Sales Managers – Great Career Choice In The USA

Sales managers build and lead the company’s sales team to reach the company’s sales goals. Their job often includes:

• setting the financial goals,
• analyzing the financial data,
• developing sales strategies for reaching the established goals,
• encouraging the sales representatives to reach the sales targets.

If you’re looking for a high-paying career with the potential for a six-figure annual income, then you definitely need to consider a career as a corporate sales manager.

Sales managers can work in retail and non-retail environments (in different industries). Either way, their job always includes managing the daily sales activities and menaging the sales staff.

Sales managers often collaborate with marketing managers and their departments in order to identify new targets and audiences that the sales team can target. The relationship between these two departments is most important for the company in terms of acquiring new clients.

However, sales managers can also work closely with the design, research, and development teams for a better understanding of the product and customers’ preferences.

It’s imperative for sales managers to put into use all of their sales skills in order to boost the company profits while maintaining good customer satisfaction and a good working environment for the team.

Sometimes the job of a sales manager can require traveling to local or national offices in order to close the deals in person.

Those are some of the reasons why bigger organizations are almost always in need of professional and skilled sales managers who can help in generating new leads, new sales, and higher profitability.

What Is The Average Salary For A Sales Manager In The USA?

The average salary for a sales manager is $63k/year (as of 2022). The total cash earnings of the sales managers range from $40K to $117K on the high end.

The Role Of Sales Managers In The Corporate World

In the corporate world, the focus of the sales manager is much more on selling expensive, high-margin products and services to corporate clients. That’s why companies such as Cisco and EMC traditionally rank among the most lucrative employers for sales managers.

So for a good reason, the median salaries for sales managers in this field can be so lucrative. And what’s even better, these sales managers can essentially collect a fee (commission) in exchange for moving very expensive products and services to clients.

There are several different types of sales manager jobs that pay, on average more than 6 figures a year, including the following:

• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Sales
• Digital Media Sales
• Consulting Sales
• Software Sales
• Telecom Sales
• Medical Sales

The actual responsibilities differ within each of these sales positions, with many of them requiring an MBA-level knowledge of a particular industry.

For example, within the world of CPG sales, the position usually requires an MBA and significant product management expertise. That’s because a CPG sales manager will be in charge of getting popular consumer goods (think food and beverages) onto store shelves and into retail locations and then helping to manage the whole distribution system for that product.

Types Of Sales Managers And Their Roles

There are 2 types of sales managers:

1. Business-to-consumer (B2C) sales managers – responsible for the direct sales between businesses and individual consumers. These managers can be found in retail environments, for example, automobile dealerships or department stores.
2. Business-to-business (B2B) sales managers – responsible for managing sales from one business to another. These managers can be found in manufacturing or wholesale environments, for example, supermarket chains, large businesses, or software companies.

What Are The Responsibilities Of A Sales Manager?

The main responsibilities of sales managers can vary from organization to organization. However, sales managers are usually responsible for the following:

• Setting sales goals.
• Preparing budgets and managing expenses.
• Developing new plans and sales strategies for obtaining new customers.
• Forecast the sales by determining the profitability of the products or services.
• Establishing training programs for coaching the sales staff.
• Managing customer questions or complaints regarding the products or services.
• Analyzing the financial data (sales performance and sales statistics).
• Determine discounts, coupons, or special pricing plans for special occasions.
• Assigning sales territories.
• Recruiting and training new sales representatives.
• Meeting with other sales managers (locally or globally)

The duties of sales managers can vary depending on the company’s nature and its size, but nevertheless, their primary responsibility is to know the inside out of the products or services that their company sells.

That will allow them to develop customized sales strategies and pitches to individual customers and facilitate sales more effectively.

What Does It Take To Become a Sales Manager?

To become a sales manager, first, you need to complete your education and then gain sales experience. Here are some basic steps in order to become a sales manager:

• Earn a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (marketing, finance, management, economics, business…) – Although this is not always a requirement, employers often require sales managers to have a bachelor’s degree. This degree can also help you to stand out from the other applicants.
• Gain sales experience – By gaining sales experience, you will improve your sales and communications skills, especially for closing deals and helping customers. Employers usually seek candidates with at least 1-5 years of sales experience.
• Boost your sales performance – You need to constantly improve your sales performance. And the best way to do so is by accepting more responsibilities, completing sales certification training, and helping junior sales managers.

What Skills Does Every Sales Manager Need To Have?

• Leadership skills – These skills are primarily for sales managers who need to constantly oversee the sales staff performance. They need to lead, train and mentor all sales representatives in the company in order to meet the established sales goals.
• Communication skills. Sales managers must have CLEAR verbal and written communication skills when working with team members, customers, and other sales managers.
• Analytical skills. Sales managers often collect and interpret large amounts of complex data in order to target a specific geographic area or group. So their analytical skills are crucial when developing new sales strategies.
• Organizational skills – By being organized, the sales manager can prioritize his/her tasks more effectively in the workplace. This skill will allow him/her to ensure everything is completed on time and the teamwork is running smoothly.
• Customer-service skills. In order to make a sale or close the deal, the sales manager must put himself/herself in the customers’ shoes. He/she needs to listen carefully and respond accordingly to the customer’s needs.
• Honesty – When the sales manager is honest and not manipulative with his actions during the sales process, it will show more integrity in his role, so the staff and customers will trust and rely on him.

Final Words

The key to landing a high-paying sales manager job is showing the ability to sell to a mix of different clients – and the bigger, the better.

If you have a nice background in product management or sales and feel comfortable working in a high-stress, high-pressure environment, then a job as a high-paying sales manager may be JUST for you.