Sales Assistant, What they do

If one understands the words “sale” and “assistant” then one knows immediately, that a Sales Assistant’s total job is to help the sales people make sales. What might not be so easy to see for the sales assistant is how a salesperson makes sales in the first place. If the sales assistant never asks this question “how does a salesperson make sales?”, he or she may be doing all sorts of things that don’t really help the salesperson make more sales.

So, “How does a salesperson make sales?” Here’s how:

1. The sales person first decides he or she wants to make a sale.
2. The sale person must have desirable things to sell.
3. The sales person must find someone to sell to.
4. The sales person must communicate to this person (through letters, phone calls, personal contact, etc.) in such a way as to get the person to respond or better yet respond with a particular interest.
5. This response is cultivated into sufficient interest to cause the person to come in or order over the phone.
6. If the person comes in or calls, the sales person knows or finds out what interest the person has and helps the person get what he or she wants and/or needs.
7. The salesperson exchanges the item and our service for money.
8. The sales person exchanges the money and a completed invoice to Treasury for a paycheck and more things to sell.

It would be a worthwhile activity for a sales assistant to list, for each item above, all the things that the sales assistant could do to help. For example:

1. Ask the sales person, “What amount do we want to sell today”?
2. Ask the sales person, “What do we want to sell today”?
3. Ask the sales person, “Who are you going to sell it to?”
   • Ask the sales person, “Anyone on that list I can call”?
   • Find other prospects for the sales person to talk to, get in to buy or start with for future sales.
4. Get the salesperson lunch (If the salesperson is hungry they aren’t going to be thinking about sales. If they aren’t making sales then the company can’t afford to pay a sales assistant)
5. You notice sales person’s attention is elsewhere so you say hey what can I do to help so you can think about sales?
6. You see something new to the store so you make sure the salesperson has seen it.
7. Get the idea!? And 1.) isn’t even complete!! Anything and everything that helps that salesperson move closer to making a sale. Take the time to make out a list then weekly add to it. After a few weeks you would have what a sales assistant does. (This assumes the sales people are really happy and making sales. If they aren’t you need to add to your list!)

*Cultivated – “Help to grow, by care and attention and providing what is needed.”