- Based on 809 Jobtrees users who were a Sales Manager in their career, on average, they have 3.68 years of experience and 2 jobs prior to this one. They have spent a significant amount of time in this job before moving on 4.7 years on average and earn $64K per year on average in this more senior role.
- 7% of Jobtrees users moved to another job with this same title in their next career step. The most common career steps after Sales Manager are Sales Representative, Regional Sales Manager and Business Development Manager. Sales Representative, the most common next career step, is a less experienced role which is common to see in career paths as titles aren't synonymous across companies (higher title doesn't always mean higher pay or larger scope) and not all job seekers are looking to increase their responsibility in their next career step. While Sales Representative is from the same job family, Sales - General, there are other common opportunities outside this discipline that Jobtrees users are taking as shown by Regional Sales Manager, also being a common career path from Sales Manager.
- If you are looking for more ideas on potential career paths from this job, you should also consider Account Manager, Business Owner and Account Executive as they commonly lead to Sales Manager as well. Find more insights below about this specific career path based on our Jobtrees users' experience.
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All the insights below are based on Jobtrees users’ actual career paths, aggregated together, instantaneously, to show you the real and unique most common career progression for each role.
Explore the ways our users are moving between roles. Apply filters. Press all the buttons. You’ll be amazed at what you find out.
The roles above are the most common next steps in our users’ career paths.
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Business Development Manager
Regional Sales Manager
Account Manager
Account Executive
The roles below are the most common previous steps in our users’ career paths.
Use the + button and watch the ‘roots grow’. It adds another level of potential previous career steps based on the most common paths taken by Jobtrees’ users.Read insights on these paths here
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Understand more about the career path
How can I become a
- The most common career steps to get to Sales Manager are Sales Representative, Business Development Manager and Regional Sales Manager based on actual career paths reported to Jobtrees.
- While Sales Representative is the most common, there is no specific role leading to Sales Manager that is an overwhelmingly common path.
- Another characteristic of the Sales Manager career path is that experience within the same job family as this role isn't common and as a result likely not necessary.
- This shows there are many potential paths to becoming a Sales Manager so focusing on translatable skills is likely more important than a specific role.
- This is a Mid role meaning if you don’t have significant work experience and likely also experience in a closely related field, you need to start more than one or two steps away from this role in planning your path. Consider sales representative or business development manager as these are the most popular career starting points for Jobtrees users that led to sales manager. For a quicker path to this senior role title, consider looking at smaller companies as they have less layers to get to these more senior titles. The scope of the role and likely the pay though will still likely compare more similarly to a less experienced role title at a larger company. This is partly why you see some unexpected experience level titles leading to this role.
- While Sales Representative is from the same job family, Sales - General as Sales Manager, you don't necessarily need direct experience in this discipline show by Business Development Manager also leading to Sales Manager.
What should I know about the career path
- The most common degrees or certifications earned by Jobtrees users on the path to become Sales Manager are Bachelor Of Arts (b.a.) In Physics Education, Bachelor Of Business Administration (b.b.a.). There may be other specific certification requirements to land a job with this role, so please make sure to check local regulations as well.
- Career paths aren't linear with people often returning to a prior role which is what you see with Sales Representative being on the path to and from Sales Manager. This is common when people move companies where the title is the same as a past one but the scope may be different but also is commonly driven by them choosing to return to a function they fit well with.
- Sales Manager is part of the Sales - General job family which has a limited number of unique role types (68) within that discipline. Choosing to pursue a role within this family likely will mean that you will need to look outside of your discipline to find new roles and so should focus on related skills as part of that search.
- Other common titles that have similar job requirements and career paths as Sales Manager are Application Sales Manager, Branch Sales Manager, Distribution Sales Manager, Field Sales Manager, General Sales Manager, International Sales Manager, Marketing And Sales Manager, Outside Sales Manager.