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Outside account manager skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Jonathan Byers,

James Wilkerson Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical outside account manager skills. We ranked the top skills for outside account managers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 11.6% of outside account manager resumes contained sales process as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an outside account manager needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 outside account manager skills for your resume and career

1. Sales Process

Here's how outside account managers use sales process:

Provide sales region with business building programs and planning expertise for assigned product categories Utilization of strategic and consultative sales processes.
Executed and adhered to the sales process with particular attention to opportunity identification, qualification and assessment for success.

2. Customer Retention

Customer retention is the act of dissuading customers from switching to another product or company or the actions a company takes to encourage customers to stay longer and spend more with the company during their lifetime. It's about increasing the number of repeat customers, increasing the profitability of each existing customer, boosting the company's sales, and also helping to build amazing relationships with customers.

Here's how outside account managers use customer retention:

Research, plan and implement sales, customer retention and new business development plans.
Established and maintained relationships with basic training commanders and executive decision makers to ensure customer retention and develop new business opportunities.

3. Product Knowledge

Product knowledge is the skill of having better information and knowledge about the product you are selling. Product knowledge is essential for the employees of the companies so they can communicate and inform the customers about the product. Having great product knowledge is essential for a better sales pitch and to give the customer a better and complete idea of the product that will influence him to buy the product eventually.

Here's how outside account managers use product knowledge:

Cultivated and maintained customer relationships through product knowledge, training solutions and an increase of product offering to support customer growth.
Fostered, coached and led sales/ territory teams in expanding product knowledge, sales skills and revenue growth.

4. Account Management

The process of strengthening the relationship between a company and client is called account management. Effective account management has two key objectives, one is to retain loyal customers and the second one is to help the company grow by creating connections with new customers.

Here's how outside account managers use account management:

Assist account managers in the performance of account management activity in accordance with company directives and Focus training.
Account management consist of over 200 accounts and working directly with C Level and property managers.

5. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how outside account managers use business development:

Identified solution-focused business development opportunities.
Worked as a business development manager for commercial builder, generated new accounts by implementing effective networking and content marketing strategies.

6. ATD

Here's how outside account managers use atd:

Started ATD's first expansion into North East Ohio.
Provide existing accounts the ATD business enhancements available by features-benefits-solutions selling, program selling and problem solving abilities.

7. CRM

CRM stands for Customer relationship management and it is a complete process through which a business or organization monitors and administers its interactions with the customers. A process in which large amounts of data are collected through marketing via a company's website, polls, surveys, and other social media applications. The basic goal of CRM is to target the right audience for their product, and then fulfill their needs, to increase the sales and revenue of the company.

Here's how outside account managers use crm:

Maintained weekly records of rentals and sales calls utilizingSales Force CRM.
Maintain detailed sales and account information in corporate customer relationship management (CRM) system in support of cross-departmental business intelligence.

8. Gross Profit

Here's how outside account managers use gross profit:

Generated $240K in gross profit the first year with my previous customers.
Negotiate contracts in developing new business with objective of maximizing gross profit dollars.

9. Geographic Territory

Here's how outside account managers use geographic territory:

Manage geographic territory to generate new accounts and sales.

10. Customer Issues

Here's how outside account managers use customer issues:

Perform account retention such as troubleshooting customer issues due to service, pricing, etc.
Communicate to and work with Market Area Sales Manager to resolve unique customer issues.

11. Customer Relations

Here's how outside account managers use customer relations:

Maintained customer relations through outside sales visits.
Worked directly with customers assisting in temporary and permanent recruitment needs, resolved problems and ensured maintenance of productive customer relations.

12. Customer Accounts

Here's how outside account managers use customer accounts:

Managed customer accounts by servicing their needs through supplying a full range of building products.
Managed over $10 million in annual customer sales for various customer accounts.

13. Sales Growth

Here's how outside account managers use sales growth:

Work closely with General Manager/Market Director to drive sales growth and profitability.
Contributed significantly in securing strong revenue for special advertising sections while simultaneously spearheading new sales growth initiatives in print and web.

14. Revenue Growth

Here's how outside account managers use revenue growth:

Generate revenue growth by utilizing a consultative selling approach in the retention of current Waste Management customers.
Generate revenue growth in the retention of current customer base by using consultative sales approach.

15. Business Relationships

Here's how outside account managers use business relationships:

Developed critical business relationships with key industry experts to enhance market knowledge and trends.
Developed, maintained, and expanded strong business relationships with decision makers.

What skills help Outside Account Managers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on outside account manager resumes?

