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What is a sales representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted experts
Frederik Beuk,
John Cicala Ph.D.
introduction image

A sales representative sells products or services to potential customers. They work for companies and businesses to promote products and services. They identify prospective customers, build relationships with them, and persuade them to make purchases. Sales representatives perform cold calls, attend trade shows, and host product demonstrations to generate leads and close deals. They also maintain a good understanding of the market and competition. Successful sales representatives possess advanced communication and interpersonal skills.

What general advice would you give to a Sales Representative?

Frederik Beuk

Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Akron

The key consideration is whether you really want to maximize your initial salary. For instance, envision two job opportunities: one offering a salary of $50,000 per year, where you'd be the most junior team member, and the other providing $75,000 per year, with the caveat that you would be the sole sales representative for the firm. The optimal choice is to prioritize learning opportunities. In this context, being the lone salesperson for a company that compensates its highest-earning sales professional $75,000 might not be your superior option. Instead, seek a position that offers the greatest potential for learning. Subsequently, demonstrate your negotiating prowess, a critical sales skill, by securing a slightly higher salary. However, it's essential not to fixate on maximizing your starting salary. Your career requires a long-term strategy, and you have several decades ahead of you to maximize income.
ScoreSales RepresentativeUS Average
Salary
4.4

Avg. Salary $56,591

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level
7.1

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity
3.8
Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 5.19%

Black or African American 3.87%

Hispanic or Latino 14.45%

Unknown 3.72%

White 72.53%

Gender

female 41.85%

male 58.15%

Age - 48
Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48
Stress level
7.1

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level
8.4

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance
4.9

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a sales representative?

Pros

  • Access to sales training and resources

  • Variety in daily tasks and activities

  • Chance to work with innovative products or services

  • Opportunity to make a positive impact on customers' lives

  • Possibility of advancement within the company

Cons

  • Long hours, including evenings and weekends

  • Dealing with difficult or demanding customers

  • Limited job security if sales goals are not met consistently

  • Risk of burnout from high-stress environment

  • Limited benefits or job perks compared to other industries

Sales Representative career paths

Key steps to become a sales representative

  1. Explore sales representative education requirements

    Most common sales representative degrees

    Bachelor's

    53.7 %

    High School Diploma

    20.1 %

    Associate

    15.6 %
  2. Start to develop specific sales representative skills

    SkillsPercentages
    Sales Process8.96%
    Product Knowledge8.58%
    Customer Service6.74%
    CRM6.44%
    Business Development6.16%
  3. Complete relevant sales representative training and internships

    Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New sales representatives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a sales representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real sales representative resumes.
  4. Research sales representative duties and responsibilities

    • Manage prospective leads and existing accounts through a CRM platform to accurately forecast revenue and develop long-term business partnerships.
    • Manage and create all content distribute via various social media outlets: Facebook, twitter, feedback blogs, etc.
    • Search for procurement contracts, attend trade shows, design flyers, postcards, etc.
    • Utilize POS sales software to maintain monetary sales information produce reports for organizational review.
  5. Prepare your sales representative resume

    When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sales representative resume.

    You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a sales representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

    Choose from 10+ customizable sales representative resume templates

    Build a professional sales representative resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your sales representative resume.
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  6. Apply for sales representative jobs

    Now it's time to start searching for a sales representative job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

    1. Browse job boards for relevant postings
    2. Consult your professional network
    3. Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
    4. Watch out for job scams

How did you land your first sales representative job

David Kovacovich

Sales Representative, BiWorldwide

How did I become a sales representative?

I started my sales career in 1998. I had been Recruitment Chairman and Social Chairman in my fraternity, the positions resonated with my natural ambition to help people solve problems. My first sales job was an internship selling cigars into counter-top humidors in convenience stores. I loved it.

After graduating college, I had no certifiable skills, so sales was a natural choice. I got a job placing vending machines. There were no smart phones, no lap tops, no internet. I was given a phone book and was instructed to place 5 vending machines a week.

It started rough. Hundreds of people hung up on me directly, were rude and were inconvenienced by being caught off guard by my call. A few day in, someone said “yes”. I had made my first sale and was off and running.

Since then, I have been a top producer on large global teams. I’ve sold box storage, data security, software, and other value-add services. I’ve had doors slammed on me a thousand times, have experienced unfair buying processes, ground out RFPs, lead teams, won, lost, traveled internationally and brought services that mattered to companies who needed them.

There may have been a premise that anyone can be a sales professional. That may be so, the invitation is open, but very few are able to stick it out. Over time, one can develop a science to selling. Developing leads, maturing deals, filling a pipeline, mastering questioning, making clients feel special and genuinely making a difference in the world are all skills that come through experience.

If you are a person who genuinely cares for others and are willing to do what it takes to help them solve problems, a career in Sales is for you!

Average sales representative salary

The average sales representative salary in the United States is $56,591 per year or $27 per hour. Sales representative salaries range between $33,000 and $94,000 per year.

Average Sales Representative Salary
$56,591 Yearly
$27.21 hourly

What am I worth?

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How do sales representatives rate their job?

4.33/5

Based on 6 ratings

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Sales Representative reviews

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A zippia user wrote a review on Dec 2021
Pros

Dealing with other professional engineers and managers that show higher levels of integrity when discussing requirements or a problem to solve.

Cons

The constant program delays and slow manufactures in support of opportunities that could be won with quicker responses.


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A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2021
Pros

Cultivating relationships with customers and accessing customers needs , I like solving their problems with the product or service that I am pre selling to them before passing the lead to a sales executive.

Cons

I am passionate about my role as a BDR and there is nothing that I don't like. I don't like to be put in a box so to speak I enjoy reaching high and don't like to limited.


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A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020
Pros

Pay was consistent and you pick your own rate based on the commission you choose to bring in. Spending so much time together created a bond between the team where uplifting one another on bad days became part of the job. I guess it depends on your particular work environment but the bonds created kept us going.

Cons

Felt like I was chained to the table, changes were made on a daily basis, and work became a race against the clock for 9 hours. Managers look down at you as a number on their chart and not a human being, good workers became poor workers, great workers were barely good, and the robots working exactly as needed were the only ones lucky enough to escape the cubicle prison.


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Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.