Work Environment
Sales managers held about 397,900 jobs in 2020. The largest employers of sales managers were as follows:
- Wholesale trade - 20%
- Retail trade - 17%
- Professional, scientific, and technical services - 13%
- Manufacturing - 11%
- Finance and insurance - 10%
Sales managers have a lot of responsibility, and the position can be stressful. Many sales managers travel to national, regional, and local offices and to dealers’ and distributors’ offices.
Work Schedules
Most sales managers work full time, and they often have to work additional hours on evenings and weekends.
Job Outlook
Employment of sales managers is projected to grow 7 percent from 2020 to 2030, about as fast as the average for all occupations.
About 37,000 openings for sales managers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
Employment
Employment growth of these managers will depend primarily on growth or contraction in the industries that employ them.
An effective sales team remains crucial for profitability. As the economy grows, organizations will focus on generating new sales and will look to their sales strategy as a way to increase competitiveness.
Online shopping is expected to continue to increase, meaning more sales will be completed without a sales worker involved in the transaction. However, “brick and mortar” retail stores also are expected to increase their emphasis on customer service as a way to compete with online sellers. Because sales managers will be needed to direct and navigate this mix between online and brick-and-mortar sales, sustained demand is expected for these workers.
Earnings
The median annual wage for sales managers was $127,490 in May 2021. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $61,090, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $208,000.
In May 2021, the median annual wages for sales managers in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:
- Professional, scientific, and technical services - $161,920
- Finance and insurance - $161,520
- Manufacturing - $131,340
- Wholesale trade - $127,690
- Retail trade - $80,340
Compensation methods for sales managers vary significantly with the type of organization and the product sold. Most employers use a combination of salary and commissions or salary plus bonuses. Commissions usually are a percentage of the value of sales, whereas bonuses may depend on individual performance, on the performance of all sales workers in the group or district, or on the organization's performance.
Most sales managers work full time, and they often have to work additional hours on evenings and weekends.
