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Job outlook for sales communications managers in the United States
Are sales communications manager jobs in demand?
Sales communications manager job and salary trends over time
Sales communications manager jobs over time
Sales communications manager job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 406 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 349 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 360 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 339 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 332 | 0.00% |
Average sales communications manager salary over time
Sales communications manager salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $99,386 | $47.78 | +4.5% |
| 2024 | $95,141 | $45.74 | +1.9% |
| 2023 | $93,323 | $44.87 | +2.6% |
| 2022 | $90,949 | $43.73 | +2.6% |
| 2021 | $88,620 | $42.61 | +3.6% |
Sales communications manager jobs by state
Most common states for sales communications managers
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 570 | 82% |
| 2 | Delaware | 961,939 | 288 | 30% |
| 3 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,788 | 26% |
| 4 | Vermont | 623,657 | 145 | 23% |
| 5 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 166 | 22% |
| 6 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 867 | 21% |
| 7 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 280 | 21% |
| 8 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 2,502 | 20% |
| 9 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 626 | 20% |
| 10 | Virginia | 8,470,020 | 1,650 | 19% |
| 11 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 1,074 | 19% |
| 12 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 1,041 | 19% |
| 13 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 682 | 19% |
| 14 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 1,337 | 18% |
| 15 | Maryland | 6,052,177 | 1,105 | 18% |
| 16 | Idaho | 1,716,943 | 304 | 18% |
| 17 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 188 | 18% |
| 18 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 188 | 18% |
| 19 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 107 | 18% |
| 20 | California | 39,536,653 | 6,617 | 17% |
Most common cities for sales communications managers
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara | 1 | 1% | $140,267 |
| 2 | Stamford | 1 | 1% | $107,352 |
Sales Communications Manager job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of sales communications manager experts
Texas Christian University
University of Maryland
University of the Incarnate Word
Southern Illinois University
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Penn State University, Brandywine
Baylor University
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Drake University
Montana State University Billings
Evangel University
Evangel University
University of the Incarnate Word
University of Michigan-Flint
Huntingdon College
Longwood University
Aquinas College
Montana State University
Michigan State University
Upper Iowa University
Ken Corbit Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in MarketingTexas Christian University
Specialized Sales, Merchandising And Marketing Operations
What general advice would you give to a Sales Communications Manager?
Ken Corbit Ph.D.: Strategic
Company Selection:
Focus on joining companies with robust sales training programs, emphasizing consultative selling. Look for organizations that invest in your development, providing live calling experiences, quota-driven sales processes, and exposure to tools like Salesforce.
Tech
Proficiency and Sales Tools Mastery:
Familiarize yourself with cutting-edge sales technologies, including CRM tools like Salesforce. Your proficiency in these tools will not only streamline your sales processes but also position you as a tech-savvy professional in the competitive sales landscape.
Hands-On
Experience:
Actively engage in live calling, take ownership of sales funnels, and work with senior hiring authorities during your training. This hands-on experience will not only build your confidence but also prepare you for the challenges of consultative selling.
Research
and Decision-Making Skills:
Develop strong research skills to evaluate companies based on fit, growth opportunities, compensation structures, and overall potential. This informed decision-making approach will set you apart and empower you to navigate the sales landscape strategically.
Mentorship
and Networking:
Seek mentorship both within and outside your organization. Building relationships with mentors who invest in your sales skills and knowledge will provide valuable insights. Additionally, actively participate in online forums to connect with practical sales
knowledge and best practices.
What Sales Communications Manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Ken Corbit Ph.D.: AI-Integrated Consultative Selling: Recognize the evolving role of AI in sales. Embrace AI tools that enhance your pre-call preparation, role-playing, agenda setting, and call talk track development. Stay ahead by incorporating AI into your sales strategies to deliver personalized and efficient client engagements.
What will help Sales Communications Managers increase their earning potential?
Ken Corbit Ph.D.: Holistic
Knowledge Mastery:
Become an expert in your industry, staying abreast of market trends, and thoroughly understanding the products/services you sell. This comprehensive knowledge will empower you to provide exceptional value, resulting in higher sales success and increased client
retention.
