If you thrive on being in charge of a team, then you might consider becoming a sales manager. In this position organization is everything. To ensure your team is running efficiently, you'll want to establish organization right off the bat.
Sometimes you'll be required to travel, that's just the nature of the job. In most situations, you'll only be working 40 hours a week, but since you're a sales manager, you'll probably have some weekends where you'll have to work a little extra.
Sales managers typically earn a bachelor's degree and have some work experience before becoming a sales manager. If nothing else, you'll want to be able to prove that you're a natural salesperson because a lot of your job requires you to train your team on how to attract and maintain customers.
Sales managers direct organizations' sales teams. They set sales goals, analyze data, and develop training programs for organizations’ sales representatives.
Most sales managers have a bachelor’s degree and work experience as a sales representative.
EducationMost sales managers have a bachelor’s degree, although some have a master’s degree. Educational requirements are less strict for job candidates who have significant work experience. Courses in business law, management, economics, accounting, finance, mathematics, marketing, and statistics are advantageous.
Work Experience in a Related OccupationWork experience is typically required for someone to become a sales manager. The preferred duration varies, but employers usually seek candidates who have at least 1 to 5 years of experience in sales.
Sales managers typically enter the occupation from other sales and related occupations, such as sales representatives or purchasing agents. In small organizations, the number of sales manager positions often is limited, so advancement for sales workers usually comes slowly. In large organizations, promotion may occur more quickly.
Important QualitiesAnalytical skills. Sales managers must collect and interpret complex data to target the most promising geographic areas and demographic groups, and determine the most effective sales strategies.
Communication skills. Sales managers need to work with colleagues and customers, so they must be able to communicate clearly.
Customer-service skills. When helping to make a sale, sales managers must listen and respond to the customer’s needs.
Leadership skills. Sales managers must be able to evaluate how their sales staff performs and must develop strategies for meeting sales goals.
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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 Director Of Sales you might progress to a role such as Senior Sales Director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title Senior Sales Director.
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Build a professional sales manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your sales manager resume.
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At Zippia, we went through countless Sales Manager resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Sales Manager Resume Examples And TemplatesAnd if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Sales Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Sales Manager 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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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, 21.5% of Sales Managers listed Sales Goals on their resume, but soft skills such as Analytical skills and Communication skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Sales Manager. The best states for people in this position are Vermont, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Sales Managers make the most in Vermont with an average salary of $129,591. Whereas in New Jersey and New York, they would average $128,831 and $124,196, respectively. While Sales Managers would only make an average of $121,610 in Connecticut, 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 Jersey
$128,831
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$124,196
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
$121,610
Avg. Salary
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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 Managers and discovered their number of Sales Manager opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Macy's was the best, especially with an average salary of $50,825. Aaron's follows up with an average salary of $63,146, and then comes Rent-A-Center with an average of $47,130. 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 Manager. The employers include Humana, Gartner, and Tech Data
Heath Weber
Assoc Dean for Performing Arts, Morningside College
Morningside grads in MUED have been consistently placed in school districts all over the state. We have recent grads in High School, Middle School, and Elementary music positions in the Sioux City Community Schools, Bishop Heelan Catholic Schools, Ankeny Schools, and many many other school districts across the state and region. Students also are well prepared for graduate study, with many of our recent grads attending graduate study in voice performance, Music Education, and choral or instrumental conducting.Show more
Yes, you need a bachelor's degree to become a sales manager in most cases. Sales managers are typically required to have a bachelor's degree, although some positions may be achievable with only an associate's degree and experience.
It takes about six years to become a sales manager. It typically takes a bachelor's degree and multiple years of experience to become a sales manager. This takes about eight years on average to complete their degree program and gain the necessary years of work experience to move into a sales manager role.
Sales managers make $125,000 a year, on average. Sales managers can make a lot of money due to the combination of high base salaries and opportunities for commissions and bonuses.
While sales managers make a median salary of over $126,000 in a year, the top paid 25 percent make at least $177,000 per year. The lowest-paid 25 percent make $85,000 in a year.
No, it is not easy to become a sales manager. Becoming a sales manager is not easy, but it is achievable if a person works hard and is diligent about their goals.
The best way to become a sales manager is to follow a few steps to make you stand out when a promotion is available. A person should make sure that they set and meet aggressive sales goals, proving that they are a top salesperson within their team.
Yes, being a sales manager is a good career. Being a sales manager offers a career that pays well, has plenty of room to grow, and offers challenging yet rewarding work for people with the right attitude and skill set.