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Job outlook for directors of sales in the United States
Director of sales job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected director of sales job growth rate is 5% from 2018-2028.
About 23,800 new jobs for directors of sales are projected over the next decade.
Director of sales salaries have increased 12% for directors of sales in the last 5 years.
There are over 246,032 directors of sales currently employed in the United States.
There are 91,891 active director of sales job openings in the US.
The average director of sales salary is $111,068.
Are director of sales jobs in demand?
Director of sales job and salary trends over time
Director of sales jobs over time
Director of sales job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 246,032 | 0.07% |
| 2020 | 215,065 | 0.06% |
| 2019 | 220,308 | 0.07% |
| 2018 | 206,610 | 0.06% |
| 2017 | 200,733 | 0.06% |
Average director of sales salary over time
Director of sales salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $111,068 | $53.40 | +4.5% |
| 2025 | $106,324 | $51.12 | +1.9% |
| 2024 | $104,293 | $50.14 | +2.6% |
| 2023 | $101,640 | $48.87 | +2.6% |
| 2022 | $99,037 | $47.61 | +3.6% |
Director of sales jobs by state
Most common states for directors of sales
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 350 | 50% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,108 | 16% |
| 3 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 604 | 15% |
| 4 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 680 | 14% |
| 5 | Louisiana | 4,684,333 | 644 | 14% |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 3,930,864 | 541 | 14% |
| 7 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 1,508 | 12% |
| 8 | Mississippi | 2,984,100 | 369 | 12% |
| 9 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 614 | 11% |
| 10 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 593 | 11% |
| 11 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 338 | 11% |
| 12 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 120 | 11% |
| 13 | Vermont | 623,657 | 68 | 11% |
| 14 | California | 39,536,653 | 3,866 | 10% |
| 15 | New York | 19,849,399 | 1,911 | 10% |
| 16 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 996 | 10% |
| 17 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 859 | 10% |
| 18 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 813 | 10% |
| 19 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 673 | 9% |
| 20 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 314 | 9% |
Most common cities for directors of sales
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hartford | 13 | 11% | $122,336 |
| 2 | Atlanta | 49 | 10% | $97,709 |
| 3 | Boston | 38 | 6% | $111,114 |
| 4 | Tallahassee | 12 | 6% | $84,611 |
| 5 | San Francisco | 32 | 4% | $128,300 |
| 6 | Denver | 25 | 4% | $95,710 |
| 7 | Sacramento | 20 | 4% | $127,403 |
| 8 | Washington | 23 | 3% | $117,306 |
| 9 | Detroit | 17 | 3% | $110,557 |
| 10 | Chicago | 54 | 2% | $108,926 |
| 11 | Dallas | 27 | 2% | $100,049 |
| 12 | Austin | 18 | 2% | $100,277 |
| 13 | Indianapolis | 17 | 2% | $104,699 |
| 14 | Seattle | 12 | 2% | $115,262 |
| 15 | New York | 70 | 1% | $126,416 |
| 16 | Los Angeles | 31 | 1% | $114,070 |
| 17 | Phoenix | 22 | 1% | $97,657 |
| 18 | Houston | 21 | 1% | $98,601 |
| 19 | San Jose | 13 | 1% | $126,837 |
Director Of Sales job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of director of sales experts
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
San Diego State University
Texas State University
University of Northern Colorado
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
University of Guam
University of North Florida
Grand Valley State University
Michigan State University
Purdue University Fort Wayne
St. Olaf College
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
California State University - San Marcos
University of Alaska Anchorage
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Middlebury College
Texas Christian University
John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Jeremy Wilson: Anthropologists in industry, especially archaeologists, spend a good deal of their time conducting field work to identify archaeological sites and historic properties. If a site or property is going to be impacted by development, mitigation is the next step, meaning some degree of additional excavation on, for example, historic farmsteads and Indigenous villages. When fieldwork is completed, archaeologists spend much of their time in the lab processing, inventorying, and analyzing the artifacts from these sites. A report is then drafted and submitted to the applicable state and/or federal agency for approval.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Jeremy Wilson: At present, the cultural resource management (CRM) industry is experiencing a shortage of qualified professionals at multiple levels ranging from entry level field technicians through field crew managers and principal investigators. As a result of this and federal legislation, wages have increased significantly for archaeologists and allied scientists in CRM.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Jeremy Wilson: Most anthropologists and archaeologists are drawn to the profession by the opportunity to engage in field work. There is an inherent excitement regarding the discovery of an artifact or feature on an archaeological site that has not been seen or touched in hundreds or thousands of years. However, it is also about the context and association of artifacts and material culture from sites. These aspects and the lab analyses allow archaeologists to tell important stories about people otherwise lost to time and history books. In the end, anthropologists and archaeologists tell the intimate stories of people's daily lives. As for dislikes, you may find yourself on an excavation in the middle of winter and far from home and family. Similarly, nature presents challenges ranging from wildlife and insects through poison ivy and other allergens. Lastly, as one gets older, fieldwork can also become more challenging.
