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All levels studies

How many levels do B2B sales ladders have?

Data collected on

We read 10 B2B sales ladders that public employers and companies publish for their own staff and counted their levels. The median is 3 levels for B2B salespeople who do not manage people, and 3 is the most common count. Every source is linked below, and the data is free to download.

Key findings

  • Ladders run from 1 to 5 levels. The median is 3, and 6 of the 10 ladders use exactly 3.
  • 3 of the 9 ladders that use job titles have a Senior level. Its median position is step 3 from the bottom.
  • 5 ladders publish a separate track for managers. The 3 that say where it starts put it between step 2 and step 3, and the median is step 3.

How many levels B2B sales ladders have

Each bar is the number of ladders with that many levels for B2B salespeople who do not manage people.

  • 1 level1 ladder
  • 2 levels1 ladder
  • 3 levels6 ladders
  • 4 levels1 ladder
  • 5 levels1 ladder

Which titles the ladders use

The bars cover the 9 ladders whose levels are job titles. The other one uses grades or scope names instead of job titles, such as “Mid-market (P3)” or “Enterprise (P4)”. One ladder can use several of these words.

  • Senior3 of 9
  • Representative6 of 9
  • Account3 of 9

Senior counts a level titled Senior or Sr., not Senior Staff or Senior Principal; the other words count wherever they sit in a title.

Where the manager track starts

This chart shows the step, counted from the bottom of each ladder, where the first people-manager role sits. It covers the 3 ladders that say where it starts. Of the rest, 2 have a manager track but do not say where it starts and 5 do not say whether they have one.

  • Step 21 ladder
  • Step 32 ladders

Download the data

One row per ladder: its name, who publishes it, the source link, the number of levels, the level names, the manager track and the step it starts at.

Download the CSV

All 10 ladders

Levels for B2B salespeople who do not manage people, lowest first, as each publisher names them.
LadderLevelsLevel namesManager track
California Prison Industry AuthorityPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy)1
  1. Sales Representative, Prison Industries
Separate, above the top level (step 2)
GitLab5
  1. Associate Strategic Account Executive
  2. Strategic Account Executive
  3. Senior Strategic Account Executive
  4. Major Account Executive
  5. Senior Major Account Executive
Separate; start not stated
IT Insights of Rochester3
  1. Account Manager I
  2. Account Manager II
  3. Account Manager III
Not stated
Sourcegraph4
  1. Mid-market (P3)
  2. Enterprise (P4)
  3. Sr. Enterprise (P5)
  4. Strategic (P6)
Not stated
State of MichiganPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy)3
  1. Lottery District Sales Representative 10
  2. Lottery District Sales Representative P11
  3. Lottery District Sales Representative 12
Not stated
State of New JerseyPublic employer3
  1. Sales Representative 1 State Lottery
  2. Sales Representative 2 State Lottery
  3. Sales Representative 3 State Lottery
Not stated
State of OhioPublic employer3
  1. Lottery Ticket Sales Representative 1
  2. Lottery Ticket Sales Representative 2
  3. Lottery Executive Account Representative
Separate, from step 3 (level with Lottery Executive Account Representative)
State of WisconsinPublic employer3
  1. Lottery Services Specialist
  2. Lottery Services Specialist - Senior
  3. Lottery Services Specialist - Advanced
Not stated
University of MichiganPublic employer3
  1. Sales Representative Associate
  2. Sales Representative Intermediate
  3. Sales Representative Senior
Separate; start not stated
Whatfix2
  1. Sales Development Representative
  2. Enterprise Sales Development Representative
Separate, above the top level (step 3)

How we did it

We read 10 B2B sales ladders that their publishers use for their own staff: 4 from companies and 6 from public employers, on their own sites or in documents they publish. We kept only those whose levels we could read as text. We left out templates written by individuals, professional bodies’ standards and ladders only for retail store sales, customer success, sales operations or marketing teams.

Few employers publish a B2B sales ladder. Four of the ten here are state lottery series for field sales roles, whose staff recruit and support the retailers that sell tickets; they are also four of the six ladders with 3 levels. We used them as the closest fit.

Levels are the steps a B2B salesperson can climb without managing people, lowest first. Interns and trainees are left out. When a ladder splits one title into numbered steps, each with its own expectations (like “Account Manager I” and “II”), each step counts. Pay bands inside one level do not. A level above both tracks that the ladder does not open to individual contributors is not counted.

The manager track starts where the ladder puts its first people-manager role: the same band or level number, the same row of its table, or the step where it says the tracks split. When that role sits above the top level, it counts as the next step up. When a ladder has a manager track but does not place it, we do not guess.

Title shares only count ladders whose levels are job titles. A level counts as Senior when its title says Senior or Sr., but not Senior Staff or Senior Principal; Representative and Account count as whole words wherever they sit in a title.

This is a sample of the ladders people chose to publish, about half from US state agencies, the rest from software and IT companies and a public university, and some are several years old. It shows what public ladders look like, not what every employer does. Where a live page was gone or blocked automated reading, we read the Internet Archive copy, and the table says so.

We store only public facts: how many levels a ladder has, what the levels are called and where the manager track starts. Each ladder belongs to its publisher, so follow the links for the full text. None of them has reviewed or endorsed this study, and Competrace is not affiliated with them.

Spotted a mistake, or a public ladder we missed? Email support@competrace.com with the link, and we will update the data.

See levels with their skills

The study counts levels. To see what each level needs, browse our B2B sales career path with the skills each level expects, or read what a career ladder is.

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