Sales Assistant: Qualifications and Responsibilities

The assistant sales manager is one of the newfangled professions of our time. But it has its own requirements for qualifications and functional responsibilities. It is very important to understand such details in order to understand whether such an activity will suit you or not.

An assistant sales manager, who is also called an assistant in a number of companies, is actually the closest associate of this manager. The most important positive aspects of such a position:

• the opportunity to enrich your experience (improve your qualifications);
• impressive career prospects.

In some cases, this outweighs the significant physical and intellectual burden that inevitably falls on the assistant managers of any kind of activity. The specific range of tasks assigned to an assistant is determined by the specifics of the company and what it sells. Most often, assistants work on a five-day week, and the salary bar ranges from the minimum level to 20,000 rubles, occasionally exceeding this level.

Assistant positions, if no experience is required, usually include those who have not worked before for any reason, as well as undergraduate students, graduate students, and so on.... In this work, they, in fact, get experience. Often, the position of an assistant becomes a stepping stone to self-transformation into a manager. This is usually the case where the current managers will soon be promoted or sent to another unit.

Education is required in different ways, which, again, is determined by a specific place of work. In some cases, average vocational training is also sufficient. In other situations, assistants with higher education are needed, and in others, only an assistant with a specialized university training will suit the boss. The main emphasis is on the possession of economic knowledge in general, the ability to sell and knowledge of psychology. Knowledge of foreign languages ​​is encouraged.

As for work experience, the situation here is also not very clear-cut. To sell auto parts, groceries or clothing with shoes, it is certainly desirable, but not categorically. But trade in overalls, special types of food (exotic, unique), complex types of industrial products without experience is little real. Computer and basic program proficiency is already the norm for everyone involved in management, and will soon be the default.

Job descriptions clarify the qualification requirements for assistant managers. They need to own:

• the main laws and key by-laws (including departmental) that regulate the commercial trade activities of production;
• the current state of the economy;
• the basic principles of business and trade;
• the situation on the market (in general, the company itself, its competitors, in related industries, in different regions);
• market dynamics and main trends in supply and demand;
• the main assortment of sold goods (services), their classification, purpose, key characteristics and capabilities that these goods (services) actually give to the consumer.

Of course, have to monitor the current price level... Moreover, knowledge of the theory and practice of management, the principles of administration in the organization will be very useful. The manager's assistants draw up various documents and participate in negotiations, so they you need to know office work and workflow, the psychology of trade.

Additionally, you will have to master:

• business ethics;
• approaches to business networking;
• sociology;
• staff motivation;
• modern computer programs and network services that facilitate work.

The main responsibilities of such an employee are:

• assistance to the manager in organizing and debugging the sales network;
• collection of information about the demand for goods or services, analysis of the reasons why it changes;
• finding additional buyers and intermediaries, establishing contacts with them;
• negotiating with clientele;
• preparation of documentation at the pre-contractual stage;
• conclusion of contracts;
• organization of supplies of goods in accordance with contracts;
• tracking payment for delivered goods and services rendered, compliance with other conditions;
• study of the main claims and wishes for the quality of goods and their characteristics;
• analysis of the quality of after-sales service;
• analysis of the number of sales and their dynamics.

The assistant manager takes into account the complaints of consumers and understands what is the reason, who is right, how to prevent similar complaints in the future. This employee is actively involved in marketing and promotional activities. It is responsible for collecting data about consumers and entering them into databases, expert systems. It is also necessary prepare reports on the work, draw up analytical reviews and references (the subject of which is determined by the manager).

Assistants to the manager can be appointed and removed only by the head of the organization or branch (structural unit), and the manager or other official makes the representations. While the assistant is absent, he is replaced by an officially appointed person. Then the same rights and obligations are transferred to the replacement. Assistants have the authority to:

• get acquainted with all documents regulating their activities;
• request all information for work (including in other structural divisions);
• make suggestions on how to improve the work.

They are responsible for:

• failure to fulfill their duties;
• violation of the civil code;
• violation of the criminal code;
• administrative violation;
• property damage or data leakage.