Jonathan Byers

Assistant Director, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

- Professional skills related to career development competencies such as strong oral & written communication, teamwork & collaboration, leadership, problem-solving ability & creativity, and professional integrity, but we recommend that applicants do not just list these skills. They should provide evidence of how they have used them in their work experience, volunteer experience, academic experience, etc.
-The ability to use technology effectively to solve problems or improve collaboration; this could relate to social media management, computer hardware or software skills, proficiency with general programs like Microsoft Office Suite (also being able to demonstrate the use of these skills in various experiences).
-With diversity, equity, and inclusion becoming more important in 2020, the ability to appreciate different points of view, accept and appreciate different cultural backgrounds & types of identities, and increased awareness of one's own cultural biases and assumptions can also be important to market on a resume.

What soft skills should all outside account managers possess?

James Wilkerson Ph.D.

Business Program Coordinator, Project and Supply Chain Management Program Coordinator, The Pennsylvania State University

Verbal skills (both speaking and writing), negotiation skills, unfailing honesty, ability to empathize with clients' wants, and teamwork skills suitable for working collaboratively with sales and operations staff.

What hard/technical skills are most important for outside account managers?

James Wilkerson Ph.D.

Business Program Coordinator, Project and Supply Chain Management Program Coordinator, The Pennsylvania State University

Spreadsheet (Excel) skills (including graph production from data), basic statistical knowledge, and online information search skills.

What outside account manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Kaustav Misra Ph.D.

Associate Dean, Central Connecticut State University

This pandemic taught us many things and one important thing that we have an efficiency gap.

The way of doing business will be much more technology orientated. Hence graduates should be ready to unskill and upskill their credentials. This time it is necessary to forget the old way of doing business and learn new skills to get a job or stay in a current job. Soft skills have become much more important than before, but a different soft skill set would be essential to interact with future market participants. Thus, a gap year should be utilized to unskill-upskill and enhance relevant credentials by getting into short-long term programs, training, and workshops would be highly recommended.

What type of skills will young outside account managers need?

Michael Mikitka

Executive Vice President, MHI – Material Handling Industry

Courses and internships are essential. While the required depth of knowledge may vary from one position to another, employers are generally looking for candidates with strong "people-related" skills, those who are willing to continue to learn, and those with the ability to be flexible and adapt.

By "people-related" skills, I mean the abilities associated with effective communication (listen and express ideas and direction) and the skills related to working independently and a team.

As for the interest to continually learn... from a technology, data, and equipment perspective, today's supply chain looks very different than it did 10-years ago. The willingness and ability to continually learn are essential for anyone in a leadership role.

As for flexibility and adapting...supply chain/logistics is as much about responding to disruption and demand as it is planning for it. There is a predictable demand (i.e., seasonal...everyone knows when back-to-school shopping begins). Then there is the unpredictable demand (i.e., power-outages, wildfires, pandemic) that impact market and the ability to operate. Candidates that express flexibility and problem-solving skills will be much sought-after.

What technical skills for an outside account manager stand out to employers?

Todd Lee Goen

Instructor & Internship Director, Christopher Newport University

Technical skills are often industry and/or position specific. Applicants should highlight any technical skills related to the position advertisement and those that add value to the position/organization. Most importantly, requirements for technical skills change with time and technological advances. This means employers value workers capable of adapting to change and continually improving and acquiring new technical skills. Thus, it's usually more important to demonstrate you are capable of learning and developing technical skills than it is to have a specific skill set upon hire (although this is not true for some positions/industries).
That said, technical skills related to online presentations, virtual meetings, virtual networking, remote working and the like are hot commodities right now. While most organizations were in the process of adopting many of these technologies and ways of doing business pre-pandemic, the pandemic accelerated the process. Organizations are making it work, but they often don't know best practices or the most efficient means of working in the largely virtual, pandemic environment. Post-pandemic, many of the remote/virtual changes the pandemic brought will stay in some form. Technical skills that support this type of workplace will make applicants stand out to many employers because they need/want to do virtual/remote business better.

Do you want to know more?

List of outside account manager skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an outside account manager resume and required skills for an outside account manager to have include:

Sales Process
Customer Retention
Product Knowledge
Account Management
Business Development
ATD
CRM
Gross Profit
Geographic Territory
Customer Issues
Customer Relations
Customer Accounts
Sales Growth

Revenue Growth
Business Relationships
OEM
Product Line
Call Planning
ROI
Sales Strategies
Trade Shows
Relationship Building
C-Level
Cold Calls
Sales Floor
Service Agreements

Print Materials
Customer Solutions
Sales Presentations
Past Due Accounts
Product Demonstrations
Market Penetration
Cost Savings
Sales Volume
Current Business
Business Accounts
PowerPoint
Inventory Control

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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