1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
With an average salary of $41,574 per year and a job growth rate of 4%, entering the career world as a Sales Agent is a good start. Not only will you have a stable job, but you also have the chance to explore other careers related to your professional path. You can be an Agent, an Account Executive, a Regional Sales Manager, and a National Sales Manager.
As a Sales Agent, also known as a sales representative, you will offer clients goods and services. Since you are selling or offering goods to existing and potential clients, you need to be knowledgeable about the product of the company in order to be able to assist the customers when they have concerns.
When it comes to skills and traits, you need to be creative and detail-oriented. You also need to have good math skills since you are doing business. Lastly, excellent customer service skills are needed as a Sales Agent; you need to know what your customer needs and provide them with appropriate goods and services.
There are certain skills that many sales agents 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 detail oriented, math skills and customer-service skills.
If you're interested in becoming a sales agent, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 47.8% of sales agents have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.5% of sales agents have master's degrees. Even though most sales agents have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of agent you might progress to a role such as account executive eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title national sales manager.
What Am I Worth?
The role of a sales agent includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general sales agent responsibilities:
There are several types of sales agent, including:
Role:
Role:
Role:
Mouse over a state to see the number of active sales agent jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where sales agents earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
Castine, ME • Private
In-State Tuition
$13,478
Enrollment
979
Los Angeles, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548
Bakersfield, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,309
Enrollment
9,142
Vestal, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,808
Enrollment
13,990
Villanova, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,308
Enrollment
6,819
San Diego, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,488
Enrollment
30,018
Waltham, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$49,880
Enrollment
4,177
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, 9.9% of sales agents listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and math skills are important as well.
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Sales Agent templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Sales Agent resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
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See More on UdemySome places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a sales agent. The best states for people in this position are New York, Kansas, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Sales agents make the most in New York with an average salary of $89,078. Whereas in Kansas and Connecticut, they would average $70,587 and $63,246, respectively. While sales agents would only make an average of $62,615 in Rhode Island, 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. Rhode Island
$62,615
Avg. Salary
2. New Hampshire
$60,416
Avg. Salary
3. Pennsylvania
$53,183
Avg. Salary
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ sales agents and discovered their number of sales agent opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Aflac was the best, especially with an average salary of $45,988. Avis Budget Group follows up with an average salary of $25,928, and then comes Red Ventures with an average of $68,548. 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 sales agent. The employers include Forward, Cigna, and AmeriHealth Caritas
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | New York Life Insurance | $80,044 | $38.48 | 267 |
2 | Combined Insurance | $72,193 | $34.71 | 289 |
3 | American Income Life Insurance | $69,362 | $33.35 | 370 |
4 | Red Ventures | $68,548 | $32.96 | 420 |
5 | American General Media | $66,810 | $32.12 | 142 |
6 | Nationwide | $52,740 | $25.36 | 235 |
7 | State Farm Insurance Agency | $47,803 | $22.98 | 155 |
8 | Aflac | $45,988 | $22.11 | 759 |
9 | Allstate | $41,195 | $19.81 | 240 |
10 | GEICO | $39,474 | $18.98 | 223 |
It takes 4 years of professional experience to become a sales agent. That is the time it takes to learn specific sales agent skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 7 to 9 years years to become a sales agent.
Sales agents are typically paid a combination of base salary plus commission. This is the safest option for sales agents to guarantee an income even if they don't sell too many of the products.
A sales agent makes about $41,000 yearly or $19.99 hourly. In general, factors like location, company, and experience can determine your salary.
On the lower end of the salary range, you can make an average salary of $19,000. On the higher end, you could make around $88,000. Some of the highest-paying states are New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, offering average salaries above $53,000.
The degree you need to be a sales agent is a bachelor's degree. Relevant majors include business, marketing, and communication.
However, you can still enter the occupation with just a high school diploma or associate's degree. Some of the most common colleges for sales agents are the University of Phoenix, Miami Dade College, and Valencia College.
What you need to be a sales agent are excellent skills in customer service, communication, and creativity. Because you are responsible for offering goods and services to potential and existing clients, you should have good knowledge about the company's products and strong social skills to interact with others.
A sales agent is also called a sales representative. Their general responsibility is to offer goods and services to clients.
To excel in this occupation, sales representatives should display a strong knowledge of the company's products to assist customers with their inquiries and concerns. They should have exceptional communication skills and extensive knowledge of the sales industry to deliver sales pitches and negotiate pricing offers with the clients.
A sales agent in business is typically referred to as a sales representative. Sales representatives generally work for one company instead of being freelance sales agents and primarily sell the company's products and services to businesses or organizations.
The typical base salary for sales is $56,964 a year, on average. However, this can range from as little as $48,734 to as much as $65,135 a year. Factors such as location and years of experience can impact how much base salary a typical sales position will earn you.