A route salesperson is responsible for selling products to customers and providing door-to-door delivery services to the customers by loading and unloading products with the company's vehicle. Your job is to create sales strategies to meet sales goals, to further take action on sales leads, and build a lifelong relationship with customers. Your duties also include driving along a specific route to sell products and calling on regular customers, loading your truck at the warehouse during the beginning of the shift, and track delivery and sales. You will also need to attend sales events and conferences, produce sales reports, and maintain databases.

To be a route salesperson, you must have a bachelor's degree in marketing and at least 2 years of experience as a sales representative. You should also have sales and trucking experience and a valid commercial driver's license. You will earn an average of $40,786 per year.

What Does a Route Sales Person Do

There are certain skills that many route sales people 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 hand-eye coordination, patience and sales skills.

Learn more about what a Route Sales Person does

How To Become a Route Sales Person

If you're interested in becoming a route sales person, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 30.6% of route sales people have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.7% of route sales people have master's degrees. Even though some route sales people have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Route Sales Person

Route Sales Person Career Paths

Average Salary for a Route Sales Person

Route Sales People in America make an average salary of $48,692 per year or $23 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $60,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $38,000 per year.
Average Route Sales Person Salary
$48,692 Yearly
$23.41 hourly

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Roles and Types of Route Sales Person

The role of a route sales person includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general route sales person responsibilities:

  • I responsible for customer service and new business development in a certain geographic area as assigned by the company. I aligns work orders to minimize mileage
  • Principal duties and responsibilitiessales establish relationship with appropriate manager at each account coordinate with customer the best location for displays in order to maximize sales coordinate with customer to secure additional displays audit accounts for product mix
  • Compiles lists of prospective customers for use as sales leads, based on information from local management, newspapers, business directories

There are several types of route sales person, including:

Sales Representative

Role:

As the sole point of contact, sales representatives are responsible for all business matters when it comes to their clients. They ensure the right products are delivered, follow customer leads, and pitch prospective customers.

Probably the most important aspect of a sales representative's job is closing on sales. That's what keeps the business running and your paycheck coming. There are some times when you'll have to deal with tough situations, like customer complaints, and you'll have to know how to fix the situation.

The majority of sales representatives spend about 47 hours a week at work. From travel time to breaks and interacting with customers, you've got some long days ahead. Although, it's not a bad gig, especially since you only need a high school diploma. The majority of your education in your career will come from on-the-job training - nothing beats hands-on experience.
  • Average Salary: $56,591
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Driver

Role:

Almost anyone can drive a car, but not everyone gets paid for it. Drivers are responsible for everything from driving customers from point A to point B, to delivering packages to clients, you have a range of what exactly you want to be driving. If you're going to be delivering packages, you'll want to build up your upper body strength in case you have to lift heavy objects.

As far as driving people around, you might want to brush up on your communication skills, either that or blast your music during the ride. Some drivers are especially helpful to tourists who are curious about the area. In these instances, your favorite restaurant or activity might come in useful.

The hours you'll work as a driver can range dramatically. Your work schedule will depend on who you're working for and if you're able to set your own hours. There are some companies where you'll work 60 hours in 7 days, but other companies will only require 40 hours. If there's anything to take away from being a driver, it's that the job is nothing less than interesting.

  • Average Salary: $34,771
  • Degree: High School Diploma

Sales Person

Role:

As a sales person, you've got to be able to form relationships with people very quickly. If you can't do that, then you likely won't be able to sell them your product. Which is the majority of your day-to-day responsibilities.

As a salesperson you have to be persuasive to get the customers to purchase your product or service. But it doesn't end there. Essentially, you want to build a network of customers who continue to come back and buy from you. So you'll want to maintain a positive business experience for these customers.

As a sales person, you'll have a range of hours that you'll be working. The average sales person works between 31-40 hours a week. So, that's not too bad. You'll be able to work those hours with ease.

