What does a direct sales representative do?

As a direct sales representative, you are responsible for creating customer awareness of a company's products and services and closing sales. You will perform varied tasks that include assisting in developing and executing marketing and sales plans, conducting research on competing products, and identifying opportunities to improve sales. Additionally, you are expected to answer inquiries about product features, availability, benefits, and pricing. Other tasks that you are likely to perform include attending trade shows, preparing sales proposals for prospective buyers, and preparing sales reports.
Direct sales representative responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real direct sales representative resumes:
- Manage accounts and create invoices via QuickBooks.
- Achieve and maintain high-volume sales output, for cell phones and broadband products to stay employ with company.
- Contact medicare eligible recipients to sell medicare advantage plans through in-home meetings, community seminars and direct telesales.
- Canvass assigned sales territory and solicit orders for new or upgrade cable, broadband and digital phone services.
- Generate revenue by selling and upselling services while developing client base throughout territory.
- Prospect and generate sales revenue by adding new program residential customers and cross selling and upselling current residential customers.
- Provide merchandising assistance to customers by building displays, negotiating placement, replenishing permanent secondary displays and using POS materials effectively.
- Train one employee to operate QuickBooks software.
- Demonstrate strong understanding of Comcast products, promoting and selling offerings to individual customers within assign territory.
- Concentrate on sales in auto, motorcycle, and RV's.
- Assist with the resale of security systems to new customers.
- Specialize in personal lines (auto, home, boats, motorcycles, RV, umbrellas, flood) of business.
- Utilize negotiation and influencing abilities by offering customers solutions using products and services from MCI portfolio.
Direct sales representative skills and personality traits
We calculated that 33% of Direct Sales Representatives are proficient in Customer Service, Direct Sales, and TV. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Physical stamina, and Self-confidence.
We break down the percentage of Direct Sales Representatives that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 33%
Access electronic and paper cataloging systems to look up product information and Dynamic customer service professional experienced in call-center settings.
- Direct Sales, 20%
Direct SalesEnergetic direct Salesperson with certified product knowledge in a wide variety of cosmetic sales products.
- TV, 15%
Established rapport with potential/current customers while efficiently and effectively fixing and alleviating cable TV problems.
- Work Ethic, 4%
Team Manager - After showing consistency and work ethic to my overseers, they insisted I learn the interviewing process.
- Technical Troubleshooting, 3%
Delivered post-sale services, providing customer education on wireless service and equipment, issue resolution, and technical troubleshooting.
- Door-To-Door Sales, 3%
Conduct door-to-door sales presentations to potential and existing customers to maximize the customers' ability to purchase and retain services.
"customer service," "direct sales," and "tv" are among the most common skills that direct sales representatives use at work. You can find even more direct sales representative responsibilities below, including:
Interpersonal skills. The most essential soft skill for a direct sales representative to carry out their responsibilities is interpersonal skills. This skill is important for the role because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to work well with many types of people." Additionally, a direct sales representative resume shows how their duties depend on interpersonal skills: "exhibited excellent interpersonal skills, customer service skills, and solved problems quickly & efficiently. "
Physical stamina. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling direct sales representative duties is physical stamina. The role rewards competence in this skill because "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives are often on their feet for a long time and may carry heavy sample products." According to a direct sales representative resume, here's how direct sales representatives can utilize physical stamina in their job responsibilities: "inventory control / physical inventory. "
Self-confidence. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of direct sales representatives is self-confidence. This skill is critical to many everyday direct sales representative duties, as "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be confident and persuasive when making sales presentations." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "maintain high level of confidence while accessing customer accounts. "
Customer-service skills. For certain direct sales representative responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "customer-service skills." The day-to-day duties of a direct sales representative rely on this skill, as "wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives must be able to listen to the customer’s needs and concerns before and after the sale." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what direct sales representatives do: "apply expertise in consultative sales techniques to meet or exceed all sales goals by ensuring excellent customer experiences. "
The three companies that hire the most direct sales representatives are:
- Spectrum215 direct sales representatives jobs
- AT&T198 direct sales representatives jobs
- Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC
151 direct sales representatives jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable direct sales representative resume templates
Build a professional direct sales representative resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your direct sales representative resume.Compare different direct sales representatives
Direct sales representative vs. Sales development representative
A sales development representative qualifies leads at the sales funnel's initial stages. Sales development representatives need to conduct research for prospective clients and qualify the leads before handing them to the sales team. They develop sales strategies to attract buyers or solicit potential customers. They need to build relationships with their customers to determine their needs and qualify the viability of interests to drive sales. Also, they collaborate with the sales executives making certain that corporate targets and goals are met.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a direct sales representative are more likely to require skills like "direct sales," "tv," "work ethic," and "strong work ethic." On the other hand, a job as a sales development representative requires skills like "sdr," "lead generation," "account executives," and "linkedin." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Sales development representatives tend to reach similar levels of education than direct sales representatives. In fact, sales development representatives are 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Direct sales representative vs. Sales representative internship
In a sales representative internship, an intern's duties depend on the directives of a supervising staff or manager. Typically, they are responsible for gaining industry insights while performing clerical tasks such as preparing and processing documents, greeting visitors, disseminating and organizing files, and running errands as needed. They may also participate in communicating with clients through calls and appointments to offer products and services, ensuring client satisfaction. Furthermore, as an intern, it is essential to familiarize and abide by the company's policies and regulations, including its vision and mission.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that direct sales representative responsibilities requires skills like "direct sales," "tv," "work ethic," and "strong work ethic." But a sales representative internship might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "kids," "sales presentations," "powerpoint," and "salesforce."
Sales representative interns earn similar levels of education than direct sales representatives in general. They're 1.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Direct sales representative vs. Telemarketing sales representative
A sales support representative is responsible for assisting the complex operations of sales departments, performing administrative duties under the supervision of a direct manager. Sales support representatives' tasks include acknowledging and encoding customers' orders in the system, processing payments, responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about the products, writing sales reports, and updating the customer of the shipment details. They also support the sales representatives on selling goods and services to potential customers by creating marketing materials and communicating with customers over the phone and e-mail to generate revenues and increase profits.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from direct sales representative resumes include skills like "direct sales," "tv," "work ethic," and "strong work ethic," whereas a telemarketing sales representative is more likely to list skills in "telephone calls," "telemarketing," "computer system," and "outbound sales. "
Most telemarketing sales representatives achieve a similar degree level compared to direct sales representatives. For example, they're 1.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Direct sales representative vs. Sales support representative
Even though a few skill sets overlap between direct sales representatives and sales support representatives, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a direct sales representative might have more use for skills like "direct sales," "tv," "strong work ethic," and "technical troubleshooting." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of sales support representatives require skills like "sales support," "phone calls," "pos," and "good communication. "
In general, sales support representatives hold similar degree levels compared to direct sales representatives. Sales support representatives are 0.4% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of direct sales representative
Updated January 8, 2025











