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Route sales manager skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Adry S. Clark Ph.D.,

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical route sales manager skills. We ranked the top skills for route sales managers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 46.4% of route sales manager resumes contained food service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a route sales manager needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 route sales manager skills for your resume and career

1. Food Service

The food service industry is a vast industry comprising of restaurants, caterers, cafeterias operating in institutions and any other business offering a meal not prepared at home. Foodservice operators require necessary utensils for preparing food for the consumers, foodservice distributors are the people who take care of this need for them.

Here's how route sales managers use food service:

Trained customer staff on proper procedures and applications of food service and hospitality sanitation solutions.
Developed and maintained long-term relationships with customers in the hospitality and food service business.

2. Sales Territory

Here's how route sales managers use sales territory:

Complete sales and representation of designated sales territory* Customer service* Achieve territory growth* Ability to work unsupervised
Set up sales goals and objectives---worked and maintained strategic planning and execution in sales territory.

3. Sales Route

Here's how route sales managers use sales route:

Managed 10 sales routes in various towns in eastern Connecticut* Responsible for route development including growth, customer relations, and logistics
Managed and grow a sales route in Jacksonville, FL for a major food distribution company.

4. Delivery Route

Delivery route means the departure of a residential delivery vehicle from the ATC dispensary to certain delivery addresses until the vehicle is returned to the ATC dispensary.

Here's how route sales managers use delivery route:

Consolidated delivery routes to maximize efficiency.
Maintained a daily commercial delivery route.

5. CDL

Here's how route sales managers use cdl:

Obtained a CDL license and drove a truck with a fifth wheel trailer and maintained that vehicle effectively.
Drive class B CDL truck to dealers in Colorado and extending to Southern and Northern Wyoming.

6. Ecolab

Here's how route sales managers use ecolab:

Service Technician Installations of Ecolab dispensing equipment.
Installed chemical dispensers for Ecolab chemicals.

7. Product Sales

Product sales refers to sales metrics surrounding a specific product or offering from an organization.

Here's how route sales managers use product sales:

Assisted accounts after hours regarding service requests that boosted account satisfaction and performance of product sales.
Handled customer mailers for product sales.

8. Hospitality Accounts

Here's how route sales managers use hospitality accounts:

Maintain and grow sales within existing route of foodservice and hospitality accounts.

9. Inventory Control

Here's how route sales managers use inventory control:

Organized logistics and efficiency of operation and inventory control to handle increase in customers.
Satellite warehouse management including inventory control of all related sales products and equipment.

10. Route Management

Here's how route sales managers use route management:

Route management focusing on customer needs with efficient delivery of product.
Managed Account Receivables and provided route management collection services.

11. POS

POS is an abbreviation of "Point of Sale" which is the time and place where a customer completes a transaction. It can either be a physical shop that consists of POS terminals or a virtual shop. A POS system helps simplify the retail functions and track important sales data.

Here's how route sales managers use pos:

Created and developed new outlets and maintenance of existing ones also handled event marketing and management POS materials in territory.
Conducted billing using mobile POS systems.

12. Customer Issues

Here's how route sales managers use customer issues:

Practiced excellent customer service to resolve customer issues.
Resolved customer issues with care by providing quality customer service in person and over the phone.

13. Daily Sales

Here's how route sales managers use daily sales:

Recorded sales and deliveries information on daily sales/delivery record.
Total up daily sales at end of the night and prepare the bank deposit and deposit at bank nightly.

14. Customer Accounts

Here's how route sales managers use customer accounts:

Managed and developed key customer accounts in regional area.
Serviced customer accounts and developed strong business relationships.

15. Customer Relations

Here's how route sales managers use customer relations:

Managed over eighty accounts and ensured local customer relationships were well managed and leveraged for incremental activity.
Loaded, delivered, and merchandised all products while making and maintaining business/customer relationships.

What skills help Route Sales Managers find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on route sales manager resumes?

Adry S. Clark Ph.D.

Director, Western Oregon University

The skills that stand out on resumes fall into two categories: 1) Skills required to do the job and 2) Skills almost all employers look for. The most important aspect of resumes is to make sure it reflects exactly what the employer needs. Study the job description, identify key skills, and have them reflected on your resume. Think about transferrable skills, not the specific roles you've had.

Most employers look for skills such as communication (written/oral), flexibility, proactivity, problem-solving, project management, and technical. Make sure to cultivate those skills in whatever role you have, and have examples that demonstrate those skills.

What soft skills should all route sales managers possess?

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021, Baylor University

Since sales professionals have a lot of information available to them today via customer relationship management (CRM) systems, the sales manager's "supervisory" role is less important (especially for experienced sellers). Consequently, the sales manager needs to be more of a coach and enabler of high performance. Having confidence balanced with humility allows the sales manager to engage more effectively with their salespeople.
One of the critical soft skills for sales managers going forward will be the ability to connect members of the sales team to others in the organization - in other words, the sales manager of the future needs to have strong skills in network building for others. Sellers have access to data which helps them build success.
They also need access to the right people to turn to when they need specific expertise or assistance.

What hard/technical skills are most important for route sales managers?

Andrea Dixon Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021, Baylor University

One of the growing technical skill requirements for sales managers is in the area of data analytics. Our performance and customer systems provide a myriad of data, and the role of the sales manager is to be a sense-maker of that mound of data. What are the implications for changes in strategy or behavior evident in last quarter's activity? How can the sales manager help a specific seller "see" where the data suggest new approaches?

What route sales manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Kerri Orders

Assistant Professor of Business, Aquinas College

In terms of a gap year, I recommend that international business students acquire tangible skills, relevant experience and/or certifications which will enhance their success in their desired area of interest. For example, a gap year could consist of gaining technical or digital training overseas, which would also further the students' cultural intelligence and language proficiency. These types of enriching gap year experiences will assist students to distinguish themselves in a highly competitive market. Furthermore, students should focus on broadening and maintaining their global network during a gap year in order to be ready for the job market once the gap year is concluded.

What type of skills will young route sales 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.

Do you want to know more?

List of route sales manager skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a route sales manager resume and required skills for a route sales manager to have include:

Food Service
Sales Territory
Sales Route
Delivery Route
CDL
Ecolab
Product Sales
Hospitality Accounts
Inventory Control
Route Management
POS
Customer Issues
Daily Sales
Customer Accounts

Customer Relations
Door Sales
Increase Sales
Sales Growth
Sales Reports
Product Knowledge
Customer Orders
Store Management
Truck Inventory
Customer Complaints
Cold Calls
Sales Volume
Hand-Held Computer
RAN

Grocery Store
Account Management
Business Sales
Inventory Management
Bank Deposits
Retail Store
Service Complaints
Sales Presentations
Truck Maintenance
Convenience Stores
Sales Contracts
Route Trucks

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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