  • Average Salary: $42,010
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Route Sales Person Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active route sales person jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where route sales people earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Route Sales Person Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1Florida926$47,278
2Texas875$48,195
3California797$58,082
4North Carolina757$37,880
5New York681$50,070
6Georgia641$47,978
7Ohio617$38,335
8Pennsylvania576$47,183
9Illinois490$42,931
10Tennessee438$41,725
11Michigan434$51,378
12Indiana433$44,176
13Virginia428$47,335
14New Jersey394$51,736
15Wisconsin325$41,670
16Missouri322$41,543
17Massachusetts316$51,005
18South Carolina302$39,714
19Minnesota295$45,002
20Kentucky293$40,406
21Alabama292$48,803
22Maryland271$45,317
23Iowa252$50,334
24Washington244$54,608
25Colorado224$44,591
26Connecticut223$52,369
27Louisiana207$49,291
28Arizona171$46,780
29Oregon168$57,018
30Kansas156$40,252
31Arkansas139$43,728
32Mississippi139$37,907
33West Virginia128$40,866
34Oklahoma127$46,598
35Nebraska122$41,908
36New Hampshire117$42,730
37Nevada93$49,078
38Maine89$49,926
39Utah89$43,900
40New Mexico74$47,651
41Idaho60$44,947
42South Dakota56$41,461
43Montana55$51,178
44Vermont52$50,399
45Rhode Island52$49,933
46North Dakota40$49,795
47Delaware34$45,041
48Alaska29$49,153
49Wyoming18$42,292
50Hawaii17$51,770

Route Sales Person Education

Route Sales Person Majors

37.5 %

Route Sales Person Degrees

High School Diploma

35.6 %

Bachelors

30.6 %

Associate

21.9 %

Top Skills For a Route Sales Person

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, 21.7% of route sales people listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as hand-eye coordination and patience are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Route Sales Person Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Route Sales Person templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Route Sales Person resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Route Sales Person Demographics

Route Sales Person Gender Distribution

Male
Male
95%
Female
Female
5%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among route sales people, 5.0% of them are women, while 95.0% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among route sales people is White, which makes up 60.0% of all route sales people.

  • The most common foreign language among route sales people is Spanish at 74.1%.

Online Courses For Route Sales Person That You May Like

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1. Make the Sale: Build, Launch, and Manage E-commerce Stores

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Make the Sale: Build, Launch, and Manage E-commerce Stores is the sixth of seven courses in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Certificate. This course explores how businesses and individuals sell products online, including using popular platforms like Shopify. You’ll go through the process of creating a mock e-commerce store. To do this, you’ll build a Shopify store, add the necessary information, and create product listings. You’ll explore how to reach customers online through...

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2. Customer Service

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(6,953)

How to Approach New Customers and Maintain Existing Ones...

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3. Customer Service, Customer Support, And Customer Experience

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(907)

Customer service, customer support, and customer experience training. Loyal clients through world-class customer service...

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Best States For a Route Sales Person

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a route sales person. The best states for people in this position are California, Oregon, Washington, and Connecticut. Route sales people make the most in California with an average salary of $58,082. Whereas in Oregon and Washington, they would average $57,018 and $54,608, respectively. While route sales people would only make an average of $52,369 in Connecticut, 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. Iowa

Total Route Sales Person Jobs: 252
Highest 10% Earn:
$62,000
Location Quotient:
1.41

2. Michigan

Total Route Sales Person Jobs: 434
Highest 10% Earn:
$64,000
Location Quotient:
1.13

3. Connecticut

Total Route Sales Person Jobs: 223
Highest 10% Earn:
$66,000
Location Quotient:
1.36
Full List Of Best States For Route Sales People

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Top Route Sales Person Employers

Most Common Employers For Route Sales Person

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Frito-Lay$55,841$26.85524
2PepsiCo$54,675$26.2957
3Herr Foods$54,516$26.21109
4Utz Brands$54,145$26.03140
5Mayfield Dairy Farms$53,817$25.8747
6Bimbo Bakeries$53,318$25.6372
7Hostess$52,885$25.43118
8Nestlé Waters North America$52,879$25.4260
9Blue Bell Creameries$52,243$25.1243
10The Schwan Food Company$51,403$24.7191

Route Sales Person Videos