Sales Managers
Business, Management and AdministrationO*NET 11-2022.00United States
Plan, direct, or coordinate the actual distribution or movement of a product or service to the customer. Coordinate sales distribution by establishing sales territories, quotas, and goals and establish training programs for sales representatives.
- Median annual earnings
- $147,021
- Projected change
- +7.7%
- Typical education
- Bachelor's degree
- Employment
- 656.8K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
71.4% of the workforce
Growing to 707.15K by 2035
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ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
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The work
What sales managers do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs.
- Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service.
- Monitor customer preferences to determine focus of sales efforts.
- Confer with potential customers regarding equipment needs, and advise customers on types of equipment to purchase.
- Review operational records and reports to project sales and determine profitability.
- Plan and direct staffing, training, and performance evaluations to develop and control sales and service programs.
- Direct and coordinate activities involving sales of manufactured products, services, commodities, real estate, or other subjects of sale.
- Determine price schedules and discount rates.
- Prepare budgets and approve budget expenditures.
- Confer or consult with department heads to plan advertising services and to secure information on equipment and customer specifications.
- Visit franchised dealers to stimulate interest in establishment or expansion of leasing programs.
- Represent company at trade association meetings to promote products.
- Advise dealers and distributors on policies and operating procedures to ensure functional effectiveness of business.
- Direct, coordinate, and review sales and service accounting and record-keeping, as well as receiving and shipping.
- Direct clerical staff to keep records of export correspondence, bid requests, and credit collections, and to maintain current information on tariffs, licenses, and restrictions.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $72,202
- 25th percentile
- $99,303
- 50th percentile
- $147,021
- 75th percentile
- $206,049
- 90th percentile
- $291,399
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $147,021 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+7.7%faster than average
2025656,804 jobs
2035 projected707,148 jobs
50,344 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Bachelor's degree
- 71.4%
- Some college
- 19%
- Associate degree
- 4.8%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 4.8%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- 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.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- 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.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Business Development Managers18,878 postings
- 02Sales Managers17,728 postings
- 03Territory Managers11,270 postings
- 04Regional Sales Managers10,967 postings
- 05IT Sales Managers8,959 postings
- 06Directors of Business Development8,776 postings
- 07Territory Sales Managers8,377 postings
- 08Directors of Sales7,536 postings
- 09District Sales Managers5,508 postings
- 10District Managers5,153 postings
- 11Area Supervisors4,603 postings
- 12Area Sales Managers4,093 postings
- 13Business Development Executives3,194 postings
- 14Regional Sales Directors2,879 postings
- 15Vice Presidents of Sales2,799 postings
- 16Directors of Sales and Marketing2,056 postings
- 17Automotive Sales Managers1,558 postings
- 18Regional Managers1,554 postings
- 19Partnership Managers1,548 postings
- 20Area Managers1,371 postings
Top employers
- 01AutoZone9,571 postings
- 02Ross Stores4,341 postings
- 03Hilton1,894 postings
- 04US Foods1,614 postings
- 05Wolters Kluwer1,474 postings
- 06Fisher Investments1,202 postings
- 07Fujifilm1,195 postings
- 08Merck & Co.1,155 postings
- 09GPAC1,142 postings
- 10Capital One1,102 postings
- 11Carter's1,084 postings
- 12Rubrik997 postings
- 13Marriott International954 postings
- 14ABB929 postings
- 15Honeywell International928 postings
- 16Cornerstone Ondemand891 postings
- 17Accenture881 postings
- 18Amazon745 postings
- 19PricewaterhouseCoopers708 postings
- 20Ulta Beauty675 postings
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