If you have an interest in the commercial sphere and you are a strategic thinker with a good inter-relational ability, a career as a Sales and Marketing Manager could be for you.
Career Overview
A Sales and Marketing Manager, or executive has a broad overview kind of role within a corporate environment. You have the potential to manage anything from public relations, marketing campaigns, marketing teams, marketing strategy, product development, sales records and daily KPIs, distribution, sponsorship and research.
Required School Subjects
You will need to have taken the following subjects at high school:
- English (language, writing, creative writing etc.)
Recommended subjects:
- Pure Mathematics
- Business Studies
- Economics
- History
- Art or Design
Institution and APS
If you study a BCom, you will need Pure Mathematics (in most cases), however if you study Marketing, you will need to meet requirements for a general BA.
- University of Witwatersrand (WITS): APS of 39
- University of Johannesburg (UJ): APS of 28
- University of Pretoria (UP): APS of 26
- Rhodes University: APS of 45+
- University of Western Cape (UWC): APS of 30
- University of Free State (UFS): APS of 29
Required Qualification/s
Many Sales and Marketing Managers have a Bachelor’s Degree in Business or Marketing. It is a good idea to invest in a degree like the one mentioned, there are also companies who require you to have a Masters degree instead, especially in higher positions within a corporate setting. If you have studied something else, there are a lot of short courses in marketing, sales management and other skills that would be beneficial to a sales and marketing manager in the making.
Required Skills
You will need to have the following skills to succeed as a Sales and Marketing Manager:
- an ability to work well with people
- communication skills
- adaptability; a willingness to learn from the best and change strategy
- problem solving
- IT proficiency
- strategic thinking
- commercial awareness, ability to research
- attention to detail
- work well under pressure
- awesome creativity, an ability to inspire and motivate teams
- time management
- management of multiple projects, teams and portfolios (discipline)
- good with numbers, data and keeping track
Where you can work
As a Sales and Marketing Manager, you could work in one of the following areas:
- Advertising, communications and marketing agencies
- Corporate organisations (big and small)
Working Hours
Regular working hours for work as a Sales and Marketing Manager are 9 – 5 during the week. However, if there are big events over weekends or after hours, as a Manager, you would be expected to work overtime.
Expected Salary
The average salary per year as a Sales and Marketing Manager, in South Africa, is around R349 516 with an hourly rate of about R124 per hour.
What to expect
Here are a few things you can expect from a career as a Sales and Marketing Manager:
- Working in Sales and Marketing, especially as a Manager can be a highly demanding role, with tight deadlines and the need to be quick on the draw and able to manage and mobilise teams of people
- Usually an office based role, with a lot of meetings with your teams and staff members. Meeting with clients will also be a regular occurance
- You should expect to manage multiple different teams and projects at the same time
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