Remote Sales Jobs: A Comprehensive Guide

It’s not a coincidence that remote sales jobs have been on the rise since the pandemic. Companies have noticed the advantage of having people selling products or services from a location outside a traditional office setting.

So, if you’re on the hunt for a new job, a remote sales position might be interesting for you if you want a job that will be dynamic, and that will have a lot of career paths and growth opportunities in the future.

In this guide, we’ll delve deep into what a remote sales job is, the skills you need to excel at it, the many facets of this field, and how to start applying for them if it sounds like your cup of tea.

Whether you’re a seasoned sales professional looking for a change or a beginner looking to start on this career path, this guide will give you all the insights to further your career!

But first, what exactly is a remote sales job?

Sales jobs can range from entry-level sales roles to high-level executive positions, which means, that if you’re interested in this career path, you can have a lot of changes to grow and evolve your career! The best part? Almost every company needs someone to sell their products or services, so the industries you can work on, are almost unlimited.

The tasks involved in these roles can include reaching out to potential customers, conducting product demonstrations or demos, growing and managing customer relationships using CRM tools, and even managing other people who do these tasks. Every little step in the process of people buying a product or service has a salesperson behind it. You can now understand the importance of these roles in companies!

So, what kind of skills do you need if you want to work in these roles? Let’s look into them!

Skills Needed for a Remote Sales Job

When you’re applying for remote sales jobs, it’s important to highlight all those skills that will help you land the job and then, excel at it.

We’ve already talked about the four basic skills you need to work remotely. Let’s make a recap:

Remote project management
Virtual collaboration
Virtual communication
Video conferencing

However, a salesperson needs a few more skills that are specific to this career. If you want to stand out in your applications, make sure you’re adding skills to your resume like:

Self-motivation
Discipline
Familiarity with sales strategies
Proficiency in using CRM software
Ability to work remotely
Negotiation skills
Problem-solving abilities
Empathy and understanding of customer needs
Time management and organization
Adaptability to changing sales environments
Ability to handle rejection and stay motivated
Knowledge of the product or service being sold
Ability to meet and exceed sales goals
Ability to build and maintain customer relationships
Understanding of customer psychology
Persistence and follow-through

What to do if you want to strengthen some of these skills or acquire them? We’ve got some ideas for you.

🎓 Education

There are a lot of online platforms that offer courses and certifications that can be useful in this career. Even skills that can be learned through practice, can be polished up with some theory! Check out sites like Coursera or Udemy to learn about the options they have for you.

🔨 Practice

You can also practice some of these skills in real-life situations, like managing your time effectively for personal projects or even spending time learning about new products and services that would be similar to the ones you’re interested in working with.

🖱️ Hands-on Experience

If you’re someone looking to pivot or transition in their career, you can also get some hands-on experience by getting involved in sales-related tasks or projects at your current role, if that’s an option. This will give you the chance to familiarize yourself with some tools and processes, plus learn more about the company you currently work at! If that’s not an option in your current role, you can also look for internships or volunteering options.

Tools for Remote Sales Jobs

While there are tools that we all use as remote workers like Zoom or Google Meet, there are tools specific to sales jobs that you need to get to know. Especially, if you’ll be working in prospecting or nurturing customer relationships, you’ll want to use tools that make your job easier. Here are some of them, divided by categories, to make it easier for you.

🔎 Prospecting Tools

Sales Navigator: this tool from LinkedIn helps you use advanced filters to find leads and learn more about them
Yesware: this add-on gives you all the information you need to prospect, plus it can help you also to schedule meetings and follow-ups
ZoomInfo: a market intelligence tool that gives you an overview of contacts, companies, and opportunities in the market
Outreach: a sales engagement platform to help you engage with prospects and drive more deals.

💝 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools

Salesforce: one of the most used and powerful CRMs, if you know how to use Salesforce, you’ll likely know how to use any other CRM
Hubspot: this tool gives you a lot of options to attract, convert, and close deals with all the inbound marketing, sales, and service tools it has
Pipedrive: a sales management tool perfect for small sales teams to manage complex sales processes
Freshsales: a CRM to help companies with their interactions with existing and potential customers
Zoho CRM: this tool will help you manage your sales, marketing, and support in just one tool
Streak: this one integrates with Gmail, so you can run your whole CRM without having to go out of your inbox

