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

What is a sales administrator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Jacqueline Abernathy,

Joseph Hancock

Sales Administrators serve as the intermediary between the customer and the salesperson. They perform duties like processing orders, keeping records of customer information, and providing post-sale customer service reports. Also, their administrative duties include overseeing field hours of sales reps and preparing to maintain daily sales reports for presentation to higher management. Additionally, sales administrators process paperwork, update sales figures and manage a database of customer information.

Most employers require applicants to have at least an associate's degree in business management, business administration, or a related discipline with previous work experience in a related role. This job role involves a bit of on-the-job training. Nonetheless, applicants must be experienced with using industry software such as CRM, HubSpot CMR, or Freshsales. You must be proficient in Microsoft Office and must possess organization, attention to detail, presentation, interpersonal, and communication skills. The salary of a sales administrator is $46,547 on average. It ranges from $31,000 and $69,000.

What general advice would you give to a sales administrator?

Dr. Jacqueline Abernathy

Assistant Professor, Tarleton State University

My advice to graduates would be this: do not sell yourself short by taking a job at a lower level than you have to or a job that does not fully utilize your education. Otherwise, why did you spend the time and money, and effort to get your degree? I think many graduates assume that having a degree in a job where it is not required (but preferred) makes them more valuable as employees. I think the opposite is true. I think it devalues their worth to an organization and just makes them cheaper and more replaceable, especially when employers know that they can pay someone less to do the same job if they run into a budget crunch.

If having a degree is considered a plus for a job rather than a necessity, it actually makes their degree less valuable as a perk than if it were a requirement. If a degree is necessary to do a job, then the time, effort, and expense obtaining it was worthwhile because it was necessary to do that job, and also, the employer knows that they have to compensate employees for those costs. There is nothing wrong with working your way up, paying your dues, etc. but starting at a lower rung just makes a longer, harder climb to the top. They may have upward mobility more than somebody without a degree, but they will be compensated less than they are worthwhile waiting for something better to manifest. I would exhort graduates to start as high as they can and not settle for underemployment. Find a job where your knowledge, skills, and abilities are put to complete use, and the degree you earned to get those assets is not wasted or unfairly compensated.

ScoreSales AdministratorUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $41,404

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 79.01%

male 20.99%

Age - 46

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 - 46

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a sales administrator

Explore sales administrator education requirements

Most common sales administrator degrees

Bachelor's

59.6 %

Associate

21.3 %

High School Diploma

8.8 %

Start to develop specific sales administrator skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	37.43%
Sales Support	12.57%
PowerPoint	4.90%
Data Entry	4.61%
CRM	4.08%

Complete relevant sales administrator training and internships

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

Research sales administrator duties and responsibilities

Manage distributor accounts including inventory management, allocations, and communicating internally with purchasing, logistics, finance and shipping departments.
Work with operations to expedite deliveries, or track shipments as requested by customer.
Confer with sales, shipping, and warehouse to expedite or trace missing or delay shipments.
Publish POS materials and create correspondence to distributors for seasonal promotion items.

Prepare your sales administrator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sales administrator resume.

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Choose from 10+ customizable sales administrator resume templates

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