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What is an inside sales associate and how to become one
An inside sales associate sells products or services to customers. They work from an office and communicate with customers through phone calls, emails, or online chats. They are responsible for contacting customers, explaining product offerings, answering questions, and closing sales. Inside sales associates often work in a team environment, collaborating with marketing and customer service teams to ensure customer satisfaction. They need excellent communication skills, sales techniques, and the ability to work in a dynamic environment.
What general advice would you give to an inside sales associate?
Frederik Beuk
Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Akron
Avg. Salary $40,687
Avg. Salary $59,228
Growth rate 4%
Growth rate 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%
Asian 5.11%
Black or African American 3.80%
Hispanic or Latino 14.03%
Unknown 3.71%
White 73.12%
Genderfemale 42.73%
male 57.27%
Age - 48American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%
Asian 7.00%
Black or African American 14.00%
Hispanic or Latino 19.00%
White 57.00%
Genderfemale 47.00%
male 53.00%
Age - 48Stress level is high
7.1 - high
Complexity level is challenging
7 - challenging
Work life balance is fair
6.4 - fair
What are the pros and cons of being an inside sales associate?
Pros
Opportunities for career advancement
Potential for high earning potential through commission-based pay
Ability to work remotely or from home
Opportunities for skill development in sales and customer service
Opportunities for professional networking and relationship building
Cons
Constant need to prospect and generate new leads
Potential for long and irregular working hours, including evenings and weekends
Need to manage multiple tasks and clients simultaneously
High level of competition within the industry
Need to maintain a positive attitude and motivation despite rejection or setbacks
Inside sales associate career paths
Key steps to become an inside sales associate
Explore inside sales associate education requirements
Start to develop specific inside sales associate skills
Skills Percentages Inside Sales 13.03% Sales Associates 6.97% Strong Customer Service 6.02% Sales Process 5.50% Customer Satisfaction 5.33% Complete relevant inside sales associate training and internships
Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New inside sales associates 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 an inside sales associate based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real inside sales associate resumes.Research inside sales associate duties and responsibilities
- Manage individual sales activities by developing highly effective, communications focuse relationship with multiple sales channels.
- Provide awareness to customers of the benefits of moving to a cloud platform for intra/customer facing web applications.
- Develop a standardize, customize CRM system to track sales and marketing ROI that link into operational and financial ERP systems.
- Calculate roofing amounts/square footage etc.
Prepare your inside sales associate resume
When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your inside sales associate 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 an inside sales associate resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.
Choose from 10+ customizable inside sales associate resume templates
Build a professional inside sales associate 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 inside sales associate resume.
Apply for inside sales associate jobs
Now it's time to start searching for an inside sales associate job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:
- Browse job boards for relevant postings
- Consult your professional network
- Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
- Watch out for job scams
How did you land your first inside sales associate job
Are you an inside sales associate?
Share your story for a free salary report.
Average inside sales associate salary
The average inside sales associate salary in the United States is $40,687 per year or $20 per hour. Inside sales associate salaries range between $30,000 and $54,000 per year.
What am I worth?
How do inside sales associates rate their job?
Inside sales associate reviews
Pay was consistent and you pick your own rate based on the commission you choose to bring in. Spending so much time together created a bond between the team where uplifting one another on bad days became part of the job. I guess it depends on your particular work environment but the bonds created kept us going.
Felt like I was chained to the table, changes were made on a daily basis, and work became a race against the clock for 9 hours. Managers look down at you as a number on their chart and not a human being, good workers became poor workers, great workers were barely good, and the robots working exactly as needed were the only ones lucky enough to escape the cubicle prison.
Communicating and helping my clients.
The travel was extensive. Sometimes. It took more than month to close a deaĺ.
I love to engage the public and meet new faces. I enjoy explaining all of the benefits of the product I am selling, and making the customer feel important and well informed.
I don't like feeling like I haven't did a great at job at making customers feel comfortable and confident about where and who they are purchasing from.
Updated January 8, 2025
