Sections

Sales Manager Career Guide

Sales managers are confident and natural born leaders. They are in charge of recruiting other sales team members, creating an overall sales plan that the team will work to accomplish, and reporting all progress to other managers within the company.

Think you have what it takes to make it as a successful sales manager? Would you like to learn even more about this career path and what it entails? Take a look at the career profiles below. We have interviewed actual sales managers to help give you a better idea of what life really looks like for these individuals.

Sales Manager Career Ratings

Income

Career
Growth

Personal Growth

Contribution

Influence

Job Profiles

Real-Life Sales Manager Job Profiles

Below is a list of links to anonymous job profiles of REAL PEOPLE who have filled out our survey and offered to share their insights with our users about their job in the Sales Manager field.
ID Job Title Gender Age Earnings City & State Date
33760 Senior Sales Supervisor Female 31 $100,000 Bonney Lake, WA 01/01/2010
33570 Sales Manager Female 24 $30,000 Russellville, NY 01/01/2010
33479 Sales Manager Male 26 $75,000 Gulf Breeze, NY 01/01/2010
33494 Sales Manager Female 25 $105,000 Oak Grove, MO 01/01/2010
33419 Office Manager Sales Female 31 $35,000 hamilton, OH 01/01/2010

Overview

What a sales manager actually does

A sales manager acts as the ‘ringleader’ of the entire sales team and helps to guide every team member to success. Sales managers are dedicated to achieving growth in sales and increasing the profit of a company. They are the driving force behind sales numbers and must always be on the look out for new things and changes that they can make to reach a higher level of success. Some tactics used by sales managers to ensure team improvement include encouraging the sales team members to exceed their goals and working with other departments within the company to identify new potential customers.

As well as being responsible for the success of the sales team, sales managers also have duties and responsibilities such as:

  • Resolving customer complaints regarding sales and service
  • Preparing budgets
  • Approving expenditures
  • Monitoring customer preferences to determine the focus of sales efforts
  • Analyzing sales statistics
  • Determining the profitability of products and services
  • Determining discount rates
  • Developing plans to acquire new customers or clients through direct sales techniques, cold calling, and business-to-business marketing visits
  • Planning and coordinating training programs for sales staff

Why they are needed

The role of a sales manager is one of the most complexed role in an organization! They are responsible for managing targets, recruitment, motivating and training the sales team, managing the operations process, handling complaints and creating marketing strategies. Without sales managers, there would be no outstanding sales team. Without outstanding sales teams, organizations and business worldwide would not achieve their desired results. There would be not effective sales, no demand and no happy customers!

Pros and cons of a career as a sales manager

Pros:

  • There is a high sense of job satisfaction, as sales managers play a large part in ensuring that organizations are successful
  • You will have a great deal of responsibility and control over your decisions
  • It is a very important role, as many industries cannot operate without sales managers
  • It is a flexible and diverse role
  • There are jobs available globally

Cons:

  • Like lots of jobs, there are some tedious and mundane tasks (e.g., paperwork and data entry)
  • Sales managers are responsible for overseeing the entire sales team, so they may often face staffing challenges and conflicts
  • Sakes managers can often work long hours and have to travel far
  • It can be a stressful job as sales managers are constantly under pressure to perform

Employability

Job market

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of sales managers is projected to grow 4 percent from 2019 to 2029. This is about as fast as the average for all occupations.

An effective sales team remains crucial for an organizations profitability. As the economy grows, organizations will focus on generating new sales and will look at their sales strategy as a way to increase competitiveness. As a result, the employment of sales managers will increase over the coming years.

Similarly, online shopping is expected to continue to increase, meaning more sales will be completed without a sales worker involved in the transaction. However, “brick and mortar” retail stores also are expected to increase their emphasis on customer service as a way to compete with online sellers. Due to this, sales managers will be needed to direct and navigate this mix between online and brick-and-mortar sales and therefore they will continue to be in demand.

Career paths

To become a sales manager, you will typically need a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as business management, marketing or finance. Some positions may only require a high school diploma and suitable work experiences, but in general those with bachelors degrees will have the best job prospects.

As well as a degree and/or a high school diploma, most sales managers will need 1 to 5 years work experience in sales or a related occupation (e.g., s a retail worker, purchasing agents or sales representative). In larger organization, sales personnel can progress relatively quickly and are likely to get promoted to sales manager faster than in a smaller retail company.

Example Job Titles for Sales Manager

Below is a list of common job titles in the Sales Manager field. Click the links below for more information about these job titles, or view the next section for actual real-life job profiles.

Benefits & Conditions

Income and benefits

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for sales managers in the United States was $132,290 in 2020. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $63,170 per annum and the highest 10 percent earned more than $208,000.

The top paying industry was the finance and insurance industry, where the median annual wage for sales managers was $163,630. This was followed by professional, scientific and technical services ($155,490) and then manufacturing ($139,340), wholesale trade ($131,420) and retail trade ($92,950).

Autonomy and Flexibility

Sales managers have a lot of responsibility. They are responsible for stock decisions, handling complaints, recruitment, motivating the team and much more. Therefore, sales managers are likely to have high autonomy. Sales managers are likely to have set working hours, and it is therefore unlikely that they will have flexibility over the hours they work. Furthermore, they are likely to have to work overtime in order to complete everything they need to do! They are likely, however, to have flexibility over how they arrange their day and who they delegate tasks to.

Locations and commute

According to Zippia, the best states to be a sales manager, based on average annual salary and the number of jobs available, are:

  1. New York, where the average annual salary is $145,146
  2. New Jersey, where the average annual salary is $130,266
  3. Pennsylvania, where the average annual salary is $122,340
  4. Virginia, where the average annual salary is $126,966
  5. Michigan, where the average annual salary is $119,685

The worst states to be a sales manager, according to Zippia, are Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, Alaska and Hawaii.