Strategic
Question-Based Selling:
Master the art of question-based selling. Use insightful questions to uncover client needs, address pain points, and tailor your approach. This strategic skill will not only boost initial sales but also contribute to secondary sales and long-term client satisfaction.
Compensation
Structure Expertise:
Understand your organization's compensation structure thoroughly. This includes baseline compensation, commission and bonus plans, and additional benefits. This knowledge allows you to set realistic targets, maximize your earnings, and take full advantage
of uncapped commission structures.
Consistent
Target Achievement:
Consistently meet or exceed targets and quotas to demonstrate your value. This not only enhances your immediate success but also positions you for continuous earning potential, especially in roles with uncapped commissions.
Negotiation
and Value Recognition:
Develop negotiation skills to ensure you are compensated appropriately. Recognize your worth and, when appropriate, discuss compensation adjustments or additional benefits with your employer. A proactive approach to recognizing and articulating your value
contributes to your overall salary potential.
In a rapidly evolving sales landscape, continuous learning, tech adaptability, and proactive career management are fundamental for achieving sustained success in consultative sales.
Roland Rust Ph.D.
Distinguished University Professor, David Bruce Smith Chair in Marketing, Executive Director, Center for Excellence in Service, Ph.D., Business Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill MarketingUniversity of Maryland
Robert H. Smith School of Business
What skills stand out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Roland Rust Ph.D.: One might think that a stellar sales record would be most important, but that would be most relevant only if the individual has prior sales manager experience. If promoting a salesperson to sales manager, the thing that may be missing is administrative and managerial skills. In addition, we are in a technological revolution, driven by AI, which means that prior knowledge and experience with AI-related analysis would also definitely stand out (although probably hard to find).
What soft skills should all Sales Communications Managers possess?
Roland Rust Ph.D.: We consider empathy the most important soft skill (see our 2021 book, "The Feeling Economy: How Artificial Intelligence Is Creating the Era of Empathy," authored with Ming-Hui Huang). This is central for both sales managers and salespeople. The sales manager can best manage a salesperson by being able to understand their emotions. Different salespeople require different approaches. Likewise, salespeople need to relate to the customer's feelings. In addition, because so much of business is now digital, and we're in a pandemic of unknown duration, skills on media such as Zoom are more important than ever, as is the capability of texting and other modes of electronic communication.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Sales Communications Managers?
Roland Rust Ph.D.: Artificial intelligence is taking over many thinking tasks throughout the economy (see our recent book). Few salespeople or sales managers are AI experts, but at least they need to be aware of the state-of-the-art in that field, enough to know how best to manage human-AI teams. In the sales context, this generally means using AI in the "backroom" and using people for customer contact, although AI salespeople (e.g., chatbots) are becoming more widespread.
Dr. Trey Guinn
Associate Professor and Program DirectorUniversity of the Incarnate Word
Communication Arts
What hard/technical skills are most important for Sales Communications Managers?
Dr. Trey Guinn: In addition to education and experiences related to corporate and strategic communications, it is helpful to have a healthy working knowledge related to the industry to which they have applied. A communications manager in the tech industry should be well-versed in that technology. The same goes for oil and gas, consumer product goods, education, healthcare, etc. Beyond this, we find that organizations gravitate toward candidates with quantitative reasoning skills and an analytical mindset. So, if you have been avoiding courses and projects that require taking deep dives into data, now is the time to brush up!
Justin Young
Assistant LecturerSouthern Illinois University
School of Communication Studies
What skills stand out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Justin Young: What I hear more and more is a desire for multi-skilled Communication Managers. In other words, it's not simply enough to have a background in PR, but often you'll wear many hats and might be asked to shoot a video with your phone, edit it on your desktop, and then post it across social media. So they're not just looking for video editing, or web content management, or social media, or article writing, or public speaking, but ideally, a little of them all.
Sherry Morreale Ph.D.
ProfessorUniversity of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Department of Communication
What hard/technical skills are most important for Sales Communications Managers?
