If you want a career that hones and develops your business skills, and allows you to improve internal business processes, becoming a sales manager may be the choice for you. This is an important position in a company, overseeing the sales department, developing relationships with customers and strategic partners, and improving sales procedures. Organizations employ sales managers across a variety of industries, and many sales management positions offer competitive compensation. This is one potential career path that may be available with a business administration education and relevant professional experience. Let’s take a closer look at this exciting career path.
What is a Sales Manager?
A sales manager oversees the sales department within an organization, helping sales representatives to close deals more effectively, analyzing sales trends and data, and improving the sales process. Additionally, the sales manager is involved in marketing at industry events, mentoring future sales leaders, and removing obstacles for sales representatives. A good sales manager knows the product line inside out, and helps facilitate good ongoing relationships with customers and clients. It helps immensely to have a good overall understanding of how the business works, and how the sales team contributes to the success of the company’s business initiatives.
What Does a Sales Manager Do?
A sales manager must take care of a wide range of duties and responsibilities.
Here are some of the most important things a sales manager does:
- Training the sales team on new products, procedures, and processes.
- Creating sales plans, setting goals for the department, setting quotas and expectations for the sales team.
- Remove any obstacles so the sales team can work unimpeded.
- Motivating the sales team to keep morale high.
- Review and compile sales reports to give to upper management to track sales numbers.
- Help sales representatives hit their quotas each period.
- Track industry trends and competitor analysis.
- Research company products to better train the sales team on features.
- Creating dashboards and sales reports for sales teams, management, or clients.
- Attending trade shows and industry events to promote products and reach customers.
- Managing customer and client relationships.
- Overseeing the sales process and making improvements.
- Mentoring sales representatives to meet quotas.
- Recruiting, interviewing, and hiring new employees.
- Negotiating contracts with customers and suppliers
- Tracking inventory
- Forecasting future sales
- Collaboration with other departments such as marketing to implement sales strategies and boost sales
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How Much Do Sales Managers Earn?
Though sales managers will earn slightly different salaries depending on the region, industry, and company they’re in, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed in 2024, they earned a median annual salary of $138,060 per year. [1] [2] The BLS also reported sales managers as a whole earned a median hourly wage of $68.38 per hour.
What about job growth? The BLS projections show that this job is growing at about 5% between 2024 and 2034, which is faster than the average for all occupations. About 29,000 of these high-value jobs will be added over this time period.
Lastly, according to the BLS survey, many candidates are hired for this position after gaining related sales experience, often as a sales representative. Sales Manager positions typically require several years of related sales experience and often require education beyond an associate degree, depending on employer requirements.
How to Become a Sales Manager
These are the basic steps to become a sales manager; the first three steps can be overlapping.
1. Pursue a Business Degree
Most sales managers have a degree in business administration, communications, or marketing. According to information from DataUSA[3], in 2024 41.3% of all sales managers majored in Business, with 47.4% of all sales managers reporting a bachelor's degree as their highest level of education, and another 26.27% reporting an associates degree or some college as their highest level of education. Hands-on work experience can be valuable, while a business education can provide foundational knowledge of business concepts, organizational operations, and the role different functions play in supporting business goals.
2. Get Relevant Work Experience
Sales managers generally need about five years of work experience, usually as a sales representative. This helps you understand the day-to-day needs of the job, how the sales process works, product knowledge, client relationships, and how to remove obstacles for your sales team. It’s usually necessary to start with entry-level jobs and work in sales to learn the entire process from a hands-on perspective.
3. Learn On the Job Skills and Leadership
The sales manager is more than simply the top-performing sales rep. This is a multi-faceted role that requires a wide variety of skills. You’ll learn leadership, sales, communication, building relationships with clients and customers, and problem solving. The first-hand experience and skills you develop will help you be an effective leader and sales manager.
4. Apply for Sales Manager Positions
Typically, sales managers must have five years or more of experience to apply for this position, usually as a sales representative. Build out your resume with your relevant experience, your education and any noteworthy accolades. Prepare for interviews by researching the companies and finding out as much as you can. Remember, your role as a sales manager is to make it easier for your sales team to do business and grow the company revenue.
What Skills Does a Sales Manager Need?
An elite sales manager has sound business strategy, good leadership, in-depth product knowledge, intense adaptability, and is a great coach to the sales department. Their role is to support the sales department and the company’s business objectives.
- Business Management. Oversight for sales operations, understanding of business objectives, helping solve problems related to sales.
- Communication. Interpersonal communication with the sales team, clients, customers, and suppliers, as well as internal departments.
- Leadership. Motivating the sales team, solving issues, providing a clear vision for sales targets, strategy, and processes.
- Organizational Skills. Keeping track of customer orders and initiatives for the sales department.
- Team Motivation. Helping keep morale high, making sales representatives feel like you have their back, providing motivation to hit sales targets.
- Problem Solving. Using creative thinking to solve issues that come up in the day to day of the sales team.
- Analytical Skills. Analyzing industry trends, competitor strengths and weaknesses, data analysis.
- Data Analysis and Forecasting. Using data analysis and sales dashboards, drawing conclusions about sales trends, forecasting future sales and staffing.
- Strategic Thinking. Formulating a solid strategy for making sales now and in the future. Training staff based on strategic decisions.
- Team Training. Providing sales staff with the training and resources they need to do their job efficiently and effectively.
- Hiring Sales Representatives. Scouting, interviewing and hiring new sales representatives.
- Technologically Adept. Able to use computers, phones, data visualization, CRMs, software and other tools to do your job at a high level.
- Delegation. You can’t do everything yourself, and delegating tasks to the right people will help your department hit targets, benchmarks, and goals.
- Presentations. Giving reports and presentations to stakeholders and executives.
- Relationship Building. Cultivating and fortifying relationships with customers, team members, and suppliers.
- Adaptability. Stay flexible as the industry changes, learn new processes and technologies, always keep learning.
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[1] Note: The data provided in this article is from sources unaffiliated with Campus, and is for informational purposes only and represents the employment field as a whole. They are not solely specific to Campus graduates and, by providing the above information, Campus makes no representation, direct or implied, or opinion regarding employability.
[2] Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/sales-managers.htm , Retrieved April 11, 2026.
[3] DataUSA, https://datausa.io/profile/soc/sales-managers , Retrieved June 3, 2026.
Disclaimer: This blog provides general information about careers, occupations, and educational pathways in the sales and business fields. It is intended for informational purposes only and is not designed to describe specific career outcomes for graduates of any Campus program. Employment requirements vary by employer, industry, and location and may include additional education, certifications, training, or professional experience beyond completion of an associate degree.