Best degree programs for Sales Managers, ranked by enrollment
5 college programs and 2,545 schools train Sales Managers. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $148,270 median wage, 637,080 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
5 college programs at 2,545 schools train sales managers, graduating 459,233 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Business Administration and Management, General. The job pays a median of $148,270 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About sales managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate the actual distribution or movement of a product or service to the customer. Coordinate sales distribution by establishing sales territories, quotas, and goals and establish training programs for sales representatives. Analyze sales statistics gathered by staff to determine sales potential and inventory requirements and monitor the preferences of customers.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
5 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 52.0201 | 348,906 | 76.0% | 2,305 | $43,506 | $25,000 |
| 2 | CIP 52.0101 | 60,975 | 13.3% | 806 | $44,700 | $24,000 |
| 3 | CIP 52.1401 | 49,123 | 10.7% | 973 | $44,670 | $24,250 |
| 4 | CIP 51.2011 | 122 | 0.0% | 8 | $48,728 | $23,761 |
| 5 | CIP 19.0203 | 107 | 0.0% | 11 | $40,949 | $23,344 |
Top 50 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
What sales managers earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $134,910 | 112,440 | 1.51× | 221 | 60,140 |
| Texas | $136,020 | 76,010 | 1.32× | 145 | 34,089 |
| Arizona | $145,690 | 13,870 | 1.04× | 37 | 25,910 |
| Florida | $131,900 | 46,480 | 1.14× | 100 | 24,086 |
| Indiana | $131,470 | 9,700 | 0.74× | 48 | 17,639 |
| New York | $217,640 | 38,510 | 0.97× | 143 | 17,528 |
| North Carolina | $150,470 | 16,920 | 0.84× | 112 | 15,036 |
| New Hampshire | $141,900 | 2,820 | 1.01× | 19 | 13,500 |
| Virginia | $191,130 | 9,670 | 0.57× | 65 | 13,345 |
| Massachusetts | $191,200 | 15,010 | 1.01× | 65 | 13,231 |
| Utah | $136,520 | 8,990 | 1.26× | 12 | 12,603 |
| Pennsylvania | $130,610 | 20,460 | 0.82× | 128 | 12,563 |
| Colorado | $180,850 | 8,780 | 0.75× | 34 | 12,290 |
| Georgia | $159,890 | 17,690 | 0.88× | 84 | 12,098 |
| Illinois | $155,280 | 32,240 | 1.29× | 92 | 11,913 |
| Ohio | $135,510 | 22,840 | 1.00× | 100 | 11,439 |
| Michigan | $136,870 | 17,950 | 1.00× | 73 | 9,026 |
| Kentucky | $128,650 | 6,650 | 0.81× | 47 | 8,947 |
| Alabama | $124,040 | 4,670 | 0.54× | 45 | 8,495 |
| New Jersey | $173,020 | 20,090 | 1.14× | 50 | 8,456 |
| Maryland | $137,150 | — | — | 41 | 8,314 |
| Missouri | $115,370 | 7,630 | 0.63× | 59 | 7,296 |
| Louisiana | $110,700 | 4,360 | 0.55× | 35 | 7,064 |
| Minnesota | $151,670 | 11,240 | 0.93× | 59 | 6,996 |
| South Carolina | $131,080 | 9,340 | 0.99× | 51 | 6,752 |
| Idaho | $135,350 | 2,490 | 0.71× | 11 | 6,615 |
| Tennessee | $128,040 | 12,270 | 0.91× | 52 | 6,352 |
| Washington | $174,000 | 10,030 | 0.69× | 54 | 6,067 |
| West Virginia | $94,830 | 1,110 | 0.39× | 32 | 6,034 |
| Wisconsin | $134,870 | 10,480 | 0.87× | 53 | 5,924 |
| Oklahoma | $128,920 | 3,250 | 0.46× | 37 | 4,733 |
| Connecticut | $162,110 | 8,560 | 1.23× | 20 | 4,668 |
| Mississippi | $108,750 | 1,870 | 0.39× | 31 | 4,080 |
| Nebraska | $126,990 | 3,000 | 0.72× | 25 | 3,846 |
| Iowa | $134,010 | 3,260 | 0.51× | 43 | 3,632 |
| Arkansas | $108,330 | 3,710 | 0.69× | 45 | 3,486 |
| District of Columbia | $141,800 | 1,930 | 0.67× | 10 | 3,317 |
| Kansas | $159,990 | 6,820 | 1.16× | 40 | 3,266 |
| Oregon | $155,810 | 5,260 | 0.65× | 31 | 2,973 |
| New Mexico | $114,080 | 1,750 | 0.49× | 25 | 2,036 |
| Maine | $158,660 | — | — | 17 | 1,703 |
| Nevada | $109,790 | 5,770 | 0.91× | 9 | 1,700 |
| Rhode Island | $154,970 | 1,120 | 0.54× | 11 | 1,561 |
| South Dakota | $136,360 | 450 | 0.24× | 16 | 1,053 |
| Montana | $117,390 | 1,200 | 0.57× | 18 | 993 |
| North Dakota | $119,990 | 550 | 0.31× | 17 | 967 |
| Hawaii | $116,340 | 1,710 | 0.67× | 9 | 947 |
| Vermont | $138,650 | 930 | 0.74× | 7 | 717 |
| Wyoming | $129,840 | 300 | 0.26× | 9 | 475 |
| Alaska | $98,860 | 850 | 0.64× | 6 | 372 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Oversee regional and local sales managers and their staffs.
- Resolve customer complaints regarding sales and service.
- Monitor customer preferences to determine focus of sales efforts.
- Confer with potential customers regarding equipment needs, and advise customers on types of equipment to purchase.
- Review operational records and reports to project sales and determine profitability.
- Plan and direct staffing, training, and performance evaluations to develop and control sales and service programs.
- Direct and coordinate activities involving sales of manufactured products, services, commodities, real estate, or other subjects of sale.
- Determine price schedules and discount rates.
Skills
- Active Listening4.0
- Speaking4.0
- Monitoring3.9
- Critical Thinking3.9
- Reading Comprehension3.9
- Active Learning3.8
- Writing3.6
- Learning Strategies3.1
Knowledge areas
- Sales and Marketing4.8
- Customer and Personal Service4.3
- English Language4.1
- Administration and Management4.0
- Personnel and Human Resources3.4
- Education and Training3.2
Abilities
- Oral Comprehension4.0
- Oral Expression4.0
- Written Comprehension4.0
- Written Expression4.0
- Deductive Reasoning3.9
- Inductive Reasoning3.9
Core activities
- Selling or Influencing Others4.9
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships4.7
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates4.7
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.6
- Developing and Building Teams4.6
- Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates4.6
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Sales Manager
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 5 majors mapped to Sales Managers5 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 19.0203Consumer Merchandising/Retailing Management
- 51.2011Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management
- 52.0101Business/Commerce, General
- 52.0201Business Administration and Management, General
- 52.1401Marketing/Marketing Management, General
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Sales Manager?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Business Administration and Management, General, which awarded 348,906 degrees in 2024-25, 76.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Sales Manager?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 5 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Administration, Business/Commerce, Marketing, Pharmacy, plus 1 more. Together they graduate about 459,233 people a year.
How much do sales managers earn?+
The median is $148,270 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $73,170 at the 10th percentile to $290,540 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for sales managers growing?+
BLS projects a +4.7% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 49,000 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
2,545 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 5 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do sales managers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Sales Manager, Sales Director, District Sales Manager, Sales VP (Sales Vice President) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 11-2022.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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