A retail sales lead is a promoted sales employee who is responsible for making sure their department reaches sales quotas. Retail sales leads support the management and are in the position to be promoted if they succeed in performing their tasks to a high standard.
They recruit and train new sales team members, resolve customer complaints, assist in selling products, and create reports on sales results and processes. They manage inventory and see to it that the shelves are always stocked. They take care of necessary paperwork, motivate their team, and make sure customers are happy and keep coming back.
Sales leads make it to this position through relevant experience as sales representatives. They are good leaders and great communicators, manage their time well, and keep an organized mind as well as business space. They usually hold a BA or Associate's degree in Marketing or Sales, but you can do without. Anything is possible in sales.
How to Become a Retail Sales Lead
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a retail sales lead. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.3 an hour? That's $33,912 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -2% and produce -105,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Retail Sales Lead Do
There are certain skills that many retail sales leads have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, interpersonal skills and math skills.
How To Become a Retail Sales Lead
If you're interested in becoming a retail sales lead, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.9% of retail sales leads have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 3.6% of retail sales leads have master's degrees. Even though some retail sales leads have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a retail sales lead. When we researched the most common majors for a retail sales lead, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on retail sales lead resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a retail sales lead. In fact, many retail sales lead jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many retail sales leads also have previous career experience in roles such as sales associate or customer service representative.
Retail Sales Lead Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of store manager you might progress to a role such as general manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title general manager.
Average Salary for a Retail Sales Lead
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Retail Sales Leads
1. SUNY College of Technology at Delhi
Delhi, NY • Private
2. SUNY Farmingdale
Farmingdale, NY • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. University of Georgia
Athens, GA • Private
5. Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN • Private
6. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
7. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
8. SUNY College of Technology at Alfred
Alfred, NY • Private
9. Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY • Private
10. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Private
Top Skills For a Retail Sales Lead
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.3% of retail sales leads listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Retail Sales Lead Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Retail Sales Lead templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Retail Sales Lead resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Retail Sales Lead Demographics
Retail Sales Lead Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among retail sales leads, 53.6% of them are women, while 46.4% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among retail sales leads is White, which makes up 65.2% of all retail sales leads.
- The most common foreign language among retail sales leads is Spanish at 66.9%.
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Best States For a Retail Sales Lead
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a retail sales lead. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Wisconsin, Washington, and Nebraska. Retail sales leads make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $50,047. Whereas in Wisconsin and Washington, they would average $45,894 and $45,826, respectively. While retail sales leads would only make an average of $44,133 in Nebraska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New Jersey
$50,047
Avg. Salary
2. Wisconsin
$45,894
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
$43,371
Avg. Salary
How Do Retail Sales Lead Rate Their Jobs?
Top Retail Sales Lead Employers
Most Common Employers For Retail Sales Lead
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AT&T | $42,586 | $20.47 | 224 |
| 2 | T-Mobile | $40,132 | $19.29 | 627 |
| 3 | Best Buy | $34,112 | $16.40 | 119 |
| 4 | Victoria's Secret | $33,912 | $16.30 | 77 |
| 5 | Kmart | $33,770 | $16.24 | 74 |
| 6 | JCPenney | $33,631 | $16.17 | 142 |
| 7 | AutoZone | $33,457 | $16.09 | 76 |
| 8 | Walmart | $33,348 | $16.03 | 236 |
| 9 | Nordstrom | $33,117 | $15.92 | 335 |
| 10 | Target | $32,934 | $15.83 | 127 |
Retail Sales Lead Videos
