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The differences between regional product managers and sales managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both a regional product manager and a sales manager. Additionally, a regional product manager has an average salary of $111,928, which is higher than the $73,952 average annual salary of a sales manager.
The top three skills for a regional product manager include product management, product line and market research. The most important skills for a sales manager are product knowledge, customer satisfaction, and sales performance.
| Regional Product Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $111,928 | $73,952 |
| Hourly rate | $53.81 | $35.55 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 168,499 | 119,066 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Years of experience | 8 | 8 |
Regional product managers maintain strong client relations to identify incremental revenue opportunities and ensure a competitive advantage. They support bidding situations and selling through exclusive authorized dealers, general contractors, and agents. Most of them analyze and review business reports, including inventory levels, sales results, and customer satisfaction. They may evaluate ROI before executing customer solutions based upon the feasibility. These managers must have analytical skills to gather information from various sources, leadership to directly correlate with a person's ability to lead others toward an accomplishment, and creativity.
Sales managers are responsible for leading the organization's sales team. They oversee the progress and performance of the whole team, set area assignments to team members, and set weekly or monthly quotas. Sales managers oversee training team members during onboarding and providing further coaching to help them achieve their goals. They manage the challenges that team members may meet and help mitigate any problems that come along the way. Sales managers also set the strategic direction of the sales team and follow through by ensuring that the team's activities are in line with the goals.
Regional product managers and sales managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Regional Product Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Average salary | $111,928 | $73,952 |
| Salary range | Between $77,000 And $162,000 | Between $42,000 And $129,000 |
| Highest paying City | North Brunswick, NJ | Jersey City, NJ |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Capgemini | |
| Best paying industry | Technology | - |
There are a few differences between a regional product manager and a sales manager in terms of educational background:
| Regional Product Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 75% | Bachelor's Degree, 63% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Southern California | University of Southern California |
Here are the differences between regional product managers' and sales managers' demographics:
| Regional Product Manager | Sales Manager | |
| Average age | 46 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 77.6% Female, 22.4% | Male, 68.7% Female, 31.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |