Sales Managers
Overview
Introduction
Sales managers direct a company's sales program by managing staff, working with dealers and distributors, setting prices for products and services, analyzing sales data, establishing sales goals, and implementing plans that improve sales performance. They may oversee an entire company, a geographical territory of a company's operations, or a specific department within a company. There are 433,800 sales managers employed in the United States.
Quick Facts
Median Salary
Employment Prospects
Minimum Education Level
Experience
Skills
Personality Traits
Earnings
The median annual earnings for sales managers were $126,640 in May 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The lowest paid 10 percent earned $59,810 or less, while the highest paid 10 percent earned $177,830 or more.
Salary levels vary substantially, depending upon the level of responsibility, length of service, and type, size, and location of the company. Top-level managers in ...
Work Environment
Sales managers work in comfortable offices near the departments they direct. Higher-level managers may have spacious, lavish offices and enjoy such privileges as executive dining rooms, company cars, country club memberships, and liberal expense accounts.
Managers often work long hours under intense pressure to meet sales goals. Workweeks consisting of 55 to 60 hours at the office are no...
Outlook
Employment of sales managers is expected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations through 2029, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The outlook for sales managers is closely tied to the overall economy. When the economy is good, business expands both in terms of the company's output and the number of people it employs, which creates a need for more managers. Even in econo...
