How To Become A Key Account Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a key account representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Jerri Lynn Kyle

Key Account Representatives handle important groups of clients of the company. These key accounts are clients who bring in a large part of the company's sales. Key account representatives are assigned to specific key accounts. They handle inquiries and requests of these clients and ensure that these items are fulfilled, as long as they are within the company's capacity. They also update their assigned clients on ongoing promotions or other special programs that are available to the clients. In essence, key account representatives are in charge of making the clients happy and loyal to the company. They do so to keep the business afloat.

To be a key account representative, one should have a bachelor's degree. The course they should take may be related to business administration, economics, marketing, or the industry they intend to work in. Ideally, they should also gain experience in stakeholder management as well as sales management to be qualified for the role. A Key Account Representative usually earns $57,325 a year.

What general advice would you give to a key account representative?

Jerri Lynn Kyle

Senior Instructor, Internship Coordinator, Missouri State University

1.Don't be discouraged! Jobs are out there but you might not get your dream job starting out. It's a journey, so try to make the most of every stop.
2.Start building your professional credibility, both with how you perform your job, and how you interact with your coworkers.
3.Finally, be confident, but at the same time be teachable and coachable. Your degree doesn't make you an expert. Sometimes you realize you don't even know what you don't know, and that's okay. You aren't going to know everything and that's why you need to be coachable.

ScoreKey Account RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $48,841

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.1

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 5.17%

Black or African American 3.85%

Hispanic or Latino 14.34%

Unknown 3.71%

White 72.69%

Gender

female 47.70%

male 52.30%

Age - 48

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48

Stress level

7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a key account representative

Explore key account representative education requirements

Most common key account representative degrees

Bachelor's

72.6 %

Associate

12.3 %

High School Diploma

6.7 %

Start to develop specific key account representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Business Development	14.50%
Account Management	11.94%
Product Knowledge	11.56%
Post Sales	10.39%
Customer Complaints	6.71%

Complete relevant key account representative training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New key account representatives 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 a key account representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real key account representative resumes.

Research key account representative duties and responsibilities

Evaluate monthly budgets and territory saturation levels quarterly while managing lease renewals through needs analysis and ROI presentations
Prepare catalogs, PowerPoint presentations, and cost spreadsheets in accordance with client product requests and within budgetary parameters.
Develop concepts and procedures, analyze and resolve general ledger interfaces with computerize payroll, time tracking and project accounting system.
Install and maintain software, hardware and networking and troubleshoot computer systems for problems ranging from software incompatibilities to electrical problems.

Prepare your key account representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your key account representative 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 a key account representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable key account representative resume templates

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