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Job outlook for customer business managers in the United States
Are customer business manager jobs in demand?
Customer business manager job and salary trends over time
Customer business manager jobs over time
Customer business manager job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 418 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 405 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 395 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 360 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 328 | 0.00% |
Average customer business manager salary over time
Customer business manager salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $100,453 | $48.29 | +3.9% |
| 2024 | $96,694 | $46.49 | +1.9% |
| 2023 | $94,885 | $45.62 | +1.6% |
| 2022 | $93,430 | $44.92 | +0.8% |
| 2021 | $92,688 | $44.56 | +1.9% |
Customer business manager jobs by state
Most common states for customer business managers
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 632 | 91% |
| 2 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 1,839 | 33% |
| 3 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 2,128 | 31% |
| 4 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 309 | 29% |
| 5 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 513 | 27% |
| 6 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 1,018 | 25% |
| 7 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 216 | 25% |
| 8 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 252 | 24% |
| 9 | Alaska | 739,795 | 173 | 23% |
| 10 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 674 | 22% |
| 11 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 635 | 22% |
| 12 | Vermont | 623,657 | 137 | 22% |
| 13 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 125 | 22% |
| 14 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 2,678 | 21% |
| 15 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 1,580 | 21% |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 5,795,483 | 1,207 | 21% |
| 17 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 663 | 21% |
| 18 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 162 | 21% |
| 19 | California | 39,536,653 | 7,954 | 20% |
| 20 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 274 | 20% |
Most common cities for customer business managers
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cincinnati | 2 | 1% | $65,522 |
| 2 | Grand Rapids | 1 | 1% | $105,126 |
| 3 | Chicago | 1 | 0% | $94,892 |
| 4 | Columbus | 1 | 0% | $70,942 |
| 5 | Jacksonville | 1 | 0% | $66,874 |
| 6 | Los Angeles | 1 | 0% | $110,821 |
| 7 | Washington | 1 | 0% | $102,350 |
Customer Business Manager job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of customer business manager experts
Landmark College
University of Saint Mary
The Pennsylvania State University
Christopher Newport University
Buffalo State College
What general advice would you give to a Customer Business Manager?
Dr. Kim Roberts: Business-related occupations offer attractive salaries and offer a variety of disciplines, such as accounting, contract management, cybersecurity, finance, human resources, logistics, marketing, management, operations, sales, and more. However, business careers are often demanding, requiring long work weeks and travel.
Skills
leadership
communication
innovation
adaptation
critical thinking
problem solving
emotional intelligence
empathy
teamwork
cultural competence
conflict management
ethics and social responsibility
What Customer Business Manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Kim Roberts: Business professionals lead organizations by focused efforts that revolve around products/services, processes, and people. Business professionals work to ensure the firm's products and/or services meet customer expectations, with an eye toward an ever-changing market. They manage processes that produce or support the firm's products. This requires the ability to analyze data to make informed decisions, to drive continuous improvement, and to solve problems through critical thinking. Successful business professionals must also create climates that promote teamwork and foster collaboration.
What will help Customer Business Managers increase their earning potential?
Dr. Kim Roberts: Now is a good time to enter business professions because of the projected growth of employment opportunities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Overall employment in business and financial occupations is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations from 2022 to 2032." Furthermore, the growth of online learning and online degrees means a full-time job and family commitments are not roadblocks to earning a business degree.
What skills stand out on Customer Business Manager resumes?
Dr. Jeanette Landin: Skills that stand out on contemporary business manager resumes are soft skills. Business managers indeed need insight and knowledge about the business and hard skills, including financial and other technical skills. What stands out on contemporary, successful business manager resumes are their soft skills. Interpersonal skills are atop the list because business is all about people working with other people to achieve a common goal: The business's mission. The people skills of communication, collaboration, and delegation are a vital part of the manager's ability to influence colleagues, delegate work, and achieve the company's mission.
