Sales & Marketing

Types of Degrees Sales & Marketing Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many general sales & marketing graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Bachelor’s Degree	2,464
Basic Certificate	1,753
Associate Degree	794
Master’s Degree	628
Undergraduate Certificate	240
Graduate Certificate	83
Doctor’s Degree	3

What Sales & Marketing Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, sales & marketing majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Sales & Marketing Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in sales & marketing should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Skills for Sales & Marketing Majors

When studying sales & marketing, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.

Abilities for Sales & Marketing Majors

Sales & Marketing majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.

What Can You Do With a Sales & Marketing Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with sales & marketing:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Demonstrators and Product Promoters	6.5%	$28,960
Energy Brokers	9.7%	$54,550
First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers	4.9%	$73,390
First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers	3.8%	$39,630
Parts Salespersons	5.0%	$30,430
Sales and Related Workers	10.6%	$33,220
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products	5.2%	$58,510
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products	5.2%	$79,680
Solar Sales Representatives and Assessors	5.2%	$79,680

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Sales & Marketing?

This is a less frequently chosen undergraduate major. Only 2,815 students graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general sales & marketing in 2021, making it rank #107 in popularity. Roughly 49% of the graduates are women, and 51% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of sales & marketing majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	325
Black or African American	144
Hispanic or Latino	336
White	1,427
International Students	114
Other Races/Ethnicities	118

Geographic Diversity

Sales & Marketing appeals to people across the globe. About 4.6% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Sales & Marketing

Some degrees associated with sales & marketing may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to sales & marketing have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	5.1%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	28.8%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	5.8%
Some College Courses	11.2%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	10.3%
Bachelor’s Degree	38.0%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	1.3%
Master’s Degree	0.7%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	0.1%
Doctoral Degree	0.0%

Online Sales & Marketing Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	91	15
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	0
Associate’s Degree	162	24
Bachelor’s Degree	13	4
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	13	1
Post-Master’s	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Sales & Marketing

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to sales & marketing.

Major	Number of Grads
Business Administration & Management	395,227
Accounting	84,760
Finance & Financial Management	58,013
General Business/Commerce	57,204
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	56,747
Marketing	52,820
Human Resource Management	25,350
Business Support & Assistant Services	16,604
Hospitality Management	14,076
Entrepreneurial Studies	12,707
Management Information Systems	11,695
Real Estate	7,783
International Business	7,505
Other Business, Management & Marketing	4,903
Business/Managerial Economics	4,885
Specialized Sales, Merchandising & Marketing	4,322
Construction Management	4,158
Insurance	2,334
Taxation	1,257
Business/Corporate Communications	837
Telecommunications Management	58

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Nick Nijhuis under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.