Sales
Account Representative
Career Area: Sales
Occupation Group: Client Support and Sales
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Account Representative earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $38,591
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $42,550
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Manages existing customer accounts to ensure sales retention and growth. Develops and maintains communication with clients, promotes sales and services, and works to resolve problems. Accounts may be for product sales, advertising or marketing services or financial services such as banking.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Growth | ||
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 964 | +10.7% |
| Nationwide | 30732 | +5.2% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Account Representative is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Microsoft Excel: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
- Microsoft Office: Microsoft Office is an office suite of applications, servers, and services developed by Microsoft.
- Building Effective Relationships: Building relationships is about your ability to identify and initiate working relationships and to develop and maintain them in a way that is of mutual benefit to both yourself and the other party. Good relationships are the key to getting things done and are essential when your success is dependent on others.
- Detail-Oriented: A detail oriented person is someone who pays attention to the details and can make a conscious effort to understand causes instead of just the effects, and that does this in a second nature type of way.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Customer Service: Working experience with the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
- Sales: Experience selling products or services to consumers.
- Customer Accounts: Working experience with Customer Accounts, which often include accounting and marketing information for individual customers or business clients in a Customer Relationship Management system.
- Sales Goals: Working experience of Sales Goals. Sales goals or targets are a specified amount of sales that a management sets for achieving or exceeding within a specified timeframe. Sales goals are apportioned among different sales units such as salespersons, franchisees, distributors, agents, etc.
- Customer Contact: Experience working with business processes and technologies that are designed to engage customers and facilitate communication by a variety of channels.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Account Representative that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Prospective Clients: Working with Prospective Clients, which are indivuals who are not yet customers, but who have the potential of becoming one.
Education
This career typically requires the following level of education. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
.| Education Level | % |
| Bachelor's Degree | 27% |
| Master's Degree | 3% |
| Doctoral Degree | 0% |
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 68% |
| 3 to 5 years | 28% |
| 6 to 8 years | 2% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Account Representative
- Account Coordinator
- Customer Account Representative
- Account Specialist
- Sales Account Representative
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:
The wage and employment trend information shown here represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is downloaded regularly from Burning Glass Technologies. For more information about how they gather data and what it represents, see Burning Glass Technologies - Frequently Asked Questions.