How To Become A Phone Sales Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a phone sales representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Frederik Beuk,

John Cicala Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a phone sales representative. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.32 an hour? That's $38,105 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 63,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a phone sales representative?

Frederik Beuk

Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Akron

The key consideration is whether you really want to maximize your initial salary. For instance, envision two job opportunities: one offering a salary of $50,000 per year, where you'd be the most junior team member, and the other providing $75,000 per year, with the caveat that you would be the sole sales representative for the firm. The optimal choice is to prioritize learning opportunities. In this context, being the lone salesperson for a company that compensates its highest-earning sales professional $75,000 might not be your superior option. Instead, seek a position that offers the greatest potential for learning. Subsequently, demonstrate your negotiating prowess, a critical sales skill, by securing a slightly higher salary. However, it's essential not to fixate on maximizing your starting salary. Your career requires a long-term strategy, and you have several decades ahead of you to maximize income.

ScorePhone Sales RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

3.0

Avg. Salary $38,105

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 5.16%

Black or African American 3.85%

Hispanic or Latino 14.28%

Unknown 3.71%

White 72.77%

Gender

female 48.92%

male 51.08%

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 phone sales representative

Explore phone sales representative education requirements

Most common phone sales representative degrees

High School Diploma

37.3 %

Bachelor's

26.4 %

Associate

20.4 %

Start to develop specific phone sales representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	17.33%
Excellent Interpersonal	14.91%
Outbound Calls	10.69%
Inbound Calls	9.74%
Cell Phones	6.06%

Complete relevant phone sales representative training and internships

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

Research phone sales representative duties and responsibilities

Contact medicare eligible recipients to sell medicare advantage plans through in-home meetings, community seminars and direct telesales.
Perform telemarketing duties for online advertisement/marketing
Perform telemarketing duties for online advertisement/marketing

Prepare your phone sales representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your phone sales 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 phone sales 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 phone sales representative resume templates

Build a professional phone sales representative 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 phone sales representative resume.