Questions & Answers: Skills for Handling Retail Business

Q1: What do you mean by skill.
Ans: 'Skill' is an ability to do a task with pre-determined results within a given period of time, energy, or both. It is an ability to do work with expertise. Skills may be - general or specific. General skills include time management, teamwork and leadership, self-motivation for the work and domain-specific skills used in certain jobs. For example, requirement of carpentry skills for a carpenter's job.

Q2: What are the essentials of Skill Development in terms of RETAIL.
Ans: In terms of retail, it encompasses:

• Taking stock of the retail store: Assessing where the retailer stands and managing development and taking realistic inventory of personal and professional assets.
• Creating a plan: Creating a plan for development, it enables the retailer to reach their goals.-
• Creating environment for development: Creating an environment for self-improvement.

Consider the following strategies:

• Practice consistent, self-directed learning
• Make a note of problems or mistakes
• Interact with peers at a professional level
• Pay attention to health

Q3: Discuss the most important skills you'll need to become a sales associate.
Ans: 

• Patience: Patience is a necessary and often overlooked virtue for retail employees. Not all customers are exceptionally kind, and good retail associates have the patience to diffuse tough situations with difficult customers.
• Attentiveness: A sales associate is bound to spend at least a portion of his or her day operating a point of sale (POS) system or arranging merchandise. Both of these key roles require a high level of accuracy. A sales associate must focus his or her attention to detail to ensure that transactions are processed accurately and the sales floor looks its best.
• Communication skills: The required skills include listening effectively and explaining the specific benefits of various products and services to customers. A sales associate must also clearly  explain the information and processes to the customer needs to complete a transaction.
• Product knowledge: One can never answer customer questions or provide accurate information without fully understanding the products that one is selling. A sales associate should read all about the product.
• Use "Positive Language": Language is a part of persuasion. Customers create perceptions about a retailer based on his or her language. Minor changes in conversational patterns go a long way in creating happy customers.
• Acting skills: Sometimes retailer will have to deal with boring angry customers and complaining customers. Every sales associate must have basic action skills necessary to deal and maintain their customer.
• Time management skills: Retailer may be busy in much research-backed production activities. However he or she must have the capability to solve customer problems in limited time so that he or she can think some additional improvement in retail business.
• Goal oriented: The retailer sets goals and then use strategies to attain them. Goal orientation is the degree to which a person or organisation focuses on tasks and the end results of those tasks.
• Resilience: Each day is packed with small and large challenges. It may simple mean running out of time to meet a sales goal or being understaffed on an unexpectedly busy day. To do this, a sales associate should learn to think clearly, make decisions quickly and not take things too personally.