Sales salaries in France: what each sales role pays in 2026
In short
- Median base salaries on French sales job offers run from 28,500 euros (inside sales) to 65,000 euros (sales director) a year, gross.
- A business developer is offered 40,000 euros, a key account manager 57,500 euros (France Travail, 21 October 2026).
- Offers quote the fixed base; commission comes on top and is often left out of the advert.
We read the permanent job offers published on France Travail, the French public employment service, on 21 October 2026, kept those whose title matches each sales role and that state a salary, and converted every salary to a gross annual base. The table below gives the median and the range of the middle half of offers for eight roles.
How much do sales roles pay in France?
| Role | Median base (gross / year) | Middle 50% of offers | In pounds (median) | Offers with a salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inside sales / SDR | 28,500 € | 25,333 to 32,500 € | £23,900 | 238 of 362 |
| Field sales representative | 33,250 € | 27,600 to 41,625 € | £27,900 | 332 of 446 |
| Technical sales (technico-commercial) | 33,000 € | 27,651 to 40,744 € | £27,700 | 312 of 450 |
| Business developer | 40,000 € | 33,575 to 50,000 € | £33,500 | 126 of 296 |
| Sales manager (responsable commercial) | 44,000 € | 36,600 to 59,611 € | £36,900 | 123 of 257 |
| Sales engineer / account executive | 47,500 € | 40,000 to 55,000 € | £39,800 | 181 of 287 |
| Key account manager | 57,500 € | 47,500 to 77,500 € | £48,200 | 67 of 165 |
| Sales director / head of sales | 65,000 € | 55,625 to 85,902 € | £54,500 | 48 of 141 |
Source: France Travail, API Offres d'emploi v2, permanent (CDI) offers retrieved 21 October 2026, title matching the role. Gross annual base salary, midpoint of the range stated in each offer, variable pay excluded. Pounds at the ECB reference rate of 21 October 2026 (0.83825), rounded to £100. Next check: January 2027.
Which roles are behind each line?
- Inside sales / SDR: offers titled commercial sédentaire, inside sales, SDR or sales development. They book meetings and sell by phone.
- Field sales representative: commercial terrain, attaché commercial. A territory, customer visits, often a company car.
- Technical sales: technico-commercial, the classic French role selling technical products (industry, building, equipment).
- Business developer: new business, often in services and software.
- Sales engineer / account executive: ingénieur commercial, ingénieur d'affaires, account executive, for complex B2B deals.
- Key account manager: key account manager, responsable grands comptes.
- Sales manager: responsable commercial, sales manager, chef des ventes.
- Sales director: directeur commercial, sales director, head of sales.
Do French offers include commission?
Not in the headline figure. French offers quote the fixed gross salary (salaire brut) and mention variable pay separately, if at all. On our sample, the share of offers with a salary that also mentioned commission, bonus or variable was:
| Role | Offers mentioning variable pay |
|---|---|
| Inside sales / SDR | 45% (108 of 238) |
| Field sales representative | 45% (150 of 332) |
| Technical sales (technico-commercial) | 63% (198 of 312) |
| Business developer | 39% (49 of 126) |
| Sales manager (responsable commercial) | 58% (71 of 123) |
| Sales engineer / account executive | 22% (40 of 181) |
| Key account manager | 25% (17 of 67) |
| Sales director / head of sales | 23% (11 of 48) |
Source: France Travail offers of 21 October 2026, salary fields (label, comment, complements) containing variable, commission, bonus or prime. An offer that does not mention variable pay may still include it. Next check: January 2027.
Commission is salary under French law: it carries employer contributions and counts in holiday pay. We cover the rules, and the VRP status of sales representatives, in sales commission in France.
Are sales salaries higher in Paris?