Ramona Pérez Ph.D.
Professor, AnthropologySan Diego State University
Anthropology
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Ramona Pérez Ph.D.: Remember how powerful your training is and the multiple skills you developed! If there ever was a discipline that encapsulated almost all disciplinary training, it is anthropology – a true renaissance discipline. Anthropology teaches both soft and technical skills, with different emphases depending on the focus, e.g., sociocultural (which includes medical anthropology), archaeology, biological, linguistics. Anthropologists are skilled humanists, data analysts, and prodigious thinkers with a keen eye for the lived experience that is reflected in large-scale statistics. The second advice I would give is create a portfolio/resume that demonstrates experience through internships, field schools, research projects, and collaborations. Anthropologists are in demand because of the diversity of their training, but the resume or portfolio must demonstrate this and the anthropologist needs to be able to articulate this in both writing and conversation.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Ramona Pérez Ph.D.: More and more businesses, both private and public, see anthropologists as critical to their futures precisely because of the expansive training they receive and their ability to move macro data to the local level (lived experience). Key skills will be focused on research and development, including interviewing/focus group skills, statistics/data analysis, and a strong portfolio of successful projects.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Ramona Pérez Ph.D.: Broaden your skills to be both a qualitative and quantitative researcher. One can have dominant expertise in one of these areas but must be able to demonstrate success in both forms of data collection and analysis. Value is gained through successful outcomes to projects, which should be tangible and evidentiary.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Nicole Taylor: Anthropology is a good profession to enter now because there are so many possibilities for translating an anthropology degree to a meaningful career. Our graduates go on to work for non-profits, corporations, NGOs and government entities in a wide variety of job sectors, including healthcare and behavioral health, educational research, UX research, information technology, cultural resource management, death investigations, bioarcheology, wildlife sanctuaries, and archival work to name a few.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Nicole Taylor: I have never met an anthropologist who does not absolutely love what they do. Who wouldn't want to take a deep dive into exploring the human experience? Anthropologists get to do it all— engage with living people and/or human artifacts, analyze data in pursuit of new discoveries, and share their findings with a variety of audiences. That said, every anthropologist I know likes some aspects of the research process more than others—for example, some enjoy the fieldwork and data collection the most while others prefer the analysis or write-up stages of the process. They key for any anthropologist is to figure out which aspects of the work they love most and find a job that aligns with their interests.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Nicole Taylor: Anthropologists study aspects of humanity over time and across cultures/geographic regions by engaging in long term fieldwork. Depending on the discipline, this could mean conducting in-depth interviews and focus groups with people, participating in and observing community events and rituals, analyzing skeletal remains, observing primate behavior, digging up cultural artifacts to piece together aspects of how people used to live, and analyzing aspects of language use like intonation or dialect.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Dr. Marian Hamilton (she/her): Majoring in Anthropology means that you are well suited to do so many jobs out of college and bring a unique human-centric mindset to those positions. Unlike majors like Accounting, which have a pretty clear set of next job steps after graduation, Anthropology is much more flexible and open-ended.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Dr. Marian Hamilton (she/her): That said, I would also list that as a reason why many people struggle with an Anthropology degree. There’s not an obvious career that comes from that major, and so you have to both be creative, persuasive in your cover letters and resumes, and also clear-eyed about what type of job you want to pursue. This can make many graduating senior nervous as they search for the right next step.
