1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
The job of the head of sales is pretty self-explanatory. They are in charge of the sales department at a retailer or financial institution. However, actually doing this job is far more complicated than figuring out what it means. The head of sales supervises the work of the whole department and encourages sales representatives to meet their goals. They track the company's progress towards their sales goals and identify which sales strategies are more successful than others. The head of sales is also responsible for implementing new tools or technologies that can help streamline the sales process, such as more advanced CRM software.
Before they can take charge of their department, a head of sales needs many years of sales experience. Many get their start working as sales associates. Most heads of sales have a bachelor's degree in business, although some only have a high school diploma.
It takes many years of hard work to become the head of sales. However, it is worth it since they earn an average salary of $173,941 a year.
There are certain skills that many heads of sales have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and customer-service skills.
If you're interested in becoming a head of sales, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 62.0% of heads of sales have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.7% of heads of sales have master's degrees. Even though most heads of sales have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a head of sales can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as assistant manager, progress to a title such as account manager and then eventually end up with the title director, inside sales.
What Am I Worth?
The role of a head of sales includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general head of sales responsibilities:
There are several types of head of sales, including:
The director of sales has a lot of responsibility. In addition to leading your team to success, you're also managing sales efforts and planning when to launch new products. There's a lot of strategy hidden behind the job position so make sure your thinking cap is on.
In order to be good at this job, you need to be organized. This is how you'll ensure an efficient workflow. But that's not as important as the way you choose to lead. Directors of Sales learn how to motivate their team rather than dragging them through the mud.
Director of Sales is the short-term game. You rely on the immediate success of a product or service. While you'll be leading your team to successfully releasing and selling these products or services, you will have a bit of customer or client involvement. So make sure you've got your communication skills in check.
As a Director Of Sales And Marketing, you will oversee marketing-related sales, programs, and budgets. You will be implementing revenue targets and budget goals, evaluating team progress, and participating in securing sales and increasing the number of clients.
You are expected to be creative as a Director Of Sales And Marketing. You need to identify new ideas that will help the business and be able to easily solve problems that might come your way. Next is interpersonal skills. Since you will be dealing with a lot of people, you should know how to efficiently communicate with each of them. Lastly, despite the many tasks you have, you need to stay organized.
You can earn around $115,357 per year on average as a Director Of Sales And Marketing. With a job growth rate of 5%, you also have the chance to explore other roles and careers. You can be a Sales and Marketing Vice President, a Business Development Director, or a Chief Operating Officer.
A sales vice president is an executive position that is way up on the corporate ladder. He/She or she is ultimately responsible for the profit the company makes, coming up with sales strategies and overseeing the work of sales teams.
Sales vice presidents represent their company at meetings with major clients. Their eyes are always open to new business opportunities and ways to expand the client base. They set sales goals and analyze data to create reports on sales performance. They research the target consumer base, oversee marketing activities, and educate sales employees on how to increase productivity.
Sales is a big fish in the U.S. job market, with 12.3% of all jobs being sales positions. And at the end of the day, people are not buying products because they need something. They are buying products because they want to be somebody. The caliber of the person selling the product makes or breaks a business, and nobody knows this better than a sales vice president.
Mouse over a state to see the number of active head of sales jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where heads of sales earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 4,016 | $156,394 |
2 | Texas | 2,487 | $142,584 |
3 | New York | 1,863 | $170,962 |
4 | Florida | 1,392 | $136,155 |
5 | Illinois | 1,311 | $156,641 |
6 | Massachusetts | 1,057 | $152,673 |
7 | Pennsylvania | 1,038 | $160,029 |
8 | Virginia | 956 | $146,500 |
9 | Georgia | 937 | $150,836 |
10 | North Carolina | 898 | $164,972 |
11 | New Jersey | 823 | $158,157 |
12 | Washington | 806 | $165,041 |
13 | Ohio | 798 | $170,742 |
14 | Colorado | 737 | $153,315 |
15 | Arizona | 654 | $159,682 |
16 | Oregon | 573 | $179,471 |
17 | Minnesota | 557 | $172,440 |
18 | Tennessee | 557 | $131,533 |
19 | Maryland | 538 | $146,292 |
20 | Michigan | 536 | $177,807 |
21 | Wisconsin | 471 | $164,726 |
22 | Missouri | 454 | $136,490 |
23 | Indiana | 434 | $144,371 |
24 | Utah | 410 | $160,447 |
25 | Connecticut | 385 | $159,891 |
26 | South Carolina | 327 | $129,980 |
27 | Kentucky | 241 | $132,881 |
28 | Alabama | 240 | $130,147 |
29 | Kansas | 237 | $136,529 |
30 | Louisiana | 228 | $168,863 |
31 | Iowa | 193 | $137,543 |
32 | Nevada | 179 | $160,934 |
33 | Arkansas | 178 | $140,225 |
34 | Oklahoma | 172 | $153,661 |
35 | New Hampshire | 166 | $155,344 |
36 | Nebraska | 140 | $162,064 |
37 | Mississippi | 131 | $143,267 |
38 | Rhode Island | 130 | $144,701 |
39 | Idaho | 122 | $152,924 |
40 | New Mexico | 111 | $159,873 |
41 | Delaware | 105 | $152,579 |
42 | Maine | 92 | $145,078 |
43 | Vermont | 81 | $181,989 |
44 | Montana | 80 | $168,448 |
45 | North Dakota | 61 | $161,698 |
46 | West Virginia | 61 | $161,401 |
47 | South Dakota | 52 | $155,306 |
48 | Alaska | 47 | $179,882 |
49 | Wyoming | 45 | $173,568 |
50 | Hawaii | 45 | $155,643 |
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
Madison, WI • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,555
Enrollment
30,360
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Athens, GA • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,830
Enrollment
29,474
Blacksburg, VA • Private
In-State Tuition
$13,620
Enrollment
27,730
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
Columbus, OH • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,726
Enrollment
45,769
Austin, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,610
Enrollment
40,329
Houston, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,913
Enrollment
37,291
Vestal, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,808
Enrollment
13,990
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 7.7% of heads of sales listed crm on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Head Of Sales templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Head Of Sales resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
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Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a head of sales. The best states for people in this position are Vermont, Alaska, Oregon, and Michigan. Heads of sales make the most in Vermont with an average salary of $181,989. Whereas in Alaska and Oregon, they would average $179,882 and $179,471, respectively. While heads of sales would only make an average of $177,807 in Michigan, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Vermont
$181,989
Avg. Salary
2. Oregon
$179,471
Avg. Salary
3. Wyoming
$173,568
Avg. Salary
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | RadioShack | $238,873 | $114.84 | 9 |
2 | Cost Plus World Market | $205,850 | $98.97 | 14 |
3 | Safeway | $204,881 | $98.50 | 26 |
4 | Bloomberg | $200,094 | $96.20 | 10 |
5 | Toys"R"Us | $190,456 | $91.57 | 15 |
6 | $188,571 | $90.66 | 10 | |
7 | ANZ Australia | $188,362 | $90.56 | 8 |
8 | Citi | $186,914 | $89.86 | 10 |
9 | *n/a* | $185,988 | $89.42 | 12 |
10 | JCPenney | $185,024 | $88.95 | 10 |