Sales Managers

Summary

sales managers image
Sales managers set sales goals, analyze data, and develop training programs for organizations’ sales representatives.
Quick Facts: Sales Managers
2020 Median Pay $qf_median_annual_wage_html $qf_median_hourly_wage_html
Typical Entry-Level Education $qf_education_html
Work Experience in a Related Occupation $qf_experience_html
On-the-job Training $qf_training_html
Number of Jobs, 2020 $qf_number_jobs_html
Job Outlook, 2020-30 $qf_outlook_html
Employment Change, 2020-30 $qf_openings_html

What Sales Managers Do

Sales managers direct organizations' sales teams.

Work Environment

Sales managers often are required to travel. Most sales managers work full time, and they often have to work additional hours on evenings and weekends.

How to Become a Sales Manager

Most sales managers have a bachelor’s degree and work experience as a sales representative.

Pay

Job Outlook

Overall employment of sales managers is projected to grow $pc.toString().replaceAll("^\-","") percent from 2020 to 2030, $gra.

About $tools.number.format('#,###',$op) openings for sales managers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.

State & Area Data

Explore resources for employment and wages by state and area for sales managers.

Similar Occupations

Compare the job duties, education, job growth, and pay of sales managers with similar occupations.

More Information, Including Links to O*NET

Learn more about sales managers by visiting additional resources, including O*NET, a source on key characteristics of workers and occupations.

What Sales Managers Do

Sales managers
Sales managers recruit, hire, and train new members of the sales staff.

Sales managers direct organizations' sales teams. They set sales goals, analyze data, and develop training programs for organizations’ sales representatives.

Duties

Sales managers typically do the following:

  • Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service
  • Prepare budgets and approve expenditures
  • Monitor customer preferences to determine the focus of sales efforts
  • Analyze sales statistics
  • Project sales and determine the profitability of products and services
  • Determine discount rates or special pricing plans
  • Develop plans to acquire new customers or clients through direct sales techniques, cold calling, and business-to-business marketing visits
  • Assign sales territories and set sales quotas
  • Plan and coordinate training programs for sales staff

Sales managers’ responsibilities vary with the size of their organizations. However, most sales managers direct the distribution of goods and services by assigning sales territories, setting sales goals, and establishing training programs for the organization’s sales representatives.

Sales managers recruit, hire, and train new members of the sales staff, including retail sales workers and wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives.

Sales managers advise sales representatives on ways to improve their sales performance. In large multiproduct organizations, they oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs.

Sales managers also stay in contact with dealers and distributors. They analyze sales statistics generated from their staff to determine the sales potential and inventory requirements of products and stores and to monitor customers' preferences.

Sales managers work closely with managers from other departments in the organization. For example, the marketing department identifies new customers that the sales department can target. The relationship between these two departments is critical to helping an organization expand its client base. Sales managers also work closely with research and design departments because they know customers’ preferences, and with warehousing departments because they know inventory needs.

Sales managers are increasingly using data on customer shopping habits to identify potential customers more effectively. This allows them more time to facilitate sales through customized sales pitches to individual customers.

The following are examples of types of sales managers:

Business to business (B2B) sales managers oversee sales from one business to another. These managers may work for a manufacturer selling to a wholesaler, or a wholesaler selling to a retailer. Examples of these workers include sales managers overseeing sales of software to business firms, and sales managers overseeing wholesale food sales to grocery stores.

Business to consumer (B2C) sales managers oversee direct sales between businesses and individual consumers. These managers typically work in retail settings. Examples of these workers include sales managers of automobile dealerships and department stores.

Work Environment

Sales managers
Sales managers have a lot of responsibility, and the position can be stressful.

Sales managers have a lot of responsibility, and the position can be stressful. Many sales managers travel to national, regional, and local offices and to dealers’ and distributors’ offices.

Work Schedules

Most sales managers work full time, and they often have to work additional hours on evenings and weekends.

How to Become a Sales Manager

Sales managers
Most sales managers have a bachelor’s degree and previous work experience as a sales representative.

Most sales managers have a bachelor’s degree and work experience as a sales representative.