Dr. Linda Watts
Retired Associate ProfessorUniversity of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Anthropology
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Dr. Linda Watts: Cultural anthropology requires at least a Masters degree in order to teach or do professional research in the field directly, so an undergraduate would likely continue to graduate school to continue their training after receiving their BA. With a Masters one could teach at a community college, or with a PHD one could become a professor and conduct independent research plus publish in the field. Many undergraduate majors proceed to any number of other social service oriented fields or even nursing, medicine, or law school, as this versatile field is far reaching in the relevance of its principles.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Linda Watts: Continue through graduate school to a Masters or ideally a Ph.D. degree to enter the field ready to step into an academic or government or museum based organization. Having publications before completing grad school helps to be able to get a good academic tenure track position.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Dr. Linda Watts: Computer modeling for qualitative data analysis is a helpful approach. Also studying current cultural and cross cultural issues is always a vital focus.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
William Jeffery PhD: It is a great profession because you get to look into the culture of humans from anywhere in the world. You can travel to interesting places, meet interesting people, learn about ancestors, appreciate cultural diversity, and work collaboratively with diverse professions and people.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
William Jeffery PhD: Anthropologists dislike the lack of funding or appreciation of social sciences. They believe that social sciences, including Anthropology, are crucial to solving issues like overexploitation of oceans and need to be integrated with STEM programs.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
William Jeffery PhD: Anthropology covers implementing many different activities in understanding and interpreting human culture as well as a historical perspective. It can include implementing archaeology, a study of language and communications, a study of archaic humans going back 6 million years, as well as being a participant observer with groups of people, learning about cultural practices, customs, rituals, kinship, religions, and their connections with other groups and environments.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Dr. Jessica Chandras PhD: I think the cross-cultural competencies that graduates learn will always be useful in many lines of work for communication, practicing empathy, and untangling and navigating power dynamics. Broadening perspectives about the world and people around us will create more critically conscious applicants for many lines of work.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Jessica Chandras PhD: Beginning a career in anthropology generally means going into academia, and for undergrads, this means going to grad school. However, if a recent undergrad from an anthropology program is joining a workforce outside of academia upon graduation, my advice would be to reflect on the skills learned through anthropology and leverage those. For example, students are taught to approach complex problems with curiosity and an ability to see solutions from multiple perspectives. Communication skills are key and anthropology programs require a fair amount of reading and writing, so these skills have been honed by the time one graduates. Qualitative research skills are incredibly important and useful for data collection, evaluation, analysis, and assessment in any number of jobs. Theories studied, such as reflexivity, critical theories, and cultural relativity are valuable to apply in many areas of work with colleagues or clients.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Dr. Jessica Chandras PhD: Anthropology provides a unique and useful 'toolkit' to apply to many careers and lines of work, inside and outside of academia. Taking skills learned in anthropology programs coupled with skills and content areas learned in other disciplines of study (such as anthropology and education, anthropology and business, anthropology and public health) would make a new graduate more desirable on the job market. Many anthropology programs and anthropologists learn and speak multiple languages as well. Having the ability to communicate with more people in more languages will also often garner higher salary potential.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Kristin Hedges PhD: Anthropology is a unique field. At its core, Anthropology is the study of humanity. The skills of how an anthropologist understands what makes us human are useful in many jobs. You can find anthropologists in a wide range of employment such as Microsoft, National Parks Services, Netflix, non-profits, dating apps, etc. My advice to new anthropology graduates would be to not limit your career to jobs with the title ‘anthropologist’, your skills are valuable to a vast variety of positions. Beginning a career is about finding your passion and drive and then letting your anthropology training assist you by thriving in that job. I suggest graduates think about what training and knowledge coupled with anthropology would equip you to stand out in your passion.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Kristin Hedges PhD: While there are different sub-fields within Anthropology, they center around understanding humanity. While each subfield has its own unique skill set, there is a common goal throughout all the subfields of understanding diverse perspectives. Those skills that enable you to hear a range of perspectives with understanding will be important in the next 3-5 years. We living in extremely divisive times across the globe, so having more people trained in understanding diverse perspectives is a way forward. Anthropologists can use this skill to act as cultural brokers, in which they help bridge and mediate between groups reducing conflict. Additionally, the skill of understanding humanity will be critical in the coming years to help communities navigate the rapid change of technology, AI, and augmentation, which will be essential to protect human diversity and intellectual property.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Kristin Hedges PhD: As with beginning any career, it is a process with building blocks. To maximize your earning potential in Anthropology, I recommend students consider volunteering on community projects. This gives you more opportunities to utilize your fieldwork and research skills which builds your resume. Additionally, lean into networking with anthropology colleagues by attending professional conferences or joining associations or special interest groups.
