How To Become A Client Sales Executive: What It Is and Career Path

What is a client sales executive and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Bill Thorne

Client Service Executives serve as a connection between external customers and internal departments for their organization. They interact with clients through email, telephone, and in-person meetings to answer queries, offer advice, introduce new products, review sales performance, negotiate contracts and packages, and aim to achieve monthly or annual targets.

To become a Client Service Executives, you need to possess a high school diploma or college degree. Additionally, it would be best to have a year of sales experience and have excellent customer service and sales skills with vital verbal and written communication skills.

Generally, most of the graduates who gravitate in this field end up laying claim to annual earnings at $72,525. The current median pay for a Career Development Specialist ranges from $63,425 to $84,372 in the U.S. However, this figure can vary significantly depending upon your experience and skills.

What general advice would you give to a client sales executive?

Bill Thorne

Executive Director of the NRF Foundation and Senior Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs of NRF, National Retail Federation

Retail is the largest private-sector employer in the country, directly employing 32 million people and supporting 52 million jobs overall - roughly one-quarter of the U.S. workforce. While COVID-19 has presented new and unexpected challenges, retailers have continued to showcase the industry's resilience and adaptability time and again. The safety and security of customers and employees remains our greatest priority. It is no doubt that the professional environment has changed this year, but retail continues to offer a plethora of career opportunities for graduates and seasoned veterans alike.

ScoreClient Sales ExecutiveUS Average

Salary

4.1

Avg. Salary $52,162

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 38.60%

male 61.40%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a client sales executive

Explore client sales executive education requirements

Most common client sales executive degrees

Bachelor's

74.3 %

Master's

9.8 %

Associate

7.8 %

Start to develop specific client sales executive skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Relationships	19.24%
Client Relationships	18.67%
Cloud	16.52%
Cloud Computing	11.86%
Sales Process	4.75%

Complete relevant client sales executive training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New client sales executives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a client sales executive based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real client sales executive resumes.

Research client sales executive duties and responsibilities

Manage vendors, RFP process, product selection, and marketing brochure creation.
Leverage other sales office resources and administrative/support staff to achieve personal and team relate revenue goals.
Partner with Google for cloud email solution for an RFP response
Create cross-selling opportunities for colleagues in the national practice groups.

Get client sales executive experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a client sales executive. The most common roles before becoming a client sales executive include account executive, sales manager team lead and account manager.

Prepare your client sales executive resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your client sales executive resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a client sales executive resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable client sales executive resume templates

Build a professional client sales executive resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your client sales executive resume.