How To Become A Commercial Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a commercial representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Frederik Beuk

A commercial representative is a company's liaison with their clients who are commercial businesses. They manage the accounts of current customers and make sure to maintain a strong business relationship in addition to attracting new commercial customers in order to meet sales goals. A commercial representative needs to have excellent customer service skills in order to communicate with clients and retain their business. Depending on the service that their company provides, they may also need good technical support skills in order to assist customers having issues with technology. When they're not interacting with customers, commercial representatives analyze their company's business plan in order to identify ways where they can improve profits.

It's possible to become a commercial representative with only a high school diploma. However, a bachelor's degree in business might give someone a leg up over the competition and help them get promoted down the road. Professional experience in the world of sales is also helpful.

Not only do commercial representatives earn an average annual salary of $54,900, they are in a good position to earn promotions further up in the sales department.

What general advice would you give to a commercial representative?

Frederik Beuk

Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Akron

The key consideration is whether you really want to maximize your initial salary. For instance, envision two job opportunities: one offering a salary of $50,000 per year, where you'd be the most junior team member, and the other providing $75,000 per year, with the caveat that you would be the sole sales representative for the firm. The optimal choice is to prioritize learning opportunities. In this context, being the lone salesperson for a company that compensates its highest-earning sales professional $75,000 might not be your superior option. Instead, seek a position that offers the greatest potential for learning. Subsequently, demonstrate your negotiating prowess, a critical sales skill, by securing a slightly higher salary. However, it's essential not to fixate on maximizing your starting salary. Your career requires a long-term strategy, and you have several decades ahead of you to maximize income.

ScoreCommercial RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $53,767

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.1

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 5.12%

Black or African American 3.82%

Hispanic or Latino 14.10%

Unknown 3.71%

White 73.02%

Gender

female 51.81%

male 48.19%

Age - 48

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 - 48

Stress level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a commercial representative

Explore commercial representative education requirements

Most common commercial representative degrees

Bachelor's

61.3 %

Associate

15.6 %

High School Diploma

9.6 %

Start to develop specific commercial representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Business Development	13.57%
Technical Support	11.91%
Financial Statements	10.06%
Inbound Calls	9.82%
Negotiation	6.44%

Complete relevant commercial representative training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New commercial representatives 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 commercial representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real commercial representative resumes.

Research commercial representative duties and responsibilities

Analyze and support development and execution of underwriting, automation and operational strategies to efficiently and effectively manage the portfolio.
Analyze and support development and execution of underwriting, automation and operational strategies to efficiently and effectively manage the portfolio.
Home OfficeThe Florida/Georgia DSR position requires working completely independent from a home office utilizing multiple sales disciplines.

Prepare your commercial representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your commercial representative 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 commercial representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable commercial representative resume templates

Build a professional commercial representative 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 commercial representative resume.