As regional sales manager, sales are your life. You get to be responsible for making sure your company's products or services are distributed to the right places. And then, of course, are sold to customers. But you'll be doing this without interacting with customers.
So, how do you sell those products or services? Well, you train and develop a solid sales team to do it for you. Sounds easy enough, right? Most regional sales managers don't start off in this position, though. You may have to earn that position through time and experience.
While you may not need a college degree to get this position, you will want to have enough experience on your resume to support why you deserve to be named regional sales manager. That means you'll need a background in sales, leadership skills, and you'll need to know the industry like the back of your hand.
How to Become a Regional Sales Manager
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a regional sales manager. For example, did you know that they make an average of $41.32 an hour? That's $85,936 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 20,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Regional Sales Manager Do
There are certain skills that many regional sales managers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and customer-service skills.
How To Become a Regional Sales Manager
If you're interested in becoming a regional sales manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 77.4% of regional sales managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 8.4% of regional sales managers have master's degrees. Even though most regional sales managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a regional sales manager. When we researched the most common majors for a regional sales manager, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on regional sales manager resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a regional sales manager. In fact, many regional sales manager jobs require experience in a role such as sales representative. Meanwhile, many regional sales managers also have previous career experience in roles such as account executive or sales manager.
Regional Sales Manager Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a regional sales manager can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as director of sales, progress to a title such as sales vice president and then eventually end up with the title executive vice president of sales.
Average Salary for a Regional Sales Manager
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Regional Sales Managers
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Private
5. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA • Private
6. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
7. Ohio State University
Columbus, OH • Private
8. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Private
9. University of Houston
Houston, TX • Private
10. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
Top Skills For a Regional Sales Manager
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.8% of regional sales managers listed sales goals on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Regional Sales Manager Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Regional Sales Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Regional Sales Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Regional Sales Manager Demographics
Regional Sales Manager Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among regional sales managers, 18.5% of them are women, while 81.5% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among regional sales managers is White, which makes up 82.7% of all regional sales managers.
- The most common foreign language among regional sales managers is Spanish at 50.8%.
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Best States For a Regional Sales Manager
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a regional sales manager. The best states for people in this position are Washington, California, Vermont, and Oregon. Regional sales managers make the most in Washington with an average salary of $109,189. Whereas in California and Vermont, they would average $104,831 and $99,251, respectively. While regional sales managers would only make an average of $97,578 in Oregon, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$104,831
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$109,189
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$97,578
Avg. Salary
How Do Regional Sales Manager Rate Their Jobs?
Top Regional Sales Manager Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ regional sales managers and discovered their number of regional sales manager opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that AT&T; was the best, especially with an average salary of $75,452. T-Mobile US follows up with an average salary of $48,131, and then comes Dell with an average of $101,017. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a regional sales manager. The employers include Gulfstream Aerospace, Samsung Electronics Device Solutions (Semiconductor & Display), and Crestron Electronics
Most Common Employers For Regional Sales Manager
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sony Electronics | $106,053 | $50.99 | 43 |
| 2 | IBM | $101,294 | $48.70 | 49 |
| 3 | Dell | $101,017 | $48.57 | 64 |
| 4 | Splunk | $97,859 | $47.05 | 40 |
| 5 | General Electric | $94,596 | $45.48 | 41 |
| 6 | Oracle | $93,613 | $45.01 | 50 |
| 7 | Motorola Solutions | $92,864 | $44.65 | 46 |
| 8 | Cisco | $89,140 | $42.86 | 41 |
| 9 | Allstate | $85,210 | $40.97 | 42 |
| 10 | Honeywell | $84,447 | $40.60 | 51 |
Regional Sales Manager Videos
Becoming a Regional Sales Manager FAQs
How long does it take to become a regional sales manager?
It takes at least three years to become a regional sales manager. In general, to become a regional sales manager, three to five years of relevant experience are required.
In many cases, though, relevant experience refers to experience in a management capacity. So, many regional sales manager positions will take much longer to secure because they require years of experience in a role that, most often, requires experience itself.
What does a regional sales manager get paid?
A regional sales manager gets paid between $60,000 and $150,000 per year. This salary range represents regional sales manager positions spanning a massive range of industries, locations, and experience levels.
What qualifications do you need to become a regional manager?
The qualifications you need to become a regional manager are experience in management and a relevant bachelor's degree. Because the needs of specific companies and positions vary greatly, it is possible to become a regional manager without necessarily fulfilling all of these requirements.