Sales managers direct organizations' sales teams. They set sales goals, analyze data, and develop training programs for organizations’ sales representatives.

Sales managers often are required to travel. Most sales managers work full time, and they often have to work additional hours on evenings and weekends.

Most sales managers have a bachelor’s degree and work experience as a sales representative.

Employment of sales managers is projected to grow 5 percent from 2014 to 2024, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Employment growth of these managers will depend primarily on growth or contraction in the industries that employ them.

This occupation supported 359,300 jobs in 2012 and 376,300 jobs in 2014, reflecting an increase of 4.7%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to increase by 8.3% in 2022 to 389,000 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 365,200, compared with an observed value of 376,300, 3.0% higher than expected. This indicates current employment trends are better than the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to increase by 5.3% in 2024 to 395,300 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 394,900 jobs for 2024, 0.1% lower than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are about on track with the 2012 trend within this occupation.