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:
- New York, where the average annual salary is $145,146
- New Jersey, where the average annual salary is $130,266
- Pennsylvania, where the average annual salary is $122,340
- Virginia, where the average annual salary is $126,966
- 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.