Sales Manager
Sales Manager
Career Overview
Sales managers direct organizations' sales teams. They set sales goals, analyze data, and develop training programs for organizations’ sales representatives.
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.
Future Outlook
Employment of sales managers is projected to grow 4 percent from 2019 to 2029, 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.
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.
Recommended High School Courses
- Psychology
- Business
- Hospitality
- Public Relations
- Marketing
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Management of Financial Resources - Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Mathematics - Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
- Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Mathematical Reasoning - The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Memorization - The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Number Facility - The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Direct sales, marketing, or customer service activities.
- Resolve customer complaints or problems.
- Advise customers on technical or procedural issues.
- Analyze financial records or reports to determine state of operations.
- Supervise employees.
- Approve expenditures.
- Determine pricing or monetary policies.
- Prepare operational budgets.
- Conduct opinion surveys or needs assessments.
- Evaluate potential of products, technologies, or resources.
- Evaluate employee performance.
- Manage human resources activities.
- Establish interpersonal business relationships to facilitate work activities.
- Advise others on business or operational matters.
- Confer with organizational members to accomplish work activities.
- Represent the organization in external relations.
Schools
Schools
Ball State University
Barry University
Baruch College (cuny)
Baylor University
Bellevue University
Belmont University
Bemidji State University
Bentley University
Bethel University (indian...
Birmingham Southern Colle...
Bluefield College
Bluefield State College-...
Bob Jones University
Boise State University
Bowling Green State Unive...
Bradley University
Brandeis University
Brescia University
California Institute Of A...
Excelsior College
Malone University
Miller-motte College- Jac...
Miller-motte College- Wil...
Miller-motte Technical Co...
Miller-motte Technical Co...
Miller-motte Technical Co...
Miller-motte Technical Co...
Miller-motte Technical Co...
Newman University
North Central University
Ohio State University- Li...
Pennsylvania State Univer...
Pennsylvania State Univer...
Stark State College- Akro...
Suny Adirondack
University Of West Georgi...
York College
Booth University Colle...
Bow Valley College- Do...
Brandon University
Mcgill University
Nova Scotia Community...
Red River College- Exc...
Seneca College- Seneca...
University Canada West
University Of Alberta
York University- Keele...
Approx Salary Expectation
Currency:
Low End:
$59,810.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$126,640.00 /yr
High End:
$208,000.00 /yr
Related Careers
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.