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.
How to Become a Sales Consultant
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sales consultant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $29.07 an hour? That's $60,462 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 35,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Sales Consultant Do
There are certain skills that many sales consultants 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 customer-service skills, interpersonal skills and physical stamina.
How To Become a Sales Consultant
If you're interested in becoming a sales consultant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 56.4% of sales consultants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 4.9% of sales consultants have master's degrees. Even though most sales consultants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a sales consultant. When we researched the most common majors for a sales consultant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on sales consultant resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a sales consultant. In fact, many sales consultant jobs require experience in a role such as sales associate. Meanwhile, many sales consultants also have previous career experience in roles such as sales representative or cashier.
Sales Consultant Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a sales consultant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as account executive, progress to a title such as sales manager and then eventually end up with the title senior sales manager.
Sales Consultant
Senior Sales Manager
7 Years
Senior Sales Executive
8 Years
Director, Inside Sales
6 Years
Senior Territory Manager
8 Years
National Sales Director
11 Years
Major Account Manager
7 Years
Show More
Average Salary for a Sales Consultant
Sales Consultants in America make an average salary of $60,462 per year or $29 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $103,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $35,000 per year.
Average Sales Consultant Salary
$60,462Â Yearly$29.07 hourly
$35,000
10 %
$60,000
Median
$103,000
90 %
What Am I Worth?
0 selections
0 selections
Top Colleges for Sales Consultants
1. SUNY College of Technology at Alfred
Alfred, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,570
Enrollment
3,721
2. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
3. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
In-State Tuition
$14,760
Enrollment
31,451
4. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
5. California State University - Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$7,309
Enrollment
9,142
6. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
In-State Tuition
$45,542
Enrollment
14,159
7. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Private
In-State Tuition
$9,896
Enrollment
15,529
8. University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,555
Enrollment
30,360
9. SUNY College of Technology at Delhi
Delhi, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,360
Enrollment
3,142
10. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$49,880
Enrollment
4,177
Top Skills For a Sales Consultant
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, 21.6% of sales consultants listed communication on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Sales Consultant Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Sales Consultant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Sales Consultant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Sales Consultant Demographics
Sales Consultant Gender Distribution
Male
63%
Female
37%
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among sales consultants, 36.8% of them are women, while 63.2% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among sales consultants is White, which makes up 76.4% of all sales consultants.
- The most common foreign language among sales consultants is Spanish at 61.9%.
Online Courses For Sales Consultant That You May Like
Advertising Disclosure  The courses listed below are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the course, we may receive a commission.
Pre-sales Skills: Prospecting, Lead Generation, Qualifying
Lead Generation and pre-sales skills: Learn lead generation, introducing yourself & qualifying your lead in 3 hours...
Sales Skills Training: Consultative Selling Master Class
Sales Training - Professional B2B Selling Skills for Consultants, Entrepreneurs and all Who Bring in the Business!...
Sales Machine: The Sales Training B2B Master Course
Learn Sales Strategies & Sales Techniques to Sell ANYTHING for Entrepreneurs, Startup, B2B Sales, & Business Development...
Job type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Best States For a Sales Consultant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a sales consultant. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Hampshire. Sales consultants make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $92,507. Whereas in Connecticut and New York, they would average $87,650 and $86,803, respectively. While sales consultants would only make an average of $83,452 in New Hampshire, 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. Connecticut
Total Sales Consultant Jobs:
1,200
Highest 10% Earn:
$141,000
Location Quotient:
1.22 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$87,650
Avg. Salary
2. Massachusetts
Total Sales Consultant Jobs:
2,905
Highest 10% Earn:
$146,000
Location Quotient:
1.07 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$92,507
Avg. Salary
3. New York
Total Sales Consultant Jobs:
4,285
Highest 10% Earn:
$142,000
Location Quotient:
1.13 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$86,803
Avg. Salary
How Do Sales Consultant Rate Their Jobs?
4.0
GREAT, but can be unstable • July 2019
4.0
GREAT, but can be unstable • July 2019What do you like the most about working as Sales Consultant?
Working with a diverse clientele and helping people Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
Market fluctuations resulting in unstable income Show MoreTop Sales Consultant 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 consultants and discovered their number of sales consultant opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Best Buy was the best, especially with an average salary of $60,517. AT&T; follows up with an average salary of $66,579, and then comes CarMax with an average of $44,913. 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 consultant. The employers include CHG Healthcare, MassMutual, and Bridgestone
Most Common Employers For Sales Consultant
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oracle | $103,799 | $49.90 | 406 |
| 2 | Paychex | $79,835 | $38.38 | 388 |
| 3 | Mary Kay | $77,896 | $37.45 | 667 |
| 4 | Novartis | $70,752 | $34.02 | 616 |
| 5 | AT&T | $66,579 | $32.01 | 2,598 |
| 6 | Macy's | $64,859 | $31.18 | 442 |
| 7 | Saks Fifth Avenue | $64,173 | $30.85 | 304 |
| 8 | Office Depot | $62,266 | $29.94 | 1,416 |
| 9 | Best Buy | $60,517 | $29.09 | 5,258 |
| 10 | Sunglass Hut | $60,462 | $29.07 | 302 |
Sales Consultant Videos
Automotive Sales Consultant, Career Video from drkit.org
Becoming a Sales Consultant FAQs
How long does it take to become a Sales Consultant?
It takes 5 years of professional experience to become a sales consultant. That is the time it takes to learn specific sales consultant 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 8 to 10 years years to become a sales consultant.
How much does a sales consultant make a year?
A sales consultant makes between $30,000 and $100,000 a year. The average amount a sales consultant makes is $60,000.
This amount includes commission and bonuses that the sales consultant makes as well as an hourly wage they might earn. While the amount a sales consultant earns varies by location, it is often in line with the living costs of any particular area.
How much does a sales consultant make an hour?
A sales consultant averages about $30 an hour. However, this is not a true hourly wage, but a wage plus commission or even simply commission.
In other words, this is the amount that a sales consultant makes a year divided by the number of hours they worked to get an idea of how much the hourly wage would be if they were paid only hourly wage.
Is it hard to be a sales consultant?
It can be hard to be a sales consultant. Working as a sales consultant is a tough job that often requires long hours and a lot of work to be successful.
The main challenges of the job are mental stamina and understanding the customer to make a sale. This requires a lot of patience and willingness to sit down and have a conversation with the customer.
What qualifications do you need to be a consultant?
The qualification to be a sales consultant is a bachelor's degree in a business-related degree. Common bachelor's degrees for sales consultants to hold include:
Business Administration
Business Management
Marketing
Advertisement
Communications
Have more questions? See all answers to common sales questions.
Search For Sales Consultant Jobs
0 selections
0 selections