Executive Sales Assistant Job Description
Executive sales assistants perform mostly clerical duties for leaders of a sales team. Executive sales assistants are employed in a wide range of industries and handle a multitude of tasks. They answer phones, monitor mail and email, fax documents, type reports and occasionally follow up on sales calls. Often, sales assistants provide vital links between sales executives and their clients.
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Basics
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Executive sales assistants help prepare literature aimed at securing new accounts or follow up on current ones. They enter data related to sales and customers into computers, and occasionally may assist in making a sale themselves or handle bookkeeping. They also might need to answer customer inquiries regarding products and services, or direct sales leads to members of the sales team. Executive sales assistants also help keep track of sales-related records and progress reports.
Skills
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Executive sales assistants must be expert listeners and typists, ably following the instructions of sales team members and recording important information, often entering it into a computer system. They should be driven, professional, courteous, energetic and work well alone and as members of a team. Executive sales assistants also need to follow the instructions of supervisors, with a strong understanding of the company's mission and sales goals.
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Background
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Requirements to become an executive sales assistant tend to vary by company. Some can learn on the job with no more educational background than a high school diploma. Others must have obtained an associate's degree or certificate with an emphasis on secretarial work. Occasionally, executive sales assistants will need to possess a bachelor's degree, having concentrated on courses related to business and marketing. Also, some companies prefer candidates who have previously worked as administrative assistants or secretaries in another field.
Prospects
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Sales executives often need someone to assist them, especially when it comes to performing everyday tasks such as answering phones and typing sales letters. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for executive administrative assistants in all fields are expected to grow by 13 percent through 2018. Meanwhile, the BLS estimates that jobs in retail sales will grow by 8 percent, and those in wholesale and manufacturing by 7 percent. So much depends on the sales assistant's industry.
Earnings
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While members of sales teams often receive much of their pay via commissions, executive assistants tend to receive a base salary. According to PayScale.com, executive assistants earned anywhere from $36,000 to more than $54,000 per year in May 2010, while sales assistants earned anywhere from $28,000 to more than $38,000 during the same month.
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References
- Photo Credit preparing the file image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