Education

Sales managers are typically required to have a bachelor’s degree, although some positions may only require a high school diploma. Courses in business law, management, economics, accounting, finance, mathematics, marketing, and statistics are advantageous.

Work Experience in a Related Occupation

Work 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 retail sales workers, wholesale and manufacturing 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 Qualities

Analytical 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.

Pay

Sales Managers

Median annual wages, May 2020

Advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales managers

$134,120

Sales managers

$132,290

Total, all occupations

$41,950

 

Compensation methods for sales managers vary significantly with the type of organization and the product sold. Most employers use a combination of salary and commissions or salary plus bonuses. Commissions usually are a percentage of the value of sales, whereas bonuses may depend on individual performance, on the performance of all sales workers in the group or district, or on the organization's performance.

Most sales managers work full time, and they often have to work additional hours on evenings and weekends.

Job Outlook

Sales Managers

Percent change in employment, projected 2020-30

Advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations, and sales managers

9%

Total, all occupations

8%

Sales managers

7%

 

Overall employment of sales managers is projected to grow $pc.toString().replaceAll("^\-","") percent from 2020 to 2030, $gra.

About $tools.number.format('#,###',$op) openings for sales managers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.

Employment

Employment of sales managers is projected to grow 5 percent from 2018 to 2028, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Employment growth of these managers will depend primarily on growth or contraction in the industries that employ them.

An effective sales team remains crucial for profitability. As the economy grows, organizations will focus on generating new sales and will look to their sales strategy as a way to increase competitiveness.

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. Because sales managers will be needed to direct and navigate this mix between online and brick-and-mortar sales, sustained demand is expected for these workers.

Job Prospects

Similar to other managerial positions, competition for these jobs is expected to be strong as there are more applicants than open positions.

Employment projections data for sales managers, 2020-30
Occupational Title SOC Code Employment, 2020 Projected Employment, 2030 Change, 2020-30 Employment by Industry
Percent Numeric

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program

Sales managers

11-2022 397,900 425,800 7 27,900 Get data

State & Area Data

Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.

Projections Central

Occupational employment projections are developed for all states by Labor Market Information (LMI) or individual state Employment Projections offices. All state projections data are available at www.projectionscentral.com. Information on this site allows projected employment growth for an occupation to be compared among states or to be compared within one state. In addition, states may produce projections for areas; there are links to each state’s websites where these data may be retrieved.

CareerOneStop

CareerOneStop includes hundreds of occupational profiles with data available by state and metro area. There are links in the left-hand side menu to compare occupational employment by state and occupational wages by local area or metro area. There is also a salary info tool to search for wages by zip code.

Similar Occupations

This table shows a list of occupations with job duties that are similar to those of sales managers.

Occupation Job Duties ENTRY-LEVEL EDUCATION 2020 MEDIAN PAY
Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers

Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Advertising sales agents Advertising Sales Agents

Advertising sales agents sell advertising space to businesses and individuals.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Market research analysts Market Research Analysts

Market research analysts study market conditions to examine potential sales of a product or service.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Retail sales workers Retail Sales Workers

Retail sales workers help customers find products they want and process customers’ payments.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Sales engineers Sales Engineers

Sales engineers sell complex scientific and technological products or services to businesses.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives Wholesale and Manufacturing Sales Representatives

Wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives sell goods for wholesalers or manufacturers to businesses, government agencies, and other organizations.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Public relations managers and specialists Public Relations and Fundraising Managers

Public relations managers direct the creation of materials that will enhance the public image of their employer or client. Fundraising managers coordinate campaigns that bring in donations for their organization.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
public relations specialists image Public Relations Specialists

Public relations specialists create and maintain a favorable public image for the organization they represent.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Purchasing managers, buyers, and purchasing agents Purchasing Managers, Buyers, and Purchasing Agents

Buyers and purchasing agents buy products and services for organizations. Purchasing managers oversee the work of buyers and purchasing agents.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Insurance sales agents Insurance Sales Agents

Insurance sales agents contact potential customers and sell one or more types of insurance.

$qf_education_html $qf_median_annual_wage_html
Suggested citation:

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Sales Managers,
at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/sales-managers.htm (visited February 12, 2025).

Last Modified Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2019