Sherry Morreale Ph.D.: A very recent analysis of 82 million job postings uncovered a critical demand by employers for what often is referred to as durable skills (America Succeeds, 2021). By contrast to hard skills, durable skills, sometimes referred to as soft skills, comprise important professional capabilities (Leadership, Critical Thinking, Communication, etc.) and personal qualities (Creativity, Mindfulness, Fortitude, etc.) that last throughout a person's entire career. In this analysis, two key findings are:
-In the job postings, the top five durable skills were requested nearly four (3.8) times more than the top five hard skills.
-Also, Communication and Leadership were in the highest demand, requested by 50+% of postings. These two durable (soft) skills sets include the following specific knowledge and skills.
A third durable skill or competency identified in the job postings, closely related to Leadership and Communication, is Collaboration. The Collaboration knowledge and skills connected to Communication and Leadership are interpersonal communications, coordinating, teamwork, team-oriented, team leadership, collaboration, team building, cooperation, and virtual teams.
Hans Schmidt Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Communications, Coordinator, Schreyer and Cooper Honors ProgramsPenn State University, Brandywine
Communications Department
What skills stand out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Hans Schmidt Ph.D.: It is important to have a wide range of communication skills -from effectively participating in and leading meetings to write in style appropriate for the setting to media productions skills. When people move into the "manager" role, of course, this entails having developed a broad awareness of the culture at that particular organization and the skills needed to lead a group of people. So, really, skills related to communication touch on a wide range of job functions and responsibilities.
What hard/technical skills are most important for Sales Communications Managers?
Hans Schmidt Ph.D.: Having the ability to write well is important in most knowledge-based fields today. It is especially critical in any communication-related field of job specialization. Otherwise, the specific technical skills are important variations between the particular company and/or job expectations. Some fields use proprietary software that one typically learns about once one starts the job. Some fields require media production competencies - related to basic video production, audio production, imaging or photography, or even web design/management. The important thing is to develop a general competency with technology - and to learn how to learn. That allows you to pivot to develop new skills in different situations and roles.
What skills will help Sales Communications Managers earn the most?
Hans Schmidt Ph.D.: There are so many variables here. For one thing, market needs are constantly changing. Similarly, there is a wide range of salaries between different employers. This is why it is so important to, again, "learn how to learn." That enables you to be adaptable, flexible, and capable of adjusting to different environments. Also, it emphasizes why the development of fundamental communication skills related to spoken communication, written communication, and - today - mediated communication are so important. You can take these skills and specialize them in any number of ways.
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.
Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling, Frank and Floy Smith Holloway Endowed Professorship in Marketing, President, University Sales Center Alliance 2019-2021Baylor University
Hankamer School of Business
What skills stand out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.: Like salespeople, sales managers must focus their resumes on tangible, objective performance results that are achieved by their teams.
Growth in revenue or quota attainment for the overall team are examples of the types of objective performance results that matter.
High-performing sales managers also highlight long-term performance indicators, which includes both long-term revenue growth by the unit
AND investment metrics that signal the sales manager is building company results for the long run. For example, a high-performance sales manager focuses on building and maintaining a high-performing unit. Such a manager looks to move low performers to other roles where they can be successful.
Another investment metric that a sales manager can signal is the percent of their unit promoted to managerial roles in the organization.
What soft skills should all Sales Communications Managers possess?
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.: 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 Sales Communications Managers?
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.: 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 skills will help Sales Communications Managers earn the most?
Andrea Dixon Ph.D.: People who can recognize patterns (in data, in people), build connections with and across others, create a focus on high-performance behaviors, and lead with a confident humility are those who will win today and in the future business environment.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Sales Communications Manager job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Miguel Olivas-Luján Ph.D.: As the economy "reopens" (thanks to appeased fears of contagion driven by vaccination, herd immunity, people worn out by the lockdowns, warmer weather, etc.), we should see workforce adjustments across industries and occupations. Already in March, unemployment was returning to 6% (from a high of 14.8% in April 2020, but after a low of 3.5 in February 2020; https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000). Barring unexpected resistance in the virus variants or other influences, the summer and fall months should give us better job market numbers, but this recovery seems to be benefitting some population segments more than others. The unemployed rate for teenagers was at 13%, followed by Blacks (9.6%), Hispanics (7.9%), Asians (6%), adult men (5.8%), and adult women (5.7%; more detail is available at https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm).
