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.

What Does a Sales Agent Do

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.

Learn more about what a Sales Agent does

How To Become a Sales Agent

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.

Learn More About How To Become a Sales Agent

Sales Agent Career Paths

Average Salary for a Sales Agent

Sales Agents in America make an average salary of $45,217 per year or $22 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $95,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $21,000 per year.
Average Sales Agent Salary
$45,217 Yearly
$21.74 hourly

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Roles and Types of Sales Agent

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:

  • Assist with the preparation of the job description, ensuring an understanding of job responsibilities
  • Intermediate level subject matter expert, subject to minimal supervision receive inbound calls from individual clients, promotes
  • Receives incoming calls/emails from commercial lines insurance prospects

There are several types of sales agent, including:

Sales Consultant

Role:

A sales consultant is responsible for meeting with existing and new clients in a sales approach. Your goal as a sales consultant is to effectively sell products. Well, in a way.

The clients you meet with will come to you with certain problems concerning their business, your job is to figure out how to sell those products or services in a way that increases the company's sales as a whole.

To become a sales consultant, you'll want to earn a bachelor's degree. Generally speaking, an advanced degree will help you in the long run, especially when it comes to meeting sales goals. And everyone knows that more sales means more money.

  • Average Salary: $60,135
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Agent

Role:

So long to the days of claiming you don't know where you want to go for lunch because, as an agent, you have a lot of decision-making power in your hands. Be prepared to use it.

Agents help clients by acting as their liasion. They negotiate terms of contracts, particularly on a financial level. The more money you make your client, the more money you'll be able to collect. So you'll want to work on your negotiation and persuasion skills.

Agents work in a variety of industries, so you can have your pick of opportunities. Some work in the entertainment industry, while others are in the financial scene. Wherever you end up, you'll most likely be working a full-time job. Although, some client meetings can be done outside of normal work hours. This means you might want to prepare yourself for some late nights.
  • Average Salary: $37,864
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Insurance Agent

Role:

Well, insurance agents are salespeople, they have a very specific industry that they work in. Sometimes they may only sell one type of insurance, but many sell lots of different insurances. This includes car, rental and health.

While, you can get a job as an insurance agent with just a high school degree, many agents have a bachelor's degree. In addition, you need to be licensed in the state where you'll be working. But the learning doesn't stop there. Insurance agent learn a lot through their on-the-job training. Here's to learning something new every day!

  • Average Salary: $51,936
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Sales Agent Jobs

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.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Sales Agent Jobs By State

Sales Agent Education

Sales Agent Majors

34.3 %

Sales Agent Degrees

Bachelors

47.8 %

High School Diploma

19.9 %

Associate

19.0 %

Top Colleges for Sales Agents

1. Stanford University

Stanford, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$51,354

Enrollment

7,083

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Computer Science
Business
Biology
Education
Political Science

2. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$55,584

Enrollment

10,764

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Education
Biology
Finance
Business
Nursing

3. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$54,568

Enrollment

8,451

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Biology
Business
Liberal Arts
Communication
Psychology

4. Maine Maritime Academy

Castine, ME • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,478

Enrollment

979

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Biology

5. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$56,225

Enrollment

19,548

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Computer Science
Education
Communication
Biology

6. California State University - Bakersfield

Bakersfield, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,309

Enrollment

9,142

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Liberal Arts
Business
Education
Biology
Psychology

7. SUNY at Binghamton

Vestal, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,808

Enrollment

13,990

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Biology
Accounting
Psychology
Nursing
Computer Science

8. Villanova University

Villanova, PA • Private

In-State Tuition

$53,308

Enrollment

6,819

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Nursing
Business
Finance
Biology
Communication

9. San Diego State University

San Diego, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$7,488

Enrollment

30,018

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Business
Education
Biology
Psychology
Liberal Arts

10. Bentley University

Waltham, MA • Private

In-State Tuition

$49,880

Enrollment

4,177

Admissions
Most Popular Majors
Accounting
Finance
Business
Marketing
Communication

Top Skills For a Sales Agent

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.

  • Customer Service, 9.9%
  • Customer Satisfaction, 9.9%
  • Life Insurance, 9.6%
  • Insurance Products, 7.1%
  • Work Ethic, 6.5%
  • Other Skills, 57.0%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Sales Agent Resume templates

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.

Sales Agent Resume
Sales Agent Resume
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Sales Agent Demographics

Sales Agent Gender Distribution

Male
Male
53%
Female
Female
47%

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

  • Among sales agents, 47.3% of them are women, while 52.7% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among sales agents is White, which makes up 68.6% of all sales agents.

  • The most common foreign language among sales agents is Spanish at 61.7%.

Online Courses For Sales Agent That You May Like

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Best States For a Sales Agent

Some 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

Total Sales Agent Jobs: 641
Highest 10% Earn:
$129,000
Location Quotient:
1.17

2. New Hampshire

Total Sales Agent Jobs: 966
Highest 10% Earn:
$124,000
Location Quotient:
1.22

3. Pennsylvania

Total Sales Agent Jobs: 6,908
Highest 10% Earn:
$112,000
Location Quotient:
1.31
Full List Of Best States For Sales Agents

How Do Sales Agent Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Sales Agent 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 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

Most Common Employers For Sales Agent

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1New York Life Insurance$80,044$38.48267
2Combined Insurance$72,193$34.71289
3American Income Life Insurance$69,362$33.35370
4Red Ventures$68,548$32.96420
5American General Media$66,810$32.12142
6Nationwide$52,740$25.36235
7State Farm Insurance Agency$47,803$22.98155
8Aflac$45,988$22.11759
9Allstate$41,195$19.81240
10GEICO$39,474$18.98223

Sales Agent Videos

Becoming a Sales Agent FAQs

How Long Does It Take To Become A Sales Agent?

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.

How Are Sales Agents Paid?

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.

How Much Does A Sales Agent Make A Year?

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.

What Degree Do You Need To Be A Sales Agent?

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 Do You Need To Be A Sales Agent?

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.

What Is A Sales Agent Called?

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.

What Is A Sales Agent In Business?

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.

What Is A Typical Base Salary For Sales?

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.

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