Ampson Hagan
Dean’s Research Associate Postdoctoral FellowMichigan State University
Anthropology
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Ampson Hagan: Being an anthropologist is a good occupation because it provides one with a great set of frameworks with which to understand the world around them. Getting a job in the US, a good-paying job, is a game of chance, and hard work alone may not be enough. It takes some time. For example, it took me two years of work as post-doctoral fellow before I landed a tenure-track position. For those who work for governments or the private sector, there are more jobs to which one can apply, each offering the potential of something different in terms of scope of work, and maybe even competitive salaries. Anthropologists learn various sets of skills during their training. For example, some learn languages outside of their mother tongue, some learn how to write computer code, and some produce documentaries and film and have learned how to construct visual media. These are just a few of the many skills that anthropologists acquire and develop during their training. Many anthropologists learned several skills during their training! Because of all the skills that anthropologists often have, the term 'anthropologist' does not scratch the surface of what many anthropologists can do. Because of this, anthropologists are quite valuable job applicants in today's job market!
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Ampson Hagan: I love being an anthropologist. As a sociocultural anthropologist who studies the politics and discourses around humanitarian rescue, I spend time speaking to people for most of my research. As a professor, I get paid to read and write, and I enjoy the time that I get to speak to people in their language, learn about their lives, and learn from them about how they make meaning of the world in which they live. That is a privilege that I take seriously and that I am thankful to have. Being an anthropologist is a great profession. It does not pay incredibly well compared to some other professions; however, some academic anthropologists are able to carve out a respectable living and do fulfilling work.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Elizabeth Briody: I am also Chair of the Anthropology Career Readiness Network with Riall W. Nolan.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Elizabeth Briody: Feel free to check out the Anthropology Career Readiness Network website: anthrocareerready.net.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Elizabeth Briody: I would be happy to help out. Thank you Sarah for the recommendation!
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Dr. Andrea Conger PhD: Learn how to effectively tell your story and demonstrate your skills. There is an immense need for anthropologists and sociologists working in the private sector, government, and NGO positions. There are especially a lot of high-paying jobs emerging in the healthcare and environmental sectors. I think a lot of times people think of sociology and anthropology as only preparing for academic jobs, but this is a small fraction of employment opportunities, and many jobs outside academia pay very well. That said, making an effort to understand and be able to articulate what skills you are learning with a sociology or anthropology degree is key. Employers often do not know what you can do even though these are the skills they want. It is up to you to be able to explain yourself to them.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Andrea Conger PhD: The top skill I think will be imperative in the next 3-5 years will be the ability to understand and work well with people who are different from you. This requires flexibility, empathy, excellent listening, and the drive to ask better questions. Another skill that is only going to increase is our ability to work in teams. Effective collaboration is essential in today’s world. This includes in-person and remote communication. Outstanding collaboration is never accidental or a function of “outgoing personalities”. It is systematically learned and skillfully deployed. The ability to mobilize technology intelligently will certainly be important. I don’t just mean how to use technology, but being able to determine when and what kind of technology is useful for you and for the people you work with. Deciding what technology is needed and where to focus our efforts. Students who can demonstrate experience with leadership (not dictatorship), and taking a project from the idea and recruitment stage all the way through to a deliverable product and project assessment will be highly valued across a wide range of fields. Folks who can employ mixed-method research, and demonstrate the ability to research, gather, interpret/analyze, and convey large amounts of complex information presented for multiple audiences and tailored to a variety of presentation formats will certainly have an advantage on the job market in coming years. Finally, those who are able to think about complex problems, take into consideration diverse stakeholders, consider situations from alternate perspectives, and clearly communicate will most certainly have a leg up in coming years. ALL of these are superpowers offered by Anthropology and Sociology