What certifications/licenses/courses can have the biggest impact for Sales Communications Managers?
Alanah Mitchell Ph.D.: In some cases certifications and licenses can help with possible job prospects. In general, IS education is focused on current technology processes, skills, tools, and technologies that employers are interested in. Additionally, internships during school really help to provide practical experience and increase the chances of job offers.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Sales Communications Managers?
Samuel Isaac Boerboom Ph.D.: It's difficult to predict the enduing impact, but graduates will need to be savvier than ever about establishing and maintaining online communication skills, especially web conferencing and virtual communication. Graduates may be working remotely for an extended period of time even after the COVID-19 crisis is managed. Time management and self-motivation skills will be more important than before.
Cameron Pace Ph.D.
Professor of Communication, Department ChairpersonEvangel University
Communication Department
What experience really stands out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Cameron Pace Ph.D.: Specific software the student knows, types of equipment they have used, areas of experience they have worked in or had special training. Details matter here. If they can recount successes, number of sales, clients, or products they have produced or served, that's very helpful. The more professional-type experiences, the better.
What type of skills will young Sales Communications Managers need?
Melinda Booze: Today's communication graduates will need adaptive storytelling skills. In a communication environment that is noisy and insistent, the graduates that will stand out are those who can demonstrate to employers and clients that they can identify an audience's needs, wants and values and craft messages that connects with and engages that audience. This involves all the requisite hard and soft skills, such as technological proficiency, writing, speaking, a love of learning, flexibility, creativity and more. The skill that is perhaps less emphasized or practiced is careful listening. The outcome of careful listening is valid research that informs meaningful stories that communicate. -Melinda Booze, assistant professor of communication, Evangel University.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Sales Communications Manager job market given the pandemic?
Michael Mercer: I think the job market might continue to be tough going into 2021. Until the vaccine is widespread many of the industries hard hit by Covid will have a slow recovery, and I would not be surprised if there is a tentative approach to hiring. However, many businesses have learned how productive employees can be when working remotely, and they have also discovered the cost savings when people work from home. I would predict that more jobs will be able to offer work-from-home options than before the pandemic.
Jeyoung (Jenny) Oh Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of CommunicationUniversity of Michigan-Flint
Department of Communication Studies
What Sales Communications Manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Jeyoung (Jenny) Oh Ph.D.: Anyone with internet access can learn many different skills. Many resources are free. The skills you should learn highly depend on the specific field you'd like to work in. For example, if you are interested in market research, then I recommend you take a statistics or data analytics course on online course sites, such as Coursera or Udemy. If you are interested in graphic design, a photography or Illustrator course will be helpful. It is also important to stay updated in your field by following various online sources. For instance, if you are interested in advertising, keep up with publications such as Ad Age, and if you want to work in public relations, I recommend that you keep an eye on the websites of the Public Relations Society of America and the Institute for Public Relations for the latest news.
Graduates can also enhance their skill sets and put them into practice by engaging in different experiences, such as volunteering with organizations in their field. With the ongoing pandemic, many organizations are seeking virtual help from volunteers. For example, if you volunteer in a social media marketing project for a nonprofit organization, you get to create a social media campaign to increase awareness of the initiatives of the organization. This experience can hone your skills in creating and managing online content. To search for these kinds of opportunities, you can use sites such as VolunteerMatch or AllForGood. It would be a great chance for you to apply what you have learned in class to make society better in this novel pandemic. You can also engage in a remote internship for a similar experience.
What type of skills will young Sales Communications Managers need?
Elizabeth B. Rogers: Adpatilbilty. It has become apparent now, maybe more than ever, that employees are expected to do their jobs well, no matter where they are completing their tasks. New job candidates will need to show with concrete evidence that they can adapt in situations that are new or uncommon. Many recent graduates can use their transition from traditional to remote learning as significant evidence of their ability to adapt. Many students thought they were going home for a few weeks in March and then spent the rest of the spring semester online. What changes did you make when the school went virtual that helped you succeed? How did you ensure you not only got your work done but also took care of yourself? What did you learn about yourself, your habits? Many students survived a tough transition, and that is something not only to applaud but use when you are selling yourself to potential employers in interviews. Employers want to know you will adapt, so be ready to tell them how you adapted during your experience with pandemic learning.
