How To Become A National Account Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a national account specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Businesses are always on the lookout for strategic partnerships that can help them grow their sales. National accounts, or companies that are big enough to have operations across the nation, are a big prize for any company. That is why many sales teams have national account specialists, people dedicated to capturing and retaining national accounts.

National account specialists do whatever needs to be done to build partnerships with and retain national accounts. They may reach out to their counterpart at a national company to gauge interest for a partnership, close the deal with a national account, and provide customer support as necessary. They may also develop strategies for a comprehensive national account sales plan.

National accounts bring in a lot of revenue, so a business usually doesn't hand over these accounts to anyone who walks in. National account specialists need to have some experience in sales or customer service or even a bachelor's degree in business. If they are good at what they do, national account specialists can become national account managers.

ScoreNational Account SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,370

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 5.10%

Black or African American 3.80%

Hispanic or Latino 14.00%

Unknown 3.71%

White 73.16%

Gender

female 58.48%

male 41.52%

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 national account specialist

Explore national account specialist education requirements

Most common national account specialist degrees

Bachelor's

65.0 %

Associate

15.2 %

High School Diploma

9.6 %

Start to develop specific national account specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
National Accounts	32.64%
Business Development	15.92%
Customer Expectations	7.26%
Outbound Calls	6.48%
Account Management	5.13%

Complete relevant national account specialist training and internships

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

Research national account specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage billings to include: communicate and solve issues for bills in error; setup customers for billing EDI and EIP.
Manage a portfolio of accounts end to end RFP program execution inclusive of pricing, contracting, process and technology solutions.
Administer a high volume of inbound EDI orders for quality and timeliness.
Utilize knowledge of state/government funding to implement into the various state-fund and Medicaid contracts.

Prepare your national account specialist resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable national account specialist resume templates

Build a professional national account specialist 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 national account specialist resume.