Example Career: First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers

Career Description

Directly supervise and coordinate activities of retail sales workers in an establishment or department. Duties may include management functions, such as purchasing, budgeting, accounting, and personnel work, in addition to supervisory duties.

What Job Titles First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers Might Have

• Assistant Manager
• Department Manager
• Manager
• Store Manager

What First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers Do

• Provide customer service by greeting and assisting customers and responding to customer inquiries and complaints.
• Direct and supervise employees engaged in sales, inventory-taking, reconciling cash receipts, or in performing services for customers.
• Monitor sales activities to ensure that customers receive satisfactory service and quality goods.
• Inventory stock and reorder when inventory drops to a specified level.
• Instruct staff on how to handle difficult and complicated sales.
• Hire, train, and evaluate personnel in sales or marketing establishments, promoting or firing workers when appropriate.
• Assign employees to specific duties.
• Enforce safety, health, and security rules.
• Examine merchandise to ensure that it is correctly priced and displayed and that it functions as advertised.
• Plan budgets and authorize payments and merchandise returns.
• Perform work activities of subordinates, such as cleaning and organizing shelves and displays and selling merchandise.
• Plan and prepare work schedules and keep records of employees' work schedules and time cards.
• Review inventory and sales records to prepare reports for management and budget departments.
• Examine products purchased for resale or received for storage to assess the condition of each product or item.
• Establish and implement policies, goals, objectives, and procedures for their department.
• Confer with company officials to develop methods and procedures to increase sales, expand markets, and promote business.
• Estimate consumer demand and determine the types and amounts of goods to be sold.
• Formulate pricing policies for merchandise, according to profitability requirements.
• Establish credit policies and operating procedures.
• Keep records of purchases, sales, and requisitions.
• Plan and coordinate advertising campaigns and sales promotions and prepare merchandise displays and advertising copy.

What First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers Should Be Good At

• 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 Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers Should Be Interested In

• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
• Conventional - Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
• Social - Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

What First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers Need to Learn

• 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.
• 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.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.