Sales Manager: Job Profile & Salary

Overview

Aspiring sales managers must be comfortable with a lot of responsibility. Sales managers hold one of the most high-profile positions in a company, directing the distribution of the company's product to its customers. Ensuring the quality and success of sales efforts is a top priority; that means setting sales goals, defining selling roles and sales territories, and establishing training programs for your staff, all while building and maintaining customer relationships. Sales managers are also charged with running an efficient and effective sales team, advising team members on how to improve sales, and ultimately, accomplishing sales objectives to boost the company's bottom line. Managers must also be good with people since they are responsible for hiring, supervising, and motivating a team of sales associates.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 11.7 percent employment growth for sales managers between 2010 and 2020. During that time period, 40,100 jobs will need to be filled.

Salary

According to the Labor Department, the median annual salary for a sales manager was $98,530 in 2010. The best-paid 10 percent made around $166,400, while the lowest-paid earned approximately $49,960. The field's best-compensated professionals usually work within the realms of financial investments, securities and commodity contracts and brokerage, and apparel, piece goods, and notions merchant wholesalers. The highest-paid in the profession work in the New York City area, the Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, Mass-N.H. areas, and the Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y. area.

Training

When filling a sales manager position, employers often prefer candidates with a bachelor's or master's degree in business administration with a focus in marketing. Taking courses in business law, economics, management, accounting, mathematics, finance, and statistics will give you a leg up on fellow applicants. Computer and Internet skills are also useful for recordkeeping and data management. As for previous experience, many sales managers are promoted from the ranks of sales representatives, purchasing agents, buyers, or even promotion specialists. Some organizations also offer certification programs, a qualification that is becoming a standard among employers.

Reviews and Advice

Bob Kelly, chairman of the Sales Management Association, notes that the profession has changed over the past several years. "The selling job is changing drastically because of technology and automation," he says. "The management job is trying to make sense of the change, and sales managers are pivotal in its success." Kelly explains that as the profession develops, hiring managers are looking for traits like an applicant's ability to effectively establish a rapport with their team and to improve the sales skills of individual representatives. However, he explains that companies are more hesitant when it comes to hiring sales managers unless applicants can prove that they'll increase profits. "Hiring managers want to know that a sales manager is about implementation and is action-oriented," Kelly says. "It's not enough for a sales manager to make more sales themselves - they have to make the rest of the team more productive. [Applicants] should have a plan of action that would demonstrate how they would improve productivity."

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