Skills employers ask for in sales jobs
In 40,941 sales jobs in the SkillDrift job index, the most requested skill is Sales, named in 28.3% of postings. Negotiation follows at 26.2%, then Lead generation at 18.6%.
Based on 40,941 job postings in the SkillDrift job index, read on 1 October 2026.
The 8 skills named most often
Each share is the part of all sales jobs that name the skill. One posting usually names several skills, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
- 1Sales28.3%11,576 of 40,941 postings
- 2Negotiation26.2%10,740 of 40,941 postings
- 3Lead generation18.6%7,635 of 40,941 postings
- 4Business development17.7%7,246 of 40,941 postings
- 5Client relationship management12.7%5,200 of 40,941 postings
- 6Customer relationship management12%4,901 of 40,941 postings
- 7Customer service9.5%3,887 of 40,941 postings
- 8CRM8.7%3,543 of 40,941 postings
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The SkillDrift job index collects live job postings and reads the skills each one asks for. This page counts the postings in the sales role group, across all industries, and shows the share that name each skill. Skills appear as employers write them, so close variants such as Excel and MS Excel can both appear, because a posting may use either. The page is refreshed from the index, and the date above shows the last read.
Questions people ask
What is the most requested skill in sales jobs?
Sales. It is named in 28.3% of the 40,941 sales jobs in the SkillDrift job index on 1 October 2026.
How many job postings is this based on?
40,941 postings, read from the SkillDrift job index on 1 October 2026. Each share is the number of postings that name the skill, divided by all postings in this group.