How To Become A National Sales Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a national sales director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Bill Thorne

A national sales director is tasked with monitoring the sales targets and performance of the sales force across the country's regions. He/She handles the release of goods and services in line with market trends and public demands. He/She develops and implements strategies to key in on business opportunities. Furthermore, he/she identifies resources that would maximize the company's revenue and profitability. Other duties include training sales managers, identifying key markets, staying updated on emerging trends, and collaborating with teams.

To become a national sales director, you need an MBA in Business Administration or a related field. You need a minimum of five years of relevant work experience. You must possess communication, presentation, selling, interpersonal, creativity, analytical, leadership, and technical skills. Similarly, you must be proficient in Microsoft Office. National sales directors earn an average salary of $99,202 per annum or $47.69 hourly. This falls between $74,000 and $131,000.

What general advice would you give to a national sales director?

Bill Thorne

Executive Director of the NRF Foundation and Senior Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs of NRF, National Retail Federation

Retail is the largest private-sector employer in the country, directly employing 32 million people and supporting 52 million jobs overall - roughly one-quarter of the U.S. workforce. While COVID-19 has presented new and unexpected challenges, retailers have continued to showcase the industry's resilience and adaptability time and again. The safety and security of customers and employees remains our greatest priority. It is no doubt that the professional environment has changed this year, but retail continues to offer a plethora of career opportunities for graduates and seasoned veterans alike.

ScoreNational Sales DirectorUS Average

Salary

7.6

Avg. Salary $99,665

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 24.13%

male 75.87%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a national sales director

Explore national sales director education requirements

Most common national sales director degrees

Bachelor's

78.1 %

Master's

9.9 %

Associate

7.4 %

Start to develop specific national sales director skills

Skills	Percentages
CRM	9.28%
Healthcare	8.85%
Business Development	5.42%
Product Development	5.02%
Revenue Growth	4.51%

Complete relevant national sales director training and internships

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

Research national sales director duties and responsibilities

Manage relationships, POS, and oversee coffee sales for key core accounts H.T.
Lead team on product redesign to web-base SaaS infrastructure and generate feature content base on customer need and marketability.
Develop key POS material to assist the sales force across the country.
Reverse negative relationship with distributors through personal relationship building, changes in sales execution, and implementation of new distributor programs.

Get national sales director experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a national sales director. The most common roles before becoming a national sales director include sales representative, regional sales manager team lead and account executive.

Prepare your national sales director resume

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

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