Teamwork. You must work as part of a team. However now, consider not only traditional teams but also virtual teams. I can tell you when my teaching and staff role got moved fully online last March, I relied on my team more than ever before. I work in a team environment every day, but when virtual was all we knew, teamwork became vital for not only my success but the success of my students, co-workers, and ultimately the institution. I know students hate group projects, but group projects are the closest things to the "real" workforce some students experience. Take group work seriously so you can learn how to excel in a group setting. How do you work in a team (both traditionally and virtually)? Are you reliable? Are you a leader or a follower (both are great)? Do you manage your time wisely so you can brainstorm, work, and revise? Being part of a team was always part of the workforce, so be ready to work in teams traditionally and virtually.
Technology skills. As I am sure many of you have seen, technology is becoming an extension of all work types now. It is not enough now to say you can work the Microsoft Office Suite and can type quickly. Companies need to know that you can manage technology in real ways, especially when you are not in the office. I would suggest students take an entry-level computer class at their organization as an elective, at the very least, to have some traditional training in all things tech. If your institution does not offer computer courses, I would suggest taking a free online course to earn a certificate of some kind. Students want to list real, tangible, and legitimate computer knowledge on their resumes to make them competitive.
What skills stand out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Dr. David Lehr: Information flow skills, particularly surrounding data analytics.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Sales Communications Managers to find work opportunities?
Dr. David Lehr: Most job growth will continue to be in urban centers and the surrounding suburbs. Rural areas will continue to struggle (remote work notwithstanding).
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Sales Communications Manager job market given the pandemic?
Dr. David Lehr: A premium on flexibility and having a variety of skillsets. Continued weakness across the board in labor markets.
Kerri Orders
Assistant Professor of BusinessAquinas College
Business Administration Department
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Sales Communications Manager job market given the pandemic?
Kerri Orders: In 2020, companies of all sizes rapidly changed the way they were organized and conducted business daily, both internally and externally, with customers and suppliers. COVID has accelerated the potential and opportunity for remote work, both domestically and within the international business environment. Consequently, the future trends for international business will be a decrease in business travel and an increase in collaboration and communication via remote modalities. Many companies have now realized the ability for employees to conduct international business via remote networks, which are both effective and economically efficient. Increasingly, employers are looking for candidates with a global mindset, a culturally diverse range of experiences, and a broad skill set. In addition, employers will expect candidates to have a high level of technical and communication skills in order to thrive and have a shorter learning curve at the entry level. It is important for students entering the job market to highlight and promote their specific skills and value added to a potential employer.
What Sales Communications Manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Kerri Orders: 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 general advice would you give to a Sales Communications Manager?
Kerri Orders: There is more than one path to any given career, therefore students will benefit from being curious, creative, and collaborative as they embark upon their international business careers. More than ever, employers will be looking for students who are adaptable, flexible, and proactive. In this tighter job market, students should be more open-minded about opportunities and willing to work in a range of sectors and different sizes of companies. The pandemic has impacted businesses around the world, so this advice will apply to graduates from all regions of the world.
What skills stand out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Dr. Angela Woodland Ph.D.: Skills that are immediately useful stand out on resumes. Right now, data analytics skills are in hot demand. A desirable job candidate should be able to import large data sets in various formats, clean data, manipulate data, interrogate data, and draw conclusions from the data. Additionally, the job candidate should be able to prepare informative and easy-to-follow data visualizations of the results. This skill set allows a job candidate to be immediately useful in an organization. It is the new way of analyzing and communicating.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Sales Communications Managers to find work opportunities?
