How To Become A Senior Territory Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior territory manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A senior territory manager is an individual tasked with achieving sales targets and knowing about competitive products and market trends. They analyze sales data, review market trends, opportunities, and risks, and devise sales strategies. Also, they develop business strategies territorially that align with the overall business plans and promote sales. As a senior territory manager, you must maintain customer relationships in a geographical location by addressing their concerns and offering solutions. You also help increase sales revenue and present products and services to new and existing clients.

Applicants for this position must have a bachelor's degree in business, marketing, or a related discipline and two to three years of experience in sales of goods. You must be able to use MS Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook. A senior territory manager must possess communication, problem-solving, organization, leadership, and analytical skills. They earn about $98,419 annually, but it often ranges from $78,850 to $122,399.

ScoreSenior Territory ManagerUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $113,786

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 29.80%

male 70.20%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior territory manager

Explore senior territory manager education requirements

Most common senior territory manager degrees

Bachelor's

85.2 %

Master's

7.7 %

Associate

5.0 %

Start to develop specific senior territory manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Product Knowledge	17.49%
Sales Growth	7.49%
Sales Quota	5.63%
Product Line	4.63%
Sales Training	3.95%

Complete relevant senior territory manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior territory managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior territory manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior territory manager resumes.

Research senior territory manager duties and responsibilities

Provide customers with imaging solutions within a manage healthcare environment.
Accomplish this by actively prospecting new business, maintaining accountability on all sales efforts, and actualizing attentiveness to detail.
Develop new and prospective customers including local chain business and healthcare accounts.
Cultivate and develop relationships with HVAC and insulation distributors and local sales staff to grow existing accounts and convert competitive accounts.

Get senior territory manager experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a senior territory manager. The most common roles before becoming a senior territory manager include sales representative, territory manager team lead and district sales manager.

Prepare your senior territory manager resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior territory manager resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior territory manager resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior territory manager resume templates

Build a professional senior territory manager resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your senior territory manager resume.

Apply for senior territory manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a senior territory manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do senior territory managers rate their job?

-/5

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Senior territory manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2020

Pros

Semi-flexible work hours. You have a sales goal and customers to call on in order to achieve said goal, so you have some flexibility of your schedule.

Cons

The amount of travel required takes you away from home frequently. If you have a family, being away starts taking a toll on them and work/life balance suffers.