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Dr. Andrea Conger PhD: Ask lots of questions, attend every event on offer, and really buy into your education (in school, but also as you start work). Practice the skill and develop a habit of engaging people. So much of what we do, and can do in the world becomes valuable when we work with others. Be brave and be confident being the one at the table always asking better questions. Learn how to understand and articulate the skills you bring to the table (both hard and soft skills), and don’t be afraid to start small. Humility is a core skill for these disciplines so commit to being a lifelong learner.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Professor Paul Brodwin PhD: Remember that a hallmark of anthropological thinking is intellectual flexibility along with close attention to the social and cultural context of human affairs. Take advantage of the incredibly broad scope of an anthropological education in order to maximize your value to your new workplace. Whatever job you hold, keep looking at the context and the widest horizon of the problems you are trying to solve. Your workplace will already have enough specialists; you bring a panoramic vision that workplaces so desperately need.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Professor Paul Brodwin PhD: In fields like cultural preservation, cultural resource management, and museum curation, the regulatory environment is always changing. Anthropologists rarely have a legal or policy-making background, but they need to understand the stakes of those fields. Of course, AI is rapidly changing, and it might change the playing field in anthropology in the near-term future.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Professor Paul Brodwin PhD: Ask your professors and colleagues about which combination of degrees will increase your earning potential. For example, I often tell graduate seniors with an interest in traditional healing to get an MPH (masters in public health): a degree that complements my field of medical anthropology but opens up many important and remunerative career possibilities.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
April Reber PhD: I focused my responses to cultural anthropology, but these answers could be applied to archaeology and biological anthropology students as well.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
April Reber PhD: I focused my responses to cultural anthropology, but these answers could be applied to archaeology and biological anthropology students as well.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
April Reber PhD: I focused my responses to cultural anthropology, but these answers could be applied to archaeology and biological anthropology students as well.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Dr. Amanda Kearney: I'm here to develop a new PhD program in practice based applied anthropology - I'm very committed to having our graduates build their career while doing the PhD so have lots to share on these points.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Amanda Kearney: I have spent a lot of time addressing these questions in recent months. I would appreciate seeing the draft as you mention, before you promote it.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Dr. Amanda Kearney: I've recently undertaken a workforce study on the situation in anthro...in terms of academic jobs and it is rather bleak on the job front, so we are really needing to think bigger in terms of career opportunities and pathways towards commercializing our anthro skillsets.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Dr. Angela Bratton Ph.D.: Knowing what you have to offer the employer and negotiating this set of skills in their organization (especially applicable to help you stand out in an organization that has few anthropologists).
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Angela Bratton Ph.D.: Know your skill set and look for jobs in a variety of places. Most places don't have a sign saying "hiring anthropologists" but want people who have anthropology skills. For example, people who can develop interviews, carry them out, and analyze the data. The American Anthropology Association (AAA) has career resources. Know other organizations tailored to your interests in Anthropology like archaeology, biological anthropology.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Dr. Angela Bratton Ph.D.: Great written and oral communication is true across most employers. Knowledge about migration/refugees from both a cultural and legal perspective (e.g., Legal Anthropology). Educational and Medical Anthropology are also areas where people with skills related to globalization, cultures, minorities, diversity and inclusion can specialize their anthropology skill sets.