🦜 Communication and Organization Tools

Calendly: an easy-to-use scheduling software to save time, accelerate sales, and improve services overall
DocuSign: a tool to digitally sign documents, which comes in handy when you start closing deals! 👏
Airtable: a cloud-based project management solution where you can schedule meetings, collaborate, and budget

🏹 Sales and Marketing Tools

Intercom: a Conversational Relationship Platform (CRP) that helps businesses build relationships with customers
Drift: a tool to interact with customers that can pair very well with any sales strategy

Types of Sales Jobs

As said in the beginning, sales jobs can be very different from industry to industry and even from company to company. This career can start with an entry-level position and can go up the ladder to high-level executive roles. Some roles focus on selling directly to consumers (B2C), while others focus on business-to-business (B2B) sales. Plus, depending on the industry, some roles can become more specialized than others, if you consider tech sales or pharma, for example.

Here are some of the typical roles you can start thinking about if you’re looking into a career in sales.

✔️ Sales Representative

This one is typically an entry-level role in any sales department. They’re directly responsible for selling services or products, speaking with potential customers, doing outreach, making demos and presentations, negotiating contracts, and following up with customers once any deal is done. These types of roles require a deep understanding of how a product or service works, plus a lot of empathy and good timing to manage communications with customers.

✔️ Account Manager

The one between the company and the customer. Account managers are the ones in charge of managing relationships with specific customers. They’re always the primary contact for these clients and they’re the ones who know them the best, what they’re looking for, their needs, and, most importantly how the product or service can solve their problems and challenges. This role requires coordination with various departments within the company to make sure the needs of the client are met.

✔️ Sales Manager

A sales manager oversees a team of sales representatives. This role involves more management skills than the roles mentioned above because they’re in charge of setting goals, analyzing data, and training the sales team. They not only need to be good salespeople but also good managers, since they’re responsible for the performance and productivity of their teams.

✔️ Business Development Manager

A very strategic role for companies, since they’re the ones that create and execute strategies to grow the business. It entails a lot of activities but some of the most important ones are identifying untapped market opportunities, developing relationships with key partners, and negotiating deals. They’re crucial in companies expanding their market presence.

✔️ Sales Director

The sales director is a high-level manager. They oversee all sales activities within a company. They also develop sales strategies, set targets, and lead teams. Plus, they also forecast sales trends and make sure that sales teams meet all their objectives.

Career Paths for Sales Jobs

What’s super exciting about a sales career is that it has a lot of potential career paths. As you could read before, you can climb up the ladder and become a sales director if that’s your goal. Or, if you prefer, you can also do horizontal moves where you specialize yourself in different industries or types of products or services. Let’s look into some career paths that a remote sales job can provide you.

🛣️ Sales Representative Pathway

This pathway is perfect if you want to start as a part of a team but move gradually to take on more responsibilities and lead a team. On this path, you might start as a Sales Representative, progress to a Senior Sales Representative, and finally reach the position of Sales Team Lead.

🛣️ Account Management Pathway

If you’re interested in building and managing relationships with customers, this is the path for you. For this one, you can start as an Account Executive, grow to Senior Account Executive, and then become an Account Manager, to ultimately become a Key Account Manager.

🛣️ Sales Management Pathway

For those who are more interested in strategy and planning, this is the path you’re looking for. If you start as a Sales Representative and move on to a Sales Manager position, you might have a chance to become a Director of Sales, where you’ll be able to oversee all strategies and motivate your teams to hit targets!

🛣️ Business Development Pathway

People who want to have a big impact on how businesses grow and improve over time should look into this career path. Begin as a Business Development Representative and then move on to a Business Development Manager position, where you can ultimately get prepared to get a position as a Director of Business Development. There, you’ll be able to focus on strategic partnerships and new market exploration.

🛣️ Specialized Sales Pathway

If you’re more into highly technical or specialized products, then you can follow this career path. Start as a Technical Sales Representative, become a Senior Technical Sales Representative, then a Technical Sales Manager, and finally become a Director of Technical Sales. Since these roles are highly technical and specialized, the salaries for these are often also high.

Salaries for Remote Job Sales Positions

Consider that salaries can significantly vary depending on each company, remoteness, industry, location, and a candidate’s experience. Here are some salaries that you can expect in remote sales jobs:

Sales Representative: $45,000 - $80,000 USD per year
Account Manager: $50,000 - $90,000 USD per year
Sales Manager: $60,000 - $120,000 USD per year
Business Development Manager: $70,000 - $130,000 USD per year
Sales Director: $100,000 - $200,000 USD per year