varies by structure) | £30,000 – £60,000+ (top performers £80,000+) |
| Sales Development Representative (SDR/BDR) | £28,000 – £45,000 | £40,000 – £70,000 |
| Business Development Manager | £35,000 – £65,000 | £50,000 – £90,000+ |
| Account Executive (B2B/SaaS) | £55,000 – £85,000 | £100,000 – £150,000+ |
| Sales Manager | £37,000 – £60,000 | £55,000 – £90,000+ |
| Sales Director | £75,000 – £110,000 | £130,000 – £200,000+ |
These figures are based on a blend of current employer job postings and salary data from Glassdoor, RepVue, Reed, PayScale, CV-Library and Indeed, alongside our own placement experience at Citrus Connect. As with any salary benchmark, individual offers will vary by sector, company size, deal size and region – and the gap between “average” and “top performer” in sales is wider than in almost any other profession. London salaries typically run 10–20% above the rest of the UK across most of these roles.
If you’re exploring your options, you can browse current self-employed sales roles we’re recruiting for right now.
Why Sales Salaries Are So Hard to Pin Down
Most professions have a fairly predictable pay band. Sales don’t, for one simple reason: a meaningful chunk of total earnings is performance-based. A job advert showing “£50,000 OTE” could mean a £25,000 base with a 50/50 split, or a £35,000 base with lighter variable pay. Both numbers say the same headline figure but represent very different risks and rewards.
That’s why, throughout this guide, we’ve separated base salary (the guaranteed amount) from OTE (On-Target Earnings – base plus commission if you hit 100% of target). If a role is commission-only or self-employed, we’ve noted that clearly too, since the earning potential and the risk profile are genuinely different from a salaried position.
Telesales and Internal Sales Executive Salaries
Internal or telesales roles, selling over the phone or via video call rather than face to face, tend to sit at the more accessible end of the sales pay scale, particularly for candidates new to the industry.
Base salaries typically range from £22,000 to £28,000, with entry-level and early-career telesales executives often starting closer to £22,000. Once commission is added, total earnings commonly land between £30,000 and £45,000, though this varies enormously by sector. Higher-value products such as insurance, financial services or B2B subscriptions can push OTE well beyond this; some insurance telesales roles advertise base salaries around £35,000 with OTE reaching £70,000–£100,000 for top performers.
The honest range for most telesales roles outside specialist, high-ticket sectors is a base around £24,000 with realistic total earnings of £32,000–£40,000 for someone hitting target consistently.
Field Sales Representative Salaries (Employed)
Field sales, visiting customers or businesses in person, often with a company car, remains one of the most common entry points into a sales career in the UK.
Employed field sales roles typically offer a base salary of £26,000 to £38,000, with an average of around £30,000. Including commission, OTE generally falls between £38,000 and £46,000, though this stretches considerably higher in technical or high-value sectors such as automotive parts, medical equipment or industrial supplies, where OTE can reach £43,000–£50,000 even at a relatively junior level.
Many field sales roles also include a company car, fuel card, and pension as standard, which is worth factoring in alongside the headline salary figure when comparing offers.
Self-Employed and Commission-Only Sales Salaries
This is the area we know best at Citrus Connect, and it’s also the area most misunderstood by people outside the industry.
Self-employed, commission-only sales roles don’t pay a traditional fixed salary; instead, you’re paid per sale, per appointment, or as a percentage of revenue generated, and you typically operate as a sole trader. This structure removes the income ceiling that comes with a fixed salary, and it’s why the earning spread is so wide.
In practice, realistic OTE for someone new to a commission-only field sales role, once fully trained, tends to sit around £30,000 to £40,000 in the first year. Established performers regularly earn £40,000 to £60,000, and top performers in strong sectors – home improvements, energy, telecoms, fintech payment terminals – can earn £80,000 or more, entirely uncapped.
The trade-off is variability. Self-employed sales suits people who are comfortable with income that fluctuates month to month in exchange for control over their schedule and no ceiling on what they can earn. It doesn’t suit everyone, and a good recruiter should be upfront with you about that before you start.
If you’re weighing up whether self-employed sales is right for you, it’s worth reading our guide to is self-employed sales right for me before you commit to a role.
SDR and BDR Salaries (Sales Development / Business Development Representative)
Sales Development Representatives and Business Development Representatives, the roles responsible for prospecting and booking meetings, typically in B2B tech and SaaS, have a fairly well-documented pay structure because the sector is heavily benchmarked.
Base salaries for SDRs/BDRs generally range from £28,000 to £45,000, with OTE between £40,000 and £70,000. Glassdoor data puts the UK average SDR salary at around £39,700, with the typical range spanning roughly £30,000 to £54,000. RepVue’s more SaaS-specific data shows a median base of around £41,700 with median OTE closer to £64,000, and top performers clearing £90,000.
London adds a consistent premium here, typically 15–20% on base salary, with London SDR averages closer to £42,000–£48,000 depending on the source. A 70/30 base-to-variable split is the most common structure, and moving from SDR to Account Executive is the standard next step, one that typically lifts total compensation by 50–80%.
Business Development Manager Salaries
Business Development Manager (BDM) is one of the broadest titles in UK sales, covering everything from new-business hunting to channel partnerships, so the pay range reflects that breadth.