Work environment

19% of sales managers in the United States were employed by the wholesale trade industry. 16% were employed by retail trade, 11% by professional, scientific and technical services, 10% by manufacturing services and 9% by the finance and insurance services.

Sales managers will have a lot of responsibility and the position can be stressful. Sales managers may also have to travel nationally, regionally and locally to dealers and distributors.

Career Satisfaction

Common Matching Personality Types

Which personalities tend to succeed and thrive in Sales Manager careers? Based on our research, there is a relatively strong positive correlation between the following personality types and Sales Manager career satisfaction. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t many exceptions, of course, but if you fit into one of the following personality types then we suggest you give strong consideration to a career in Sales Manager.

16 Types (Myers-Briggs)

Big Five (OCEAN)

Enneagram

Holland Codes (RIASEC)

Personality types

It is likely that successful sales managers will be an ESTJ personality type. The ESTJ, or otherwise known as ‘the executive’ are decisive, confident and firm. ESTJ’s have a preference for working in a logical and methodical way, which is well suited to a sales manager position as they have to track numbers, stock and budgets. ESTJ’s work with a huge focus on productivity and are incredibly eager to take charge and ensure that things done correctly. All of these qualities are suited to a sales manager, who is in charge of a team and must be focused on increasing the companies sales and productivity.

Accomplishment and mastery

Typically, sales managers must first achieve a bachelor’s degree and then progress to a management positions through hard work, dedication and graft. Therefore, when sales managers finally secure a sales management role, they will feel a high sense of accomplishment and skill mastery. Furthermore, throughout their career, sales managers will constantly motivate their team to meet sales targets, which will provide a further sense of accomplishment.

Meaning and contribution

Sales managers play a very important role in many businesses. They work to ensure that sales staff are correctly trained and motivated. They ensure that customers complaints are handled correctly, and that sales are correctly predicted. Although their work will not directly save any lives, their work has high meaning and contribution to the economy, customers and employees.

Life fit

Most sales managers will work full time, and they may have to work additional hours in the evening and weekends. Therefore, it is a busy career that can sometimes provide a difficult life fit.

Who will thrive in this career?

You will thrive as a sales manager if:

  • You are confident interacting with others and with leading teams (large or small)
  • You are able to effectively delegate tasks
  • You are productivity and sale focused
  • You are polite, calm and understanding
  • To be able to correctly motivate and train others
  • An excellent eye for numbers to develop and adhere to budgets
  • Sales managers need to be incredibly organized, as well as decisive and confident

Who will struggle in this career?

If you are not authoritative or confident when leading a team, then you may struggle as a sales manager. This is because the main focus of their role is to correctly motivate the sales team and ensure that they are working the most productively they can. Those who cannot confidently make decisions may also struggle as sales managers are responsible for lots of decisions – from anything to hiring to stock decisions. They must be confident and convinced that they have made the right choice, the first time round. Finally, those who are not willing to put in the hard work in a lower role for 1 to 5 years will struggle to get promoted to a sales manager position.

Requirements

Quick Glance

Skills and talents

As well as adequate experience in the field, sales managers will need skills and talents such as:

  • Verbal communication skills, as this will allow sales managers to communicate clearly with staff, colleagues and customers.
  • Numerical skills, as sales managers need to manage budgets and stock
  • Leadership skills, are sales managers oversee teams and are responsible for motivating them
  • Analytical skills, as sales managers need to evaluate how their staff are performing and develop strategies for meeting goals
  • Customer service skills, as sales managers must be able to deal with client complaints

Education

Some sales management positions may only require a high school diploma and suitable work experiences. However, many positions require a bachelors degree in a related field (e.g., business management, marketing, law or finance). In general those with bachelors degrees will have the best job prospects.

Sales managers will then need 1 to 5 years work experience. This experience should be in the retail industry (e.g., as a retail sales worker, purchasing agents or sales representative).

Certifications

There are no specific certification requirements to become a sales manager.

How to Become

Summary

A career as a sales manager is fast-paced, exciting and high pressured, that is centered around productivity and meeting targets. Sales managers are responsible for recruiting other sales staff members, creating an overall sales plan that the team will work to accomplish, and reporting all progress to other managers within the company

Immediate action

If becoming a sales manager sounds like the career for you, then we recommend deciding what relevant degree most appeals to you. We then recommend seeking out some relevant work experience in sales. If you are younger, then a Saturday job as a store assistant will provide you with excellent opportunities. If you are a bit older/post degree level, then it is worth seeking full time employment in lower-level sales roles.

Education and learning

Some sales manager positions may only require a high school diploma and relevant work experience. However, many positions require a bachelors degree in a related field (e.g., business management, marketing or finance). In general those with bachelors degrees will have the best job prospects.

Skill development

Sales managers learn and develop all their skills through their experience in the industry. They may also continue to get additional training throughout their career, which will continue their skill development.

FAQs

Ask a Question

Have a question about Sales Manager careers? If so, our mentors would love to help! Just click on a mentor’s profile below and then fill out the “Ask a Question” form on that page. Your question will then be emailed to the mentor, who can then email you a reply.

ID Job Title Gender Age Earnings City & State Date
33760 Senior Sales Supervisor Female 31 $100,000 Bonney Lake, WA 01/01/2010
33570 Sales Manager Female 24 $30,000 Russellville, NY 01/01/2010
33479 Sales Manager Male 26 $75,000 Gulf Breeze, NY 01/01/2010
33494 Sales Manager Female 25 $105,000 Oak Grove, MO 01/01/2010
33419 Office Manager Sales Female 31 $35,000 hamilton, OH 01/01/2010

Resources