A sales manager is accountable for a revenue number and for the team that has to deliver it. The job is not selling more personally; it is building a team, a pipeline and a process that produce the target month after month.
This guide sets out sales manager duties and responsibilities and how the role changes by sector. It sits in the Retail, sales and customer service duties cluster, part of the wider job duties guide.
What Does a Sales Manager Do?
A sales manager sets and allocates targets, manages the pipeline and forecast, coaches the sales team, holds key customer relationships, and reports performance to the business. They own the sales process as well as the number.
The most common failure in the role is a strong salesperson who keeps selling instead of managing. Closing deals yourself hits this quarter’s number and leaves the team no better than it was. The higher-value work is coaching, qualifying properly and removing the reasons deals stall, which is slower and less satisfying but compounds.
Forecast honesty is the other defining duty. A sales manager who reports optimistic numbers to keep the pressure off causes the business to buy stock, hire people and commit spend against revenue that will not arrive.
Sales manager job descriptions divide into three blocks: owning the number, building the team, and running the process that connects them. Employers weight these very differently, and it is worth establishing at interview which one the role is really being hired to fix.
Key Sales Manager Duties and Responsibilities
- Setting sales targets and allocating them across the team and territories.
- Developing and executing the sales plan for the region or product line.
- Managing the pipeline and producing an honest sales forecast.
- Recruiting, inducting, coaching and developing sales staff.
- Running one-on-ones, pipeline reviews and team sales meetings.
- Managing performance, including underperformance, fairly and formally.
- Holding and growing key customer relationships personally.
- Approving quotes, discounts and terms within a delegated authority.
- Monitoring margin, not only revenue, on the deals the team writes.
- Managing the sales budget, commission structures and expenses.
- Tracking competitor activity, pricing and market movement.
- Reporting performance to the general manager or sales director.
Daily Tasks of a Sales Manager
- Start of day: review yesterday’s sales, pipeline movement and anything at risk.
- Morning: team meeting or one-on-ones, quote approvals and deal support.
- Midday: customer meetings, joint calls with reps and key account work.
- Afternoon: pipeline analysis, forecasting, coaching and performance conversations.
- Monthly: forecast submission, commission sign-off and performance reporting.
Sales Manager Skills and Competencies
- Coaching: improving how someone sells rather than closing for them.
- Pipeline discipline: qualifying hard and removing deals that will not close.
- Forecasting accuracy: a number the business can plan against.
- Commercial judgement: protecting margin when discounting is the easy answer.
- Performance management: handling an underperformer properly and early.
- CRM command: data good enough to manage from.
Sales Manager Duties by Workplace or Industry
Retail and Consumer
Duties centre on store or area targets, promotional execution, floor conversion, stock availability and coaching sales staff on the floor.
Business-to-Business and Industrial
Longer sales cycles, tenders, technical specification and named account management, with pipeline stages measured over months rather than days.
FMCG and Distribution
Focus moves to route coverage, listings, shelf share, trade spend and managing a team of representatives across a territory.
Financial and Professional Services
Regulatory compliance, advice standards and disclosure requirements constrain how the team sells, and supervision duties are formalised.
Across every sector the sales manager is accountable for two things nobody below them can deliver: an honest view of what will close, and a team that is better at selling in twelve months than it is today.
Sales Manager Duties for a CV
Give the target, the team size and what you delivered against it. Use the duties for a CV guide for the method.
- Managed a team of nine representatives against an annual target of R95 million.
- Delivered 108% of target in the 2025 financial year while holding gross margin at 31%.
- Improved forecast accuracy to within 5% of actual over four consecutive quarters.
- Recruited and developed four new representatives to full productivity within six months.
Related Job Roles and Responsibilities
These guides cover the roles and next steps most closely related to this one.
- Sales Representative duties and responsibilities
- Sales Consultant duties and responsibilities
- Store Manager duties and responsibilities
- General Manager duties and responsibilities
- Retail, sales and customer service duties
Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Manager Duties
What are the duties of a sales manager?
Setting and allocating sales targets, developing the sales plan, managing the pipeline and forecast, recruiting and coaching sales staff, running pipeline reviews and one-on-ones, managing performance, holding key customer relationships, approving quotes and discounts, monitoring margin, managing the budget and commissions, and reporting performance.
Should a sales manager still sell?
Usually on key accounts only. A manager who carries a large personal target tends to neglect coaching and pipeline management, which is where the team’s total output actually comes from.
What qualifications does a sales manager need?
A commerce, marketing or business qualification is common, but a demonstrated record of sales performance and team management usually carries more weight. Regulated sectors add specific accreditation requirements.
What is the difference between a sales manager and a sales director?
A sales manager runs a team, region or product line against a target. A sales director sets overall sales strategy, structure and pricing approach across the business and usually sits on the executive team.
Duties vary by sector and company size. Check your job description for the scope, particularly your discount authority and whether you carry a personal target.
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026