For anyone looking to get their start in sales, now is the perfect time. The industry is booming, and more and more jobs are being added to the market every week.
The question is, what are the best U.S. cities to work in sales? Is it worth relocating for the sake of better opportunities?
We combed through data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to learn which cities offer the best wage brackets, career progression and more. Here are our findings.
The best median salaries are available in densely populated across the east coast, with Carlson City and Longview taking 5th and 8th place respectively to the west. NYC ranks 7th place, offering ample opportunity for those looking to get their foot in the door in one of the most exciting cities in the world.
Here is a list of the top 10:
Ames, IA
Midland, MI
Glens Falls, NY
Dover, DE
Carson City, NV
Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA
NYC-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
Longview, WA
Warner Robins, GA
Yuma, AZ
Trenton, the capital of New Jersey, takes a significant lead for entry-level sales wages, offering an average $11,800 more per year than New York. With a lower cost of living and a 40-minute drive from Philadelphia, Trenton could be the perfect place for young salespeople looking to earn a healthy income.
What’s the best place for a sales professional looking to climb the ladder and earn a six-figure salary? Metro areas like New York, Durham and Glen Falls offer a healthy wage for sales managers looking to step into leadership roles and get paid handsomely for it.
Locations like New York, Trenton and Glen Falls make an appearance in the top cities for senior-level sales positions. However, newcomer San Jose leaps to the top of this list. Senior sales leaders looking for warmer climates may find California to be the best place for the next step in their career.
For those not wanting to jump from city to city, locations like Brunswick, Midland and Corvallis offer the best pay progression for sales professionals looking for a long-term career. Many of these cities are up-and-coming (Brunswick only had a population of 34,902 as of 2020), and this data is a good indication that their respective states (e.g. Ohio) provide great sales job opportunities across the board.
With the fear of recession looming, it may be worth looking to metro areas and cities where job growth is booming. According to our research, those include Vineland and Philadelphia on the east coast, with Coravalis and Provo-Orem demonstrating ample job growth on the west coast and in middle America respectively.
Methodology
Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, we took the 25th percentile, median, and 75th percentile salaries for 300-400 metros to get a sense of salary levels, pay progression and max pay potential.
We then extracted the number of people employed in sales occupations in those areas to get a sense of the size of the industry/community in each city.
Finally, we looked back at the historical data to see how the number of salespeople in these cities has changed over the years to get a sense of where sales is growing the most.
