Salary Benchmarks
What an SME or scale-up should expect to pay a Sales Director in Yorkshire and the North West in 2026, including base, OTE, equity and time-to-hire benchmarks.
Sales Director compensation in the North of England has lifted materially over the trailing twenty-four months, driven by competition from Manchester scale-ups, the relocation of senior commercial talent into Leeds, and the persistent shortage of operators who have personally taken a business through the £5m to £25m ARR transition. This piece sets out the bands we are seeing on live retained searches across Yorkshire and the North West, with commentary on the levers that move a candidate from one band to another.
A Sales Director in Yorkshire today typically lands at £120k to £170k base salary with on-target earnings of £200k to £280k. The lower end of that range applies to professional services and established corporates with mature commercial functions; the upper end applies to FinTech, HealthTech and B2B SaaS scale-ups in Leeds, where competition for senior commercial leadership has lifted both base and OTE materially. Equity at the Director level in Yorkshire SaaS scale-ups typically sits in the 0.30% to 0.75% range, vesting over four years.
A Sales Director in the North West today typically lands at £125k to £180k base with on-target earnings of £210k to £300k. Manchester sits at the top of that range, with Liverpool and Preston typically 5% to 10% below. The Manchester scale-up density around Spinningfields and NOMA, combined with persistent inflow of senior commercial talent from London, has compressed the bottom of the range and pushed the top up over the past eighteen months. Equity expectations in Manchester scale-ups sit in line with Yorkshire at 0.30% to 0.75%.
Three factors consistently move a candidate towards the top of the band on Evara searches. First, prior experience taking a business through the £5m to £25m ARR transition (a relatively scarce profile in the North). Second, a deep commercial bench from a recognised regional employer (Sky Betting, Peak, Hibob, BJSS, ANS Group, TPP). Third, the ability to step into a leadership team and represent commercial credibly in a board meeting on day one. Conversely, candidates without scale-up scar tissue or without a player-coach disposition tend to sit at the lower end of the band even with strong corporate CVs.
A Sales Director search in Yorkshire typically runs 8 to 10 weeks from kick-off to signed offer; a North West search runs 8 to 12 weeks, with the longer end driven by the breadth of the senior commercial pool in Manchester and the consequent depth of shortlisting. Both timelines assume a clean kick-off with the role properly defined; rushed briefs and undecided comp envelopes routinely add three to five weeks.
£k base
Key takeaways
Compensation data is drawn from offers extended on Evara retained searches between February 2025 and January 2026, candidate compensation captured during commercial screening across the same period, and reference points triangulated against named comparators in the regional market. Bands shown represent the typical 80% range of accepted offers, with outliers excluded. Yorkshire data is anchored on Leeds and Sheffield; North West data is anchored on Manchester and Liverpool. Equity ranges apply to scale-up SaaS contexts and exclude PE-backed and established corporate scenarios.
Sources
Browse all salary benchmarks →
Recommended playbook
A Series A comp plan has to do three jobs at once: attract talent above the founder-led pay grade, drive the right behaviour against the new growth plan, and stay affordable inside the cash runway. This playbook walks a CEO and CFO through the seven steps to a working plan.
Sales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.
Email Rachel Lunn