Entry Level Qualification 

Class Graduate

Career Fields 

Marketing & Sales

For Specially Abled 

Career Entrance Exam 

CAT, MAT

About Career 

Sales Managers are the experts working in the organization who use sales techniques and management skills to manage the sales operations of the organization. They form the most core aspect of business as they drive sales. Thus they generate the revenue and the profits that help the organization to run. If there are no sales, there will be no profit and thus no business.

As a Sales Manager, you will be in charge of the sales management of your organization. Sales management will include developing sales team (also known as talent development), sales planning (also involves strategies), setting sales target for the team, setting quotas, sales forecasting, managing demand and executing the sales plan. A sales plan is a strategic document that outlines the business targets, resources, and sales activities. Sales activities include phone calls, emails, door to door sales, discounts, promotions, and offer, etc.

As a Sales Manager, you will be selling everything. If you are into a products company, you will be selling products like Mobile, Laptop, TV, etc. If you are into services companies, then you will sell services like insurance, tours and travel, Facebook ads, etc. Yes, Facebook asking Apple to promote its iPhone on Facebook is actually selling its own service to Apple.

Key roles and responsibilities

As a Sales Manager, depending upon whether you work for large corporate conglomerates or for small town institutions, your duties and responsibilities will accordingly vary as below:

1. You will work towards achieving growth and hitting sales targets by successfully managing the sales team. Your sales team may comprise of regional and local sales managers and their staffs. 

2. You will design strategic sales plans that will help your organization expand the customer base. You will also implement this strategic plan once been approved.

3. You will establish strong working relationships with the Channel partners, offering a rapid and efficient response to queries, and providing comprehensive support for training of Channel Partners staffs.

4. You will be directly involved in the activities involving sales of manufactured products, services, commodities, real estate or other subjects of sale (like the sale of Social Media advertisements). 

5. You will manage the following aspect of sales activities: managing recruitment of sales team, setting objectives, training and coaching the sales team, monitoring their performance, etc.

6. You will work to achieve the target of sales, per month, per quarter, per year. Also, you will follow up with customers for future needs..

7. If there are complaints from customers about the product or service related to sales and services, you will follow up with them, review the complaint and resolve it.

8. You will ensure payment collection from customers.

9. You will be responsible for the operational records and reports. You will manage these reports on monthly and quarterly bases. These reports will also be used to project future sales and projected profitability.

10. You will determine any sales related promotional activities as per the requirement. You will restructure all prices and discounts rates during these activities.

11. You will develop new sales channels and improve the existing channels. You may also be required to make calls, emails to generate inquiries.

Career Entry Pathway 

Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies - Class 11-12 with any subject as per scheme of studies - UG in any discipline – PG in Business Administration / Marketing Management / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Sales Management / Finance and related subjects.

After your secondary level of schooling, you can study any stream in your higher secondary school and then study for an undergraduate degree in any stream followed by a master’s degree in Business Administration / Marketing Management / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Sales Management / Finance and related subjects.

Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies - Class 11-12 with any subject as per scheme of studies - UG in Business Administration and related subjects – PG in Business Administration / Marketing Management / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Sales Management / Finance and related subjects.

After your secondary level of schooling, you can study any stream in your higher secondary school and then study for an undergraduate degree in Business Administration followed by a master’s degree in Business Administration / Project Management / Marketing / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Supply Chain Management and related subjects. Although anyone can complete a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, having same at UG level helps.

Class 10 all subjects as per scheme of studies - Class 11-12 with any subject as per scheme of studies – UG in any discipline – work in the industry for 2-5 years – Executive PG in Business Administration / Marketing Management / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Sales Management / Finance and related subjects.

After your secondary level of schooling, you can study any stream in your higher secondary school and then study for an undergraduate degree in any discipline and then work in the industry for a few years. Now, you can join an Executive Master’s course in Business Administration / Marketing Management / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Sales Management / Finance and related subjects.