Base salaries typically run from £35,000 at the lower end to £65,000 for experienced BDMs, with a realistic UK-wide average sitting around £42,000–£50,000, per PayScale’s BDM data. Including commission or bonus, OTE generally adds 20–50% on top of base, taking total earnings to roughly £50,000–£90,000 for most BDMs, and considerably higher in tech and SaaS, where CV-Library reports base salaries alone reaching £50,000–£90,000 before commission.
London BDM salaries average around £57,000–£58,000, roughly 10% above the national figure.
Account Executive Salaries (B2B / SaaS)
Account Executives, who own the full sales cycle from qualified lead through to closed deal, sit at the higher-earning end of individual contributor sales roles, particularly in software and technology sales.
UK Account Executive base salaries typically range from £55,000 to £85,000, with a median around £75,000–£79,000 according to RepVue’s 2026 data. OTE typically lands between £100,000 and £150,000, with a median closer to £143,000–£149,000, and top performers earn considerably more. RepVue places the top end at over £350,000 annually for the highest performers in enterprise software sales.
Within this role, the segment you sell into matters more than years of experience: Enterprise AEs handling larger deals and longer sales cycles consistently out-earn SMB AEs, even at the same company, because quota and deal size scale with the segment.
Sales Manager Salaries
Sales Manager pay varies more by source than almost any other role on this list, largely because the title covers everything from a regional team lead to a national head of sales.
Across the most reliable current data, base salaries for UK Sales Managers typically fall between £37,000 and £60,000, with an average closer to £44,000–£48,000 nationally, according to Indeed’s UK salary data. With bonus and commission included, total OTE realistically ranges from £55,000 to £90,000, with senior or multinational roles reaching £100,000+. London salaries run notably higher, with averages around £56,000–£66,000 base, depending on sector and seniority.
Sales Director Salaries
At the Director level, base salary alone tells only part of the story, since equity, bonus structures and long-term incentives become a bigger part of total compensation.
UK Sales Director base salaries typically range from £75,000 to £110,000, with the most likely range sitting between roughly £86,000 and £130,000 depending on company size and sector, according to Reed’s Sales Director salary data. Total compensation, including bonus and commission, commonly reaches £130,000 to £200,000, with top performers in larger organisations earning £250,000–£300,000 or more.
What Actually Moves Sales Salaries in 2026
A few consistent factors explain most of the variation you’ll see between two seemingly similar job adverts:
Sector. Technology and SaaS sales consistently pay above traditional industries, often by 15–30%, because deal sizes and contract values are higher. Financial and professional services sit in the middle, while logistics, manufacturing and FMCG sales roles tend to sit at or below the average for a given title.
Location. London adds a consistent premium across almost every sales role, typically 10–20% on base salary. The gap is smaller for purely commission-driven roles, since quota and commission rates are usually set at the company level rather than by region.
Base-to-variable split. A role advertised at “£60,000 OTE” with a 70/30 split (£42,000 base, £18,000 variable) carries far less income risk than the same OTE on a 50/50 split. Always ask for the split, not just the headline OTE figure.
AI and tooling proficiency. This is a newer factor in 2026: candidates who can confidently use AI tools for prospecting, call preparation, CRM hygiene and pipeline analysis are increasingly commanding a premium over equivalent candidates without those skills, particularly at the SDR and Account Executive level.
Quota attainment. RepVue’s data shows that hitting quota varies hugely by role and company – anywhere from 55% to nearly 70% of reps hit target in a given year, depending on seniority and role. This is the single biggest factor separating “OTE” from what someone actually takes home.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does OTE mean in sales? OTE stands for On-Target Earnings. It’s your base salary plus commission or bonus, calculated as if you hit 100% of your sales target. It’s a projection, not a guarantee – actual earnings depend on performance.
Is being self-employed in sales a good career in the UK? For people who are comfortable with variable income in exchange for uncapped earning potential and flexibility, yes. Self-employed, commission-only sales roles typically offer higher ceilings than salaried equivalents, but with less income certainty, particularly in the first few months while you build a pipeline.
What’s the highest-paying direct sales role in the UK? At the individual contributor level, Account Executive roles in B2B SaaS offer the highest OTE, frequently exceeding £140,000. At the leadership level, Sales Director and VP of Sales roles in larger organisations can exceed £200,000 in total compensation.
Do field sales jobs really pay well? It depends heavily on the sector and whether the role is employed or self-employed. Employed field sales typically offer OTE of £38,000–£46,000. Self-employed, commission-only field sales have a wider spread, but top performers in strong sectors regularly clear £50,000–£80,000.
How accurate are these 2026 salary figures? These figures are based on current UK job postings and aggregated data from Glassdoor, RepVue, Reed and PayScale as of mid-2026. Sales pay moves quickly with market conditions, so treat ranges as a guide rather than a guarantee, and always confirm the specific base-to-variable split for any role you’re considering.
Find Your Next Sales Role
Numbers on a page only tell you so much. If you want to know what a specific role actually pays, including the real base-to-variable split, not just the headline OTE, that’s where talking to a specialist recruiter helps. At Citrus Connect, we place candidates into self-employed and commission-only sales roles across the UK every week, and we’re upfront about realistic earnings from the first conversation.
Browse current sales vacancies or read more success stories from people we’ve placed into roles like the ones in this guide.
Sources: Glassdoor UK, RepVue, Reed.co.uk, PayScale, CV-Library, Indeed UK. Data current as of June 2026.
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