What do they do?
Plan, direct, or coordinate the actual distribution or movement of a product or service to the customer. Coordinate sales distribution by establishing sales territories, quotas, and goals and establish training programs for sales representatives. Analyze sales statistics gathered by staff to determine sales potential and inventory requirements and monitor the preferences of customers.
Also known as:
District Sales Manager, National Account Manager, National Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Sales and Marketing Vice President (Sales and Marketing VP), Sales Director, Sales Manager, Sales Supervisor, Sales Vice President (Sales VP), Territory Manager
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0.7%
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Ranks #51 in job growth rate1,200Job Openings
Ranks #9 in net job growth
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- Bachelor's degree (47%)
- Some college, no degree (19%)
- Master's degree (12%)
- High school diploma equivalent (11%)
- Associate's degree (8%)
- Doctorate or Professional Degree (1%)
- Less than high school diploma (1%)
Most Popular Majors that prepare Sales Managers
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#1
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Degrees Granted
136,380
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Female Students
63,904
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Male Students
72,476
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Median Starting Salary
$39,500
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#2
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Degrees Granted
24,556
-
Female Students
11,684
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Male Students
12,872
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Median Starting Salary
$48,168
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#3
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Degrees Granted
39,477
-
Female Students
21,815
-
Male Students
17,662
-
Median Starting Salary
$40,600
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#4
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Degrees Granted
91
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Female Students
84
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Male Students
7
-
Median Starting Salary
$35,825
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#5
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Degrees Granted
29
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Female Students
10
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Male Students
19
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Median Starting Salary
$38,300
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People in this career often have these skills:
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
People in this career often know a lot about:
- Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
People in this career often have talent in:
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
People in this career often do these activities:
- Direct sales, marketing, or customer service activities.
- Resolve customer complaints or problems.
- Advise customers on technical or procedural issues.
- Analyze financial records or reports to determine state of operations.
- Supervise employees.
- Determine pricing or monetary policies.
- Approve expenditures.
- Prepare operational budgets.
- Conduct opinion surveys or needs assessments.
- Evaluate potential of products, technologies, or resources.
- Evaluate employee performance.
- Manage human resources activities.
- Establish interpersonal business relationships to facilitate work activities.
- Advise others on business or operational matters.
- Confer with organizational members to accomplish work activities.
- Represent the organization in external relations.
This page includes data from:
Career data: O*NET 28.3 Database
by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (“USDOL/ETA”). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA
Occupation statistics: USDOL U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics
Videos: CareerOneStop, USDOL/ETA and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development
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