First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers
41-1012.00
Updated 2025

Directly supervise and coordinate activities of sales workers other than retail sales workers. May perform duties such as budgeting, accounting, and personnel work, in addition to supervisory duties.

Sample of reported job titles: Customer Service Department Supervisor, Customer Service Supervisor, Driver Sales Supervisor, Information Center Supervisor, Inside Sales Supervisor, Reservations Supervisor, Sales Department Supervisor, Sales Leader, Sales Supervisor, Sales Team Leader

Occupation-Specific Information

Tasks

  • Monitor sales staff performance to ensure that goals are met.
  • Provide staff with assistance in performing difficult or complicated duties.
  • Direct and supervise employees engaged in sales, inventory-taking, reconciling cash receipts, or performing specific services.
  • Listen to and resolve customer complaints regarding services, products, or personnel.
  • Keep records pertaining to purchases, sales, and requisitions.
  • Hire, train, and evaluate personnel.
  • Confer with company officials to develop methods and procedures to increase sales, expand markets, and promote business.
  • Plan and prepare work schedules, and assign employees to specific duties.
  • Attend company meetings to exchange product information and coordinate work activities with other departments.
  • Visit retailers and sales representatives to promote products and gather information.
  • Formulate pricing policies on merchandise according to profitability requirements.
  • Prepare sales and inventory reports for management and budget departments.
  • Examine products purchased for resale or received for storage to determine product condition.
  • Examine merchandise to ensure correct pricing and display, and that it functions as advertised.
  • Analyze details of sales territories to assess their growth potential and to set quotas.
  • Inventory stock and reorder when inventories drop to specified levels.
  • Coordinate sales promotion activities, such as preparing merchandise displays and advertising copy.
  • Prepare rental or lease agreements, specifying charges and payment procedures for use of machinery, tools, or other items.
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Technology Skills

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Occupational Requirements

Work Activities

  • Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates — Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
  • Coaching and Developing Others — Identifying the developmental needs of others and coaching, mentoring, or otherwise helping others to improve their knowledge or skills.
  • Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
  • Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates — Providing guidance and direction to subordinates, including setting performance standards and monitoring performance.
  • Making Decisions and Solving Problems — Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
  • Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events — Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
  • Working with Computers — Using computers and computer systems (including hardware and software) to program, write software, set up functions, enter data, or process information.
  • Training and Teaching Others — Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others.
  • Developing Objectives and Strategies — Establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them.
  • Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others — Getting members of a group to work together to accomplish tasks.
  • Analyzing Data or Information — Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts.
  • Developing and Building Teams — Encouraging and building mutual trust, respect, and cooperation among team members.
  • Scheduling Work and Activities — Scheduling events, programs, and activities, as well as the work of others.
  • Communicating with People Outside the Organization — Communicating with people outside the organization, representing the organization to customers, the public, government, and other external sources. This information can be exchanged in person, in writing, or by telephone or e-mail.
  • Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
  • Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards — Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
  • Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work — Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work.
  • Processing Information — Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data.
  • Resolving Conflicts and Negotiating with Others — Handling complaints, settling disputes, and resolving grievances and conflicts, or otherwise negotiating with others.
  • Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People — Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
  • Selling or Influencing Others — Convincing others to buy merchandise/goods or to otherwise change their minds or actions.
  • Documenting/Recording Information — Entering, transcribing, recording, storing, or maintaining information in written or electronic/magnetic form.
  • Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings — Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems.
  • Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge — Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
  • Providing Consultation and Advice to Others — Providing guidance and expert advice to management or other groups on technical, systems-, or process-related topics.
  • Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others — Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
  • Staffing Organizational Units — Recruiting, interviewing, selecting, hiring, and promoting employees in an organization.
  • Thinking Creatively — Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.
  • Performing Administrative Activities — Performing day-to-day administrative tasks such as maintaining information files and processing paperwork.