Dr. Travis Hedwig
Assistant Dean, Division of Population Health SciencesUniversity of Alaska Anchorage
Anthropology
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Dr. Travis Hedwig: Learn every new skill you can. Challenge yourself to try a new data analysis software, practice a new method, go to professional conferences, and expand your training wherever possible. Demonstrating capacity for continuous growth is the best way to maximize long term salary potential in any industry. Commit to continuous growth and the other pieces will follow.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Travis Hedwig: My advice would be to practice translating anthropological theory, method, and perspective to diverse audiences. Make a list of concepts (e.g. relativism, structure, agency, community, etc.) and consider how you might explain those ideas in terms appropriate for whatever job or industry you are seeking employment in. The perspective(s) are valuable everywhere, but sometimes we need to challenge ourselves to communicate value to prospective employers.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Dr. Travis Hedwig: In the next 3-5 years, expect increased attention not only in guiding diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) initiatives, but in finding new and creative ways to engage community in all stages of planning and implementation. Anthropologists are perhaps uniquely situated to contribute to this work but we can't wait for the work to come to us!
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Ben Ford: New anthropologists and archaeologists who are willing to relocate will have the highest earning potential. An ability to move to a higher paying job, and a willingness to change jobs or employers to take advantage of a higher pay rate is a good way to maximize income.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Ben Ford: Graduates should plan to be adaptable and fearless. Students are graduating into a rapidly changing world. It is likely that they will have to use their Anthropology skills to adapt, learning new skills and finding employment in a variety of fields. They should plan to be fearless in applying for jobs and thinking creatively about how their skills and perspectives can benefit employers, and their fellow humans.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Ben Ford: Cultural competency is more important every day. I see increasing demand for these skills over the next several years. Anthropologists will also need to continue to adapt to new technologies, including new ways to record archaeological sites, new spatial technologies, and new technologies that influence how we communicate.
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Michael Sheridan: I usually advise students to get some experience before applying to graduate school. I worry that a lot of students get very good at being students and want to keep on keeping on; I think that getting some experience somewhere doing something with/for/about people tends to produce grad school applicants that have found a place/people that matters to them, not just a topic that interests them.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Michael Sheridan: I think that starting a career in anthropology is sort of like taking a vow of voluntary simplicity - we don't really do it for the money. It's more a sense of mission to contribute to making the world safe for cultural differences and demonstrating that there are alternatives to the pretty terrible status quo. I think that a lot of anthropologists start a career without much salary potential (like I did) by teaching as a barely-paid adjunct. What needs to get maximized is insight and empathy, not earning potential - which tends to come into focus 5-10 years after 'starting a career'. The problem with this of course is that voluntary simplicity is a lot more appealing for folks who are already securely in the global middle class, and this is why anthropology programs are trying to diversify the academy as quickly as possible to counter the elitism of this pattern.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Michael Sheridan: I think that the basic skill - finding significance in ordinary people's everyday lives and thoughts through participant observation - isn't going away. But it's going to get increasingly complemented by new modalities to form digital and online ethnography and the 'anthropology of AI'. I also think that the skills of thinking and writing holistically about a topic using perspectives from real people just trying to get by will inform anthropology's response to our proximate civilizational crises, like authoritarian populism, runaway climate change, and extreme wealth inequality. The skill of imagining hope into being through ethnographic practice is going to be demanded from their grad programs by the next generation of students.
Ken Corbit Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in MarketingTexas Christian University
Specialized Sales, Merchandising And Marketing Operations
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Ken Corbit Ph.D.: Strategic
Company Selection:
Focus on joining companies with robust sales training programs, emphasizing consultative selling. Look for organizations that invest in your development, providing live calling experiences, quota-driven sales processes, and exposure to tools like Salesforce.
Tech
Proficiency and Sales Tools Mastery:
Familiarize yourself with cutting-edge sales technologies, including CRM tools like Salesforce. Your proficiency in these tools will not only streamline your sales processes but also position you as a tech-savvy professional in the competitive sales landscape.
Hands-On
Experience:
Actively engage in live calling, take ownership of sales funnels, and work with senior hiring authorities during your training. This hands-on experience will not only build your confidence but also prepare you for the challenges of consultative selling.
Research
and Decision-Making Skills:
Develop strong research skills to evaluate companies based on fit, growth opportunities, compensation structures, and overall potential. This informed decision-making approach will set you apart and empower you to navigate the sales landscape strategically.
