Sell products to businesses and earn commission on every deal. No degree required, but you need thick skin.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$66,000
Junior rep
$40,000
Top performer
$117,000
Job Bank's national median is $31.50 an hour, about $66,000 a year full time. That figure covers wholesale and business-to-business sales reps (Job Bank's page is titled for import sales reps, part of the same group). Commission is the wild card: the top reps at software and industrial companies earn far above this range.
$40,000 to $50,000
Base salary plus a small commission or bonus
Many first jobs are inside sales or business development, meaning phone and email prospecting. Software companies in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal pay the highest starting bases.
$100,000 and up
Experienced reps who hit their targets
A common structure is half base, half commission. Miss your target and you earn the base. Beat it and there is often no cap. Medical devices, software and industrial equipment pay the most.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Zero is the common route. Plenty of reps move straight across from retail or customer service and learn the product on the job, and your results become the credential. The high end is a four year business or marketing degree, useful in technical and pharmaceutical sales but not required anywhere. A two year college diploma is the middle option at roughly 8,000 to 16,000 dollars. Field sales usually needs a car and a phone, which employers commonly help with, so that is left out of these numbers.
This is one of the few well-paid careers with no required credential. Your results are the credential.
Commission and bonuses
Uncapped at many companies.
Car allowance or company car
Standard for reps who visit clients.
Health and dental
At most mid-size and large employers.
Trips and prizes
Top sellers often win paid trips. It sounds cheesy, and it is real.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
There is no fixed route. Most reps learn on the job and move up by hitting targets.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Any part-time job that puts you in front of customers counts: retail, phones, fundraising.
Post-secondary, optional
0 to 4 years
A 2 or 3-year college diploma in business or marketing, or a business degree. Technical fields (software, medical, industrial) like reps who understand the product.
Entry sales job
1 to 2 years
Inside sales, sales development or a junior account role. You learn the product, the pitch and the CRM (customer relationship management) software.
Full territory or account list
By year 3
Your own clients and your own target. Commission starts to matter.
Senior rep, key accounts or sales manager
5 or more years
The best sellers either keep selling for big commissions or move into managing a team.
English
Emails, proposals, presentations.
Business and marketing
Pricing, margins, how companies buy.
Math
Quotes, discounts and commission math.
Drama or debate
Talking to strangers with confidence is the job.
No licence is needed to sell most products to businesses. The exceptions are regulated products: insurance, mortgages, investments and real estate each need their own provincial licence. The Canadian Professional Sales Association offers a voluntary certified sales professional designation, and the Canadian Marketing Association offers a chartered marketer program. Employers rarely ask for either.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Sell something technical
Software, medical devices, industrial machinery. Bigger deals mean bigger commissions.
Key account management
Owning a company's biggest customers.
Sales engineering
For reps with a technical background who can demo and design solutions.
Sales management
Running a team. Steadier pay, less commission.
A second language
French for national accounts, Mandarin or Punjabi for many regional markets.
Driver's licence and clean record
Required for field sales.
CRM (customer relationship management) software skills
Salesforce or HubSpot. Free online training exists.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start with the pipeline: who is close to buying, who went quiet. Calls and emails to new prospects, most of which go nowhere. A demo or a client visit mid-day. Writing a quote, chasing a purchase order, fixing a delivery problem for an existing customer. Field reps spend hours driving between clients. Inside reps live on the phone and video calls. The month ends with a push to hit the number.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank reports that about 40% of wholesale sales reps in Canada are 50 or older. As they retire, companies will need younger reps to take over their client lists.
Salespeople routinely hear no far more often than yes. The reps who last treat each no as data rather than a verdict. Companies test for this in interviews with role-play calls.
At many companies the top sales rep earns more than the sales manager, and sometimes more than executives. That is why some of the best sellers refuse promotions.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.