There's a big difference in psychology. Although it's only a rule of thumb, the best VP of sales can be a bit more introverted and detail-oriented than the salespeople they manage, who can be more outgoing, high-perseverence, cold calling types.
VP sales has to manage revenue pipelines, analyze sales reports, detect account losses, manage promotions, get involved in contract negotiations, etc.
Salespeople network, originate leads, cold call companies, build relationships, close deals, etc.
The best salespeople often make terrible VP sales.
In my opinion, hiring a VP of Sales makes sense if a large sales org is critical to your business success. Think global domination. Some VP of Sales depending on their background are better at 'optimizing' sales processes and personnel rather than experimentation and general hustle.
Once you have some traction and a solid product, a great VP of Sales will help you scale your early success rapidly.
For starters sales reps are individual contributors where are VP of sales tend to be organization builders. They hire sales folks and build a sales organization under them. So you should expect VP of sales to be much more senior and thus cost you more in salary and equity. A good VP of sales tends to get 1 or 2% of equity. That may vary though.
I would imagine that to be a bit more. So, a senior VP of sales at a reasonable company (not necessarily at a HP/Oracle etc.) makes $200K/y easily. If they are high performers then sales bonus and kickers (e.g. if you sell a $x mn. deal you get 1% of the deal value) easily take them into the $250-300K/year range. At some companies good sales guys/gals make more than the CEO itself. At larger companies like HP/Oracle/Salesforce.com etc those salary #'s are anywhere between $500K/year and $1million/yr