Mentorship
and Networking:
Seek mentorship both within and outside your organization. Building relationships with mentors who invest in your sales skills and knowledge will provide valuable insights. Additionally, actively participate in online forums to connect with practical sales
knowledge and best practices.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Ken Corbit Ph.D.: AI-Integrated Consultative Selling: Recognize the evolving role of AI in sales. Embrace AI tools that enhance your pre-call preparation, role-playing, agenda setting, and call talk track development. Stay ahead by incorporating AI into your sales strategies to deliver personalized and efficient client engagements.
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Ken Corbit Ph.D.: Holistic
Knowledge Mastery:
Become an expert in your industry, staying abreast of market trends, and thoroughly understanding the products/services you sell. This comprehensive knowledge will empower you to provide exceptional value, resulting in higher sales success and increased client
retention.
Strategic
Question-Based Selling:
Master the art of question-based selling. Use insightful questions to uncover client needs, address pain points, and tailor your approach. This strategic skill will not only boost initial sales but also contribute to secondary sales and long-term client satisfaction.
Compensation
Structure Expertise:
Understand your organization's compensation structure thoroughly. This includes baseline compensation, commission and bonus plans, and additional benefits. This knowledge allows you to set realistic targets, maximize your earnings, and take full advantage
of uncapped commission structures.
Consistent
Target Achievement:
Consistently meet or exceed targets and quotas to demonstrate your value. This not only enhances your immediate success but also positions you for continuous earning potential, especially in roles with uncapped commissions.
Negotiation
and Value Recognition:
Develop negotiation skills to ensure you are compensated appropriately. Recognize your worth and, when appropriate, discuss compensation adjustments or additional benefits with your employer. A proactive approach to recognizing and articulating your value
contributes to your overall salary potential.
In a rapidly evolving sales landscape, continuous learning, tech adaptability, and proactive career management are fundamental for achieving sustained success in consultative sales.
Edward Snajdr
Professor of Anthropology and Chair of DepartmentJohn Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York
Anthropology
What general advice would you give to a Director Of Sales?
Edward Snajdr: An anthropologist, who generally holds a PhD degree, is usually employed in research and teaching at a university or college. So, in addition to holding lectures in courses for undergrads or graduate students, most anthropologists have active research projects that take them to various field sites around the world. And it depends on the subfield of the anthropologist as to what exactly the focus of the research would be. Anthropology has four fields - cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archeology and anthropological linguistics.
On a daily basis, then, an anthropologist would find themselves during the fall or spring semester teaching a couple of courses like Introduction to Anthropology to a large class of freshmen, or an upper-level senior seminar on ethnographic field methods or a topical focus such as global health issues across cultures. In my own work, I direct the senior capstone seminar where undergrads develop their own short-term research projects that incorporate the gathering of real-world data from interviews, surveys and participant-observation on topics such as homelessness, tattoos among urban youth, or police-community interactions in public space.
If it were summer, I would be, on a daily basis, conducting my own fieldwork in areas as diverse as Central Asia, Eastern Europe or in a certain neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Balancing continuing field work and publishing with teaching students is the essence of the job of a professional academic anthropologist.
At the same time, many anthropologists - whether they have a PhD or only a Master's Degree, might also find themselves employed in the private sector (or in government agencies), doing qualitative research in the areas of marketing, corporate culture, inter-cultural interactions, community health, economic redevelopment, or political transition contexts. This might also include a growing number of jobs in the IT/social media industries interested in cultural issues and concepts that most anthropologists would be trained in understanding and working with.
What Director Of Sales skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Edward Snajdr: To be honest, there are not a lot of academic jobs available right now for
anthropologists, and this is unfortunately getting worse not better. But in the business world and in the public sector, the skills that anthropologists can bring to those arenas are marketable and effective (interviewing, mapping, survey and questionnaires,
observation, and cultural analysis and interpretation).
What will help Directors Of Sales increase their earning potential?
Edward Snajdr: Most anthropologists I know absolutely love their work - whether in academia or in the business/policy or public service world. I think the one thing that people might wish was a better in terms of the job is the pay scale. Most academic jobs are not well-compensated with money, but rather with schedule flexibility, and the freedom to develop and implement your own research program, and of course working on very interesting questions about human diversity, variation and issues across the full range of a global experience.