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs, Coordinator of All-University Honors ProgramUniversity of Saint Mary
Division of Business and Information Technologies (DBiT)
What soft skills should all Customer Business Managers possess?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: First, critical and creative thinking. Employers value problem solvers. A Business Development Managers' problem usually is finding growth opportunities. Candidates need to learn to take the initiative to figure out how to solve problems like those.
Second, writing. The best employees know how to communicate in writing. More and more communication occurs through email and other forms of social media and apps, and as such, this skill is absolutely critical. You don't need to be a creative writing genius, but you do need to know how to write in a professional tone, present your ideas in an organized way, get to the point, and avoid errors. There is a direct line between a student's ability to write an academic essay with a clear thesis and an employee's ability to write a good email or proposal. If you can't do those things, then you risk embarrassment and possibly limited options for promotion.
Third, speaking. The American business world discriminates against introverts-sometimes at their own peril. Everyone needs to know how to give a quality speech, but more importantly, you need to sound confident and assertive in a board room during meetings. You need to be confident in front of clients. Fake it if you have to. The way you present yourself is absolutely critical.
Fourth, social skills. You need to be friendly. Get to know co-workers and clients. Find out what they like and show an interest. Find common ground. Your undergraduate degree hopefully exposed you to a wide diversity of topics you may have thought were irrelevant at some point. Now is the time to remember that stuff and use it to connect with people. Nearly everything you learned will have some application someday. It will help you connect with others. In addition, put away your cell phone when you are at work or on social occasions. To some people, a preoccupation with a cell phone communicates a lack of interest in the person you are with. It can alienate bosses, co-workers, and clients.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Customer Business Managers?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: Familiarity with software-basic windows packages, particularly MS Word and Excel. Candidates should not be afraid of quantitative data analysis. Analytics are necessary to figuring out what your business is doing and how it can grow. Also, familiarity with whatever social media platforms are used in that industry can be very important.
What skills will help Customer Business Managers earn the most?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: One consideration is, does the position pay commission? If so, the soft skills listed above are extremely important because the more you apply those skills, the more likely you are to grow your business.
When a manager is not on commission, there's little correlation between skills and pay while doing the job. The employer will hire you at a given salary level, and it is your job to negotiate to the best position. Once they have chosen you-that's the moment when you have the most leverage. You will never get a raise that is as substantial as what you might be able to ask for upon hire. After that, most raises are not going to be tied mechanically to performance and skills. Your next chance at a raise will be when you move or are promoted to a new position. Thus, those soft skills can affect your ability to negotiate.
I will repeat a previous theme: education and experience are probably more important than skills in terms of making more money. An employer can't really tell what your skills are from your resume. Just because you say you have a skill doesn't mean that you really do. They can reasonably guess that somebody with a degree is responsible enough to have accomplished something big. Somebody who makes it through a graduate program is probably very good at what they know. And somebody who has been in the industry and/or in a similar job is more likely to be able to walk in with little orientation and know what they are doing. Employers take risks on employees and hope that they can deliver. Thus, with more education and more experience, you are able to apply for higher-level jobs, which usually come with higher salaries.
What skills stand out on Customer Business Manager resumes?
Dr. Mark Harvey Ph.D.: Resumes are hard. It is very difficult to predict what any employer is looking for on any resume. The "skills" section of a resume is probably not the first thing most employers are looking at. The first consideration is probably education. Those with a bachelor's degree will be sorted first in fields-such as those who have business degrees, or particularly sales and marketing majors. Those with MBAs will be placed on the top. Those who have MBAs and marketing concentrations will likely be valued the most. The second consideration would probably be experience. Someone with several years of experience in business development or sales and marketing will be moved to the top. Someone with a bachelor's degree who has a lot of experience might beat out a fresh MBA. However, MBA plus experience beats almost everything. Someone with an MBA going for an entry-level position with little experience needed will likely beat out all bachelor challengers. For new graduates, getting some kind of internship in sales and marketing can differentiate them from those who do not.