Detailed Work Activities

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Work Context

  • E-Mail — 100% responded “Every day.”
  • Telephone Conversations — 97% responded “Every day.”
  • Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams — 91% responded “Every day.”
  • Duration of Typical Work Week — 88% responded “More than 40 hours.”
  • Contact With Others — 73% responded “Constant contact with others.”
  • Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team — 68% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 85% responded “Every day.”
  • Time Pressure — 69% responded “Every day.”
  • Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results — 65% responded “Very important results.”
  • Coordinate or Lead Others in Accomplishing Work Activities — 61% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Frequency of Decision Making — 65% responded “Every day.”
  • Work Outcomes and Results of Other Workers — 67% responded “Very high responsibility.”
  • Deal With External Customers or the Public in General — 62% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Importance of Being Exact or Accurate — 45% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals — 54% responded “A lot of freedom.”
  • Freedom to Make Decisions — 58% responded “Some freedom.”
  • Written Letters and Memos — 35% responded “Every day.”
  • Spend Time Sitting — 37% responded “Continually or almost continually.”
  • Importance of Repeating Same Tasks — 45% responded “Extremely important.”
  • Health and Safety of Other Workers — 29% responded “Very high responsibility.”
  • Level of Competition — 48% responded “Moderately competitive.”
  • Conflict Situations — 38% responded “Once a month or more but not every week.”
  • Public Speaking — 30% responded “Once a week or more but not every day.”
  • In an Enclosed Vehicle or Operate Enclosed Equipment — 41% responded “Every day.”
  • Spend Time Making Repetitive Motions — 29% responded “More than half the time.”
  • Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People — 36% responded “Once a month or more but not every week.”
  • Exposed to Sounds, Noise Levels that are Distracting or Uncomfortable — 29% responded “Every day.”
  • Physical Proximity — 34% responded “I work with others but not closely (e.g., private office).”

Experience Requirements

Job Zone

Title
Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Education
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Related Experience
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Job Training
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Job Zone Examples
Many of these occupations involve coordinating, supervising, managing, or training others. Examples include real estate brokers, sales managers, database administrators, graphic designers, conservation scientists, art directors, and cost estimators.
SVP Range
(7.0 to < 8.0)

Training & Credentials

State training
Local training
Certifications
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Apprenticeship Opportunities

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Worker Requirements

Skills

  • Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Management of Personnel Resources — Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
  • Monitoring — Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Coordination — Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
  • Judgment and Decision Making — Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
  • Social Perceptiveness — Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
  • Time Management — Managing one's own time and the time of others.
  • Persuasion — Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
  • Complex Problem Solving — Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Critical Thinking — Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Negotiation — Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
  • Reading Comprehension — Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • Writing — Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
  • Active Learning — Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
  • Instructing — Teaching others how to do something.
  • Learning Strategies — Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
  • Service Orientation — Actively looking for ways to help people.
  • Systems Analysis — Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
  • Systems Evaluation — Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
  • Mathematics — Using mathematics to solve problems.

Knowledge

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and 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.
  • Economics and Accounting — Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
  • 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.
  • Mathematics — Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
  • 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.

Education

How much education does a new hire need to perform a job in this occupation? Respondents said:

  • 45%
     
    Bachelor’s degree required
  • 16%
     
    High school diploma or equivalent required
  • 16%
     
    Some college, no degree required

Worker Characteristics

Abilities

  • 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.
  • Deductive Reasoning — The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning — The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Written Comprehension — The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Information Ordering — The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Near Vision — The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Category Flexibility — The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Fluency of Ideas — The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Written Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Mathematical Reasoning — The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility — The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.

Interests

Interest code: ECS
Want to discover your interests? Take the O*NET Interest Profiler.
  • Enterprising — Work involves managing, negotiating, marketing, or selling, typically in a business setting, or leading or advising people in political and legal situations. Enterprising occupations are often associated with business initiatives, sales, marketing/advertising, finance, management/administration, professional advising, public speaking, politics, or law.
  • Conventional — Work involves following procedures and regulations to organize information or data, typically in a business setting. Conventional occupations are often associated with office work, accounting, mathematics/statistics, information technology, finance, or human resources.
  • Social — Work involves helping, teaching, advising, assisting, or providing service to others. Social occupations are often associated with social, health care, personal service, teaching/education, or religious activities.

Work Styles

  • Leadership Orientation — A tendency to lead, take charge, offer opinions, and provide direction at work.
  • Social Orientation — A tendency to seek out, enjoy, and be energized by social interaction at work.
  • Achievement Orientation — A tendency to establish and maintain personally challenging work-related goals, set high work-related standards, and exert high effort toward meeting those goals and standards.
  • Cooperation — A tendency to be pleasant, helpful, and willing to assist others at work.
  • Dependability — A tendency to be reliable, responsible, and consistent in meeting work-related obligations.

Workforce Characteristics

Wages & Employment Trends

Median wages (2024)
$40.45 hourly, $84,130 annual
State wages
Local wages
Employment (2024)
320,000 employees
Projected growth (2024-2034)
Little or no change
Projected job openings (2024-2034)
24,800
State trends
Top industries (2024)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2024 wage data and 2024-2034 employment projections . “Projected growth” represents the estimated change in total employment over the projections period (2024-2034). “Projected job openings” represent openings due to growth and replacement.

Job Openings on the Web

State job openings
Local job openings

More Information

Professional Associations

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National Associations