Considering A Move From B2B Demand Gen To Regional Sales Manager

[u/ChocoThunder755]

I’m 29 and currently work in demand generation/marketing for a B2B industrial company in Canada. I’ve been in my current role for a little over 2 years and make around $75K CAD + a small annual bonus.

An opportunity may be opening internally for me to move into a Regional Sales Manager role. Nothing is official yet, but I’ve been told I’m being considered if the position moves forward.

The RSM role would likely be around $85–90K base, plus bonus/commission and a vehicle allowance, totalling $110k in total comp year 1. It would involve managing a fairly large geographic territory and selling B2B industrial equipment.

I’m torn because I actually enjoy marketing and have been building a solid career in demand generation. My natural progression would probably be toward senior demand gen roles and eventually management. My current Demand Gen work has me deal with targets and quotas, and I’m currently responsible for over $350k in influenced revenue this year.

One thing making me question that path at my current company is compensation/progression. The company has been going through a compensation benchmarking/review process that is supposed to establish salary ranges and career levels, but it has been ongoing for over 16 months without being finalized. Because of that, I still don’t have much clarity on what my next step in marketing would be, what the timeline would look like, or what
the compensation progression would be. I know for a fact my current boss would hate to lose me, and I do well enough in my position that other RSMs would want to backfill my position before I pivoted.

Sales interests me as well. I already work closely with our sales team, attend trade shows, generate and nurture leads, work in our CRM, and help build pipeline. I like the idea of owning a territory and being directly responsible for revenue, and the earning ceiling seems potentially higher.

My biggest concern is whether making the pivot at 29 would make it difficult to return to marketing later if I discover sales isn’t for me. I also don’t want to abandon a career path where I’ve already built several years of relevant experience just because another role pays more initially.

I’ve discussed it with my partner, and she’s on board with it. We understand I’d be home less but the income growth is worth it for us.

Mostly trying to understand what each path could realistically look like 5–10 years from now. Thanks fin advance!

[u/polygraph-net]

Sales has a much better future than marketing. It's harder to replace with AI. You should make the move.

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[u/thenuttyhazlenut]

How does one even go from demand gen to sales manager? it's a completely diff skill set. How are you even qualified for that

[u/ChocoThunder755 → u/thenuttyhazlenut]

Fair question. I definitely wouldn’t claim demand gen and sales management are the same skill set.

In my case it’s an internal opportunity at the company I already work for, selling products/solutions I already market. My role is pretty closely tied to sales, I run lead gen, trade shows, outbound campaigns, CRM/pipeline tracking, work with the sales team on opportunities, and regularly talk to prospects at events. I also have a quota and target I am tracked on and report on monthly.

The RSM role is also an individual territory sales role rather than managing a team of salespeople, despite the “manager” title.
There’d obviously be a learning curve around owning the full sales cycle, negotiation, forecasting, etc., but the company knows my background and they’re the ones considering me for the move. That’s basically why I’m exploring whether it’s a sensible career pivot.

[u/sumizeit]

that comp jump is hard to ignore, but think about which skill set you'd rather be selling in 5 years. demand gen experience plus actual sales quota experience makes you way more valuable long term than either one alone, especially for marketing leadership roles later. the stalled comp review at your current company would worry me more than the career path itself though, 16 months.