Required Qualification & Competencies 

Undergraduate studies after school

1. To become a Sales Manager, you can take multiple pathways. You can study Business Management Business Administration in under graduation as B.B.A. or B.B.M.

2. You can also study Engineering by taking a course in B.E. or B.Tech.

3. You can also study Science, Commerce, and Arts with any subjects in under graduation.

Post Graduate studies

1. After graduation, you can study Business Administration (M.B.A.) inBusiness Administration / Marketing Management / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Sales Management / Finance and related subjects.

2. Alternatively, you can also study 1 year or 2 years Post Graduate Programs Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration / Marketing Management / Business Management / Operations Management / Hotel Management / Sales Management / Finance and related subjects.

Compentencies Required

​​​​​​​You should have the following occupational interests:

1. Enterprising: You should have interests for Enterprising Occupations. Enterprising occupations involve taking initiatives, initiating actions, and planning to achieve goals, often business goals. These involve gathering resources and leading people to get things done. These require decision making, risk-taking, and action orientation.

2. Conventional: You should have interests for Conventional Occupations. Conventional occupations involve repetitive and routine tasks as well as fixed processes or procedures for getting things done. These occupations involve working more with data, systems, and procedures and less with ideas or creativity.

Following personality attributes are required:

1. You can always act independently or could do so in most situations.

2. You always prefer to experience new things and have new experiences, or you mostly do.

3. You are always practical or in most situations.

4. You are always or mostly disciplined in your action and behaviour.

You should have the following skills and knowledge:

1. Communication skills: You should possess excellent communication skills, as you may have to work on project teams with various departments.

2. Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, understanding the points being made by others, asking questions, etc.

3. Coordination: Skills in working together with other people to get things done.

4. Critical Thinking: Skills in the analysis of complex situations, using logic and reasoning to understand the situations and take appropriate actions or make interpretations and inferences.

5. Persuasion: Skills in persuading others to change their minds or behaviour.

6. Administration: Knowledge of various administrative and operational functions in managing a business or an organization such as general administration, facility management, front office management, back office management, etc.

7. Customer Service: Knowledge about how to provide customer services. This includes understanding customer needs, helping customers to use products and services, answering customer queries, handling customer complaints and grievances, and evaluating customer satisfaction.

8. Sales and Promotion: Knowledge of the various principles, theories, methods, systems and processes to communicate and promote the benefits of various products or services of an organisation to a targeted group of customers, influencing their buying decisions and convincing them to buy the products or services.

9. Marketing: Knowledge of the various principles, theories, methods, systems, and processes to understand the needs of a category of customers and then to create, to communicate, and delivering various products and services in order to satisfy the needs of the customers.

10. Business Management: Knowledge of managing a business which involves planning of what to do, organising resources and people, leading and supervising work activities of people, and monitoring performances of people as well as the performance of the business. This includes knowledge of marketing, finance, human resources management, operations management, etc.

11. Education and Training: Knowledge of various principles and methods of developing training or teaching curriculum, the design of instructional methods, developing course materials, teaching and giving instruction individuals and groups.

You should have the following aptitudes and abilities:

1. Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

2. Oran Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

3. Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

4. Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules and common logic to specific problems to produce answers that are logical and make sense. For example, understanding the reasons behind an event or a situation using general rules and common logic.

5. Articulation: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

Career - Job Opportunities & Profiles 

1. If you love to sell real products, then B2C consumer companies are your area of interest. You can join them as an Assistant Sales Manager or Management Trainee. Some of them are P&G, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Dabar, Dell, Oppo, iPhone, Tata Industries, Suzuki, etc.

2. If you love to sell services, then you can join as Assistant Sales Manager / Sales Manager with Cox & Kings, Taj Group of Hotels, Oberoi Group of hotels, Facebook, Google, etc.

3. Also, you can join online retailers like Flipkart, Amazon, Zomato, etc.

      ​​​​​​​

Work Environment

1. As a Sales Manager, you will have a job role that will require you to spend time in the field (potential meeting customers) and in the office.

