Wholesale and Manufacturing Sales Representative

I. JOB SUMMARY

Main Topic: Environment and Society
Secondary Topic: Human Geography

Overview: Sales representatives for wholesale and manufacturing goods sell these items to businesses, government agencies, and other organizations. They initiate contact with customers, explain the features of the products they are selling, negotiate prices, and answer questions about the products. Some wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives work with nontechnical products, such as food, office supplies, and clothing. Other representatives specialize in technical and scientific products, ranging from agricultural and mechanical equipment to computer and pharmaceutical goods. Some wholesale and manufacturing sales representatives have large territories and travel often. Because a sales region may cover several states, representatives may be away from home for several days or weeks at a time. Other sales representatives may have smaller territories or may work exclusively from an office. Workers in this occupation can be under considerable stress because their income and job security often depend directly on the amount of merchandise they sell and their companies usually set goals or quotas that they are expected to meet. A strong understanding of their territories, and the relationship between their customers’ locations and sales, can help the sales representative to be more successful.

Geographers at work: Business geographers

Recommended College Courses: Geographic information science, physical geography, human geography

Skills: Statistics; map reading and interpretation; calculating distances and direction; computer and database systems; spatial analysis

Occupation Group: Sales

Learn more about Sales Representative: Wholesale and Manufacturing from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Department of Labor: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/wholesale-and-manufacturing-sales-representatives.htm#tab-1