Dr. Angela Woodland Ph.D.: There are pockets of opportunity in most communities. The savvy student will meet and make connections with local businesses through internships, student clubs, guest lectures, and other college events. With a little effort, students can learn to speak the vernacular of local industries and tailor their resumes and skill sets accordingly.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Sales Communications Manager job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Angela Woodland Ph.D.: There is still work that needs to be done. Those jobs that are necessary for the economy to continue and for the protection and service of the public will continue to need willing and able employees. The field I know most about is accounting. Publicly-traded companies are required to have audits of their financial statements. This is for the protection of all who use financial statements to make investing decisions. Think about your retirement savings plans, 401(k) plans, etc. So, every year there is a need to hire students who are ready to take the CPA exam and ready to become auditors. The same goes for students who are trained and ready to prepare income tax returns for corporations and individuals. Pandemic or no pandemic, we still need accountants. In fact, we now need accountants who are prepared to make certain that loans and grants related to pandemic relief have been used for their intended purposes and have been distributed appropriately.
Wyatt Schrock Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of MarketingMichigan State University
Broad College of Business
What type of skills will young Sales Communications Managers need?
Wyatt Schrock Ph.D.: For graduates entering careers in sales, two skills that come to my mind are (1) listening skills and (2) analytical skills. First, I think listening is indeed a skill that can be developed with techniques and practice. Importantly, and for several reasons (e.g., building rapport, overcoming objections), I do not think you can be a good salesperson and be a bad listener. Second, I think analytical skills may be overlooked in terms of importance for salespeople. Certainly, selling is about relationship-building. However, and simultaneously, selling is also about delivering quantifiable value. It may be increasingly important for salespeople to have the ability to demonstrate exactly how or where they intend to help their customers grow revenue or reduce expenses.
What experience really stands out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Wyatt Schrock Ph.D.: Based on my experience and discussions with recruiters, at least two things stand out for applicants looking for sales jobs. First, I think transferrable skills are important to signal on a resume. For example, working as a hostess or waiter at a restaurant could signal to recruiters certain interpersonal skills that are important in sales. Second, I think any experience that allows the applicant to quantify their success will help applicants to stand out. If a person did well at work, I think it is worth spending some time thinking about how to tell that story with numbers. I think numbers can be just as important as words on a resume, especially when applying for a sales position.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Sales Communications Managers?
Wyatt Schrock Ph.D.: For graduates entering careers in sales, I expect the coronavirus pandemic to have at least one enduring impact. That is, I think the pandemic has changed the way that people think about the nature of buyer-seller interactions. In particular, I think we now know that a lot of relationship-building, problem-solving, etc., can be accomplished remotely with video meeting applications. This development might, for example, ultimately lead to lower levels of business travel for salespeople.
Dr. Karla Gavin
Director of the Master of Sport Administration Program, Associate Professor of Sport Administration (2010)Upper Iowa University
School of Business and Professional Studies
What skills stand out on Sales Communications Manager resumes?
Dr. Karla Gavin: College students who graduate and move into the workforce need to think of themselves as independent contractors. They need to articulate their abilities to be flexible and adaptable, and to communicate very clearly in written and verbal communication. Job candidates will benefit from viewing issues as challenges instead of problems and using out-of-the-box thinking to resolve those issues.
They need to share their ability to work with diverse groups of people in team settings. Their willingness to be lifelong learners is important and they should reflect their desire to attend professional development activities and to pursue advanced degrees or certifications. Examples of leadership positions and opportunities need to be indicated on the resume.
Each of the areas mentioned above requires related examples to be stated concisely to reiterate their accomplishments and future goals.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Sales Communications Manager job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Karla Gavin: At this time, it appears that individuals will continue to be interviewed and hired virtually without meeting their employer face-to-face. To retain these new hires, employers need to have stellar orientation programs to be completed remotely and onboarding that engages them before Day 1 of employment. Constant communication is critical, especially in the hiring process.
Work is very likely to be conducted in a virtual format for many employees in at least the first six months of 2021. Candidates with experience working with multiple virtual communication platforms will stand out during this time frame.
Employers may require employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19 before returning to face-to-face work with colleagues and clients. Depending on what happens as this vaccine is more widely administered, it could impact employee and new hire decisions to stay or to leave.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Sales Communications Managers to find work opportunities?
Dr. Karla Gavin: The world of work is in great flux right now. Willingness to relocate and to learn the field from the bottom up is very important, wherever that might be. Too many students have unrealistic expectations for salary and job title upon graduation.
They also need to know themselves well enough to understand how their personal purpose and passion match that of their chosen field and of their specific employer.