Partly. Across all eight roles, the median offer in the Paris region (Ile-de-France) was 42,500 euros against 35,000 euros in the rest of France, but that gap also reflects the mix of roles advertised in Paris. Role by role, where we had at least 30 offers on each side:
| Role | Ile-de-France | Rest of France |
|---|---|---|
| Business developer | 40,000 € (40 offers) | 40,000 € (86 offers) |
| Field sales representative | 33,750 € (42 offers) | 33,250 € (290 offers) |
| Inside sales / SDR | 30,950 € (36 offers) | 27,900 € (202 offers) |
| Key account manager | 57,500 € (30 offers) | 60,000 € (37 offers) |
| Sales engineer / account executive | 50,000 € (56 offers) | 45,000 € (125 offers) |
| Technical sales (technico-commercial) | 40,000 € (31 offers) | 32,500 € (281 offers) |
Source: France Travail offers of 21 October 2026; Ile-de-France = departments 75, 77, 78, 91, 92, 93, 94 and 95. Sales manager and sales director roles had too few Paris offers with a salary to compare. Next check: January 2027.
What is the minimum a salesperson can be paid?
The French minimum wage (Smic) is 12.31 euros an hour, or 1,867.02 euros a month and 22,404.20 euros a year gross for full-time work (service-public.gouv.fr, fiche F2300, checked 21 October 2026). Your collective agreement may set higher minimums for each job grade. A salesperson paid mostly on commission must still receive at least the minimum wage for the hours worked.
How do I turn a French salary into a budget?
Add employer contributions: around 38% on top of a 40,000 euro executive salary in a company of 30 staff, according to the URSSAF simulator. Our employer cost calculator pre-fills these medians for each role and compares the result with a UK hire, in pounds. If you would rather have the market tested for you, we recruit sales staff in France and check your package against live offers before the search starts. For the wider picture, start with our guide to hiring sales staff in France.
What we cannot tell you
- UK salaries for the same roles: we did not measure a comparable official dataset on the UK side, so we do not print a UK figure. The calculator lets you enter the UK salary you would pay.
- Actual earnings including commission: job offers quote base salaries, and the variable actually paid depends on targets and results.
- Salaries that offers do not state: depending on the role, 26% to 66% of the offers we read gave no salary, and senior roles state it least often.
Hiring a salesperson in France?
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Recruit sales staff in France with usOr brief us directlyFrequently asked questions
What is the average salary of a sales manager in France?
On permanent job offers published on France Travail on 21 October 2026, the median base salary for sales manager roles (responsable commercial, sales manager, chef des ventes) was 44,000 euros gross a year, with the middle half of offers between 36,600 and 59,611 euros. Sales director roles had a median of 65,000 euros.
How much does a business developer earn in France?
The median base salary on business developer offers was 40,000 euros gross a year (middle half between 33,575 and 50,000 euros), measured on 126 permanent offers that stated a salary, on 21 October 2026. Variable pay comes on top.
Are French sales salaries quoted with commission?
French job offers almost always quote the fixed base salary, in gross euros per year or per month. Variable pay is described separately, when it is mentioned at all: on our sample, between 22% and 63% of offers with a salary mentioned commission, bonus or variable depending on the role.
Are salaries higher in Paris?
For some sales roles, yes. On our sample, technical sales offers in the Paris region (Ile-de-France) had a median of 40,000 euros against 32,500 euros elsewhere, and sales engineers 50,000 against 45,000. For business developers and field sales the medians were almost the same.
Sources and method
Every rule, rate and amount on this page was checked at the source on the date shown. I update the page when a source changes.
- France Travail, API Offres d'emploi v2 (offres/search), permanent contracts (CDI), checked 21 October 2026. Search terms and title filters per role listed below; up to 450 results per search term
- European Central Bank, euro reference rate for the pound, checked 21 October 2026. 1 euro = 0.83825 pounds, used for the pound column
- Service-public.gouv.fr, fiche F2300 (Smic), checked 21 October 2026. Minimum wage 22,404.20 euros gross a year for full-time work
Olivier Niel, Founder and Managing Director, Eagle Rocket
Olivier founded Eagle Rocket in 2020, a sales recruitment firm on a human scale. The firm works for a single fixed fee paid on success, and holds two in-depth interviews with each candidate before presenting them to a client.
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Rules and figures are checked against official French and UK sources (service-public.gouv.fr, the French Labour Code, URSSAF, gov.uk) on the date shown. Published by Eagle Rocket SARL (RCS Évreux 883 581 803). This guide is general information, not legal advice.