A lot of sales leaders get caught up with meeting a certain quota. And sometimes that makes them forget all of their roles. You see, a sales leader isn't just someone who sells a product a lot of times. No, they're much more than that.
Sales leaders also have the responsibility of managing a team of team members, as well as ensuring the entire department is meeting or even exceeding their goals. That's almost as, if not more, important than meeting a quota. If the entire team is doing well, then the company is doing well.
To be the best sales leader you can be, you'll need to be target and deadline driven. That means you probably shouldn't procrastinate until the deadline. So long are the days of staying up late to get something done. As a sales leader, you're organized and able to hit the target long before the deadline.
Sales Leader Overview
Working as a Sales Leader
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a sales leader. For example, did you know that they make an average of $40.33 an hour? That's $83,887 a year!
What Does a Sales Leader Do
There are certain skills that many sales leaders 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 analytical skills, communication skills and leadership skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a sales leader, we found that a lot of resumes listed 17.4% of sales leaders included customer service, while 15.2% of resumes included store management, and 9.5% of resumes included product knowledge. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the sales leader job title. But what industry to start with? Most sales leaders actually find jobs in the retail and manufacturing industries.
How To Become a Sales Leader
If you're interested in becoming a sales leader, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 45.8% of sales leaders have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.6% of sales leaders have master's degrees. Even though most sales leaders 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 leader. When we researched the most common majors for a sales leader, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on sales leader resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a sales leader. In fact, many sales leader jobs require experience in a role such as sales associate. Meanwhile, many sales leaders also have previous career experience in roles such as assistant manager or cashier.
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Sales Leader 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 leader can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as assistant manager, progress to a title such as store manager and then eventually end up with the title district manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Sales Leader
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Holiday Retirement Sales Leader Sales Leader | Holiday Retirement Holiday Retirement | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $39,65301/29/2021 $39,653 |
American Residential Services Sales Lead Generator Sales Lead Generator | American Residential Services American Residential Services | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $29,21801/27/2021 $29,218 |
American Library Association Western US Sales Lead Western US Sales Lead | American Library Association American Library Association | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $50,00001/27/2021 $50,000 |
Amazon.com, Inc. Sales Operations Lead Sales Operations Lead | Amazon.com, Inc. Amazon.com, Inc. | 01/26/2021 01/26/2021 | $107,00001/26/2021 $107,000 |
ARS Rescue Rooter Sales Lead Generator Sales Lead Generator | ARS Rescue Rooter ARS Rescue Rooter | 01/26/2021 01/26/2021 | $29,21801/26/2021 $29,218 |
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Sales Leader Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Sales Leader. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Sales Leader Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Sales Leader resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Sales Leaders
1. SUNY College of Technology at Delhi
Delhi, NY • Public
2. SUNY Farmingdale
Farmingdale, NY • Public
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Public
5. Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN • Public
6. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
7. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
8. SUNY College of Technology at Alfred
Alfred, NY • Public
9. Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY • Private
10. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
Top Skills For a Sales Leader
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, 17.4% of sales leaders listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
- Customer Service, 17.4%
- Store Management, 15.2%
- Product Knowledge, 9.5%
- Sales Goals, 8.1%
- Sales Floor, 8.0%
- Other Skills, 41.8% See All Sales Leader Skills
Best States For a Sales Leader
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a sales leader. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Washington, New York, and Virginia. Sales leaders make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $102,110. Whereas in Washington and New York, they would average $101,103 and $98,908, respectively. While sales leaders would only make an average of $97,215 in Virginia, 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. New Mexico
$89,158
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
$102,110
Avg. Salary
3. Ohio
$87,657
Avg. Salary
How Do Sales Leader Rate Their Jobs?
Top Sales Leader 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 leaders and discovered their number of sales leader opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Bath & Body Works was the best, especially with an average salary of $71,154. Best Buy follows up with an average salary of $104,244, and then comes Pier 1 Imports with an average of $69,779. 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 leader. The employers include CHG Healthcare, Ally Financial, and Cargill
Sales Leader Videos
