Career Atlas

Sales & Marketing

sales

Learned from 341 real résumés for this role.

Across 341 real U.S. résumés for a sales, the most distinctive skills are Sales Goals, Selling and Closing — each far more common in this role than across all résumés. This is the real skill fingerprint, learned from résumés, not a job description.

Sales Goals
10% have it · 113.4× vs average
Selling
12% have it · 74.0× vs average
Closing
11% have it · 60.5× vs average

Based on Futureful's analysis of 102,822 U.S. résumés (2026).

Skill fingerprint

ranked by distinctiveness

The skills that most define this role, more common here than across all résumés. The bar shows how distinctive; the % is how many people in the role have it.

sales goals
113.4×
10% · N=33
selling
74.0×
12% · N=41
closing
60.5×
11% · N=39
leads
55.2×
9% · N=30
customer needs
49.8×
7% · N=22
product knowledge
50.1×
6% · N=20
retail sales
43.0×
4% · N=14
sales training
59.4×
2% · N=5
customer education
52.8×
2% · N=5
negotiations
41.5×
2% · N=8
relationships
20.4×
25% · N=86
negotiating
37.4×
2% · N=8
retail
21.6×
11% · N=38
sales strategies
43.2×
2% · N=5
distribution
22.9×
8% · N=28

Where people go next

Real onward moves from dated work history.

project manager9% · N=3front-end developer9% · N=3implementation coordinator9% · N=3contract administrator9% · N=3it business analyst & technology transition specialist9% · N=3consultant9% · N=3operations manager9% · N=3outbound sales representative corporate data products9% · N=3

Where people come from

The roles that feed into this one.

assistant manager4% · N=3caddie33% · N=3it internship17% · N=3

Common questions

Straight answers, every one backed by the real counts on this page.

What skills does a Sales need?

In 341 real résumés for this role, the most defining skills are Sales Goals (10% have it), Selling (12% have it), Closing (11% have it), Leads (9% have it), Customer Needs (7% have it). These are the skills that separate this role from the rest of the workforce.

What do people in Sales roles move on to next?

From real dated work history, the most common next roles are Project Manager (9% of moves, N=3), Front-End Developer (9% of moves, N=3), Implementation Coordinator (9% of moves, N=3).

What roles lead into Sales?

The roles that most often feed into this one are Assistant Manager (4% of arrivals, N=3), Caddie (33% of arrivals, N=3), It Internship (17% of arrivals, N=3).

Does this page show Sales salary?

No. Résumés do not carry pay, so Futureful holds no compensation data for this role and never invents a dollar figure. Every statistic here is a skill or career-move count backed by real résumés.

Where does this data come from?

The Futureful Career Atlas is built from 102,822 real US résumés, aggregated with no personal data. 341 of them are Sales résumés. Every number on this page is a count of real people, and thin pages are kept out of search. Full method: futureful.app/careers/methodology.

Every figure on this page is a real count over real résumés (N = résumés behind it). No salary is shown, we hold no compensation data, so every claim is a skill or frequency truth, never a dollar promise. How we count · Explore more roles →

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