Most hiring managers will probably assume that somebody who has sales and marketing education and/or experience probably has the skills necessary to do the job. An interviewer may probe on specific skills. I'll comment more specifically on other kinds of skills below, but it's also fair to say that a candidate's soft skills should shine in the interview. Simply saying that you have certain skills on a resume doesn't mean that you actually have them.
I think that the best thing a candidate can do is to research the company they hope to work for and tailor their resume to that employer. What does the business do? What kinds of things do you think that development manager is going to do in that particular industry? How do your skills as a candidate match what you guess they're looking for? The more you customize your resume, the better chances you have of resonating with the company. Employers are impressed when you already know something about the job and the industry.
James Wilkerson Ph.D.
Business Program Coordinator, Project and Supply Chain Management Program CoordinatorThe Pennsylvania State University
Business Department
What skills stand out on Customer Business Manager resumes?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Skills, experience, knowledge, and abilities that matter especially strongly include target market analysis (including market research skills and knowledge), product/service positioning within competitive field, project work or coordination with sales staff, major client relationship management, and enough general business and industry knowledge to be able to relate business development to operational/production realities.
What soft skills should all Customer Business Managers possess?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Verbal skills (both speaking and writing), negotiation skills, unfailing honesty, ability to empathize with clients' wants, and teamwork skills suitable for working collaboratively with sales and operations staff.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Customer Business Managers?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Spreadsheet (Excel) skills (including graph production from data), basic statistical knowledge, and online information search skills.
What skills will help Customer Business Managers earn the most?
James Wilkerson Ph.D.: Skill at rapidly learning market trends, relating business development to product development, and persuading major prospective clients when brought in to help with closing sales. Bottom line: the business development manager must be on the cutting edge of new market conditions and new business opportunities to help the firm organically grow its sales, especially in new markets or product/service lines.
Todd Lee Goen
Instructor & Internship DirectorChristopher Newport University
Department of Communication
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Customer Business Manager job market given the pandemic?
Todd Lee Goen: The pandemic is demonstrating that employees can be productive working remotely and with flexible schedules, so we're likely to see more flexible and remote positions emerge in the job market. This will be industry/company/position specific, but these options give employers access to a larger applicant pool (which means a more talented workforce) and allows them to reduce overhead costs of maintaining physical office space.
Relatedly, hiring processes will become more technology-driven. In-person interviews (especially if there are multiple rounds) will be significantly less likely and more organizations will opt for pre-recorded interviews. This started pre-pandemic, but the pandemic will accelerate it. The good news is that as the technology improves the application process should become more efficient and streamlined (e.g., applying with LinkedIn profiles has the potential to become more of a norm).
The job market in recession-proof industries will remain strong, but wages will likely stagnate and may even decrease. Many recession-proof jobs are connected to state and local governments. The pandemic and its associated recession brought decreased tax revenues and increased demands for public expenditures, and state and local governments won't have the funds to support wage growth for the next few years. The job market in recession-intolerant industries will fluctuate for several years and will only stabilize once the economy begins to recover.
One of the key take-aways from the pandemic is that public health systems are inadequate. One possible outcome is that in the next few years there will be a greater number of jobs in the public health sector. Whether or not this happens will largely depend on the length and severity of the current recession as well as funding allocations of governments post-pandemic. Given the US federal government ceded much of the responsibility for responding to the pandemic, expect many of these positions to be with state and local governments. Also, expect many of these will be community/public engagement type positions that focus on communication and relationship building.
What Customer Business Manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Annemarie Franczyk: Every industry is looking for professionals who can write and communicate visually, so any activity, extra course or private tutor who can help graduates keep up or build these skills will be to their advantage professionally. Additionally, data analysis has application across all disciplines, so a course or two in that area will be of value. And if the graduate can put these two areas of study together and communicate data effectively, he or she will be in demand.