2. While you will be working mostly in the office, you will be regularly calling or connecting with your customers. Most of the time these calls can go beyond your office hours and even on holidays. At times, the work environment will be stressful as you will be target based and any underachievement will meet with several challenges. Also, as you would be required to train your team, this could be a personal challenge for you.

3. If you are traveling for work, it can go beyond official time; sometimes you might have to travel outside the city or even country.

Specialisation Tracks In This Career

Business 2 Business (B2B) Sales Manager

Business 2 Business Sales Manager specialises in making sales for businesses where the customer is another business company. Example of B2B Business is Facebook selling its advert schemes to Pages owned by Companies (like Apple). Another example is Infosys as it sells its software to other companies.

Business to Customer (B2C) Sales Manager

Business 2 Consumer Sales Managers specialises in making sales for business where the customer is the end consumers (Consumer is the final person who uses that product). Example of B2C Business is all Retail products, FMCG products like shampoo, soaps, laptops, mobiles, etc.

Bancassurance Manager

Bancassurance Manager sells insurance to bank clients. They specialise in understanding insurance policies of their partner insurance company and then sell policies to bank clients.

Medical Sales Manager

Medical Sales Manager is specialising in persuading doctors to prescribe pharmaceutical drugs, equipment, and products to their patients. As a Medical Sales Manager, you will be hired by pharmaceutical companies, and you will do a sales pitch to doctors, although the consumer will be patients. So, instead of selling the drug to the patient, you will sell the idea of the drug and its usefulness to the doctor.

Career Growth

1. The career growth in university and college states from Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor, Professor and Professor Emeritus. Professors can also get administrative positions such as Director/Dean/Vice Chancellor, etc.

2. As a Sales Manager, you start as a trainee or Assistant Sales Manager.  The duration of this initial period can be 1-2 years. Later you will be promoted to Sales Manager. Later you can become Area Sales Manager and then Zonal Sales Manager / Regional Sales Manager. Then you can become VP of Sales and then even CEO of the Organization.

Salary Offered  

1. At the entry level, as an Assistant Sales Manager, you will be earning anything between Rs. 25,000 to 2,00,000 per month. Most of the high-end jobs will be for people studying from premier B-Schools like IIMs.

2. At the junior level after 2-5 years of experience, you will be earning anywhere between Rs. 30,000 – 4,00,000 per month.

3. At the middle level of 6-12 years of work experience, your earning will rise to Rs. 50,000-5,00,000 per month.

4. At the senior level after 12 years of work experience, your earning will be between Rs. 1,00,000 to 10,00,000 per month.

Monthly Earnings In Indian Rupee

1. Entry level: 0 - 2 years of work experience 

2. Junior Level: From 1 to 12 years of work experience 

3. Mid Level: From 5 to 20+ years of work experience 

4. Senior Level: From 10 to 25+ years of work experience (there could be exceptions in some high-end technical, financial, engineering, creative, management, sports, and other careers; also in the near future, people will reach these levels much faster in many careers and in some careers, these levels will have no meaning as those careers will be completely tech skill driven such as even now, there is almost no level in a Cyber Security Expert’s job)

Famous Personalities 

Information not available.

Work Activities 

As a Sales Manager, you might be involved in various applied areas of Business – these areas where different applications of Management are used. In these areas, you might be involved in different activities such as:

1. Selling: Communicating about products and services with potential customers; influencing customers' decisions to buy products and services; helping people to buy products and services.

2. Developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships: Developing professional relationships with co-workers and others outside organisations and maintaining good relationships.

3. Communicating with co-workers and others: Communicating with people in writing, verbally or otherwise inside your workplace andvarious other people who have professional relationships with your place of work including vendors, government officials, etc. or with people at large.

4. Coaching and developing: Identifying training and professional development needs of others; coaching and training them to develop skills to perform tasks and improve performance.

5. Creative thinking: Developing new ideas, concepts, innovative solutions to problems, newer ways of getting things done, designing products and services, creating work of art and craft, etc.