A salesperson sells a product or service directly to customers, usually against a target. It is the broadest sales title in use, covering shop floor selling, counter sales, field visits and telephone work, and the duties change more with what is being sold than with the employer.
This guide sets out salesperson duties and responsibilities, the daily routine, and how the role differs by sales environment. It sits in the Retail Sales Customer Service duties and responsibilities cluster, part of the wider job duties guide.
What Does a Salesperson Do?
A salesperson finds out what a customer needs, matches it to a product, handles the objections that come up, and closes. Around that sit the parts people forget: accurate quotes, correct paperwork, and following up so the sale actually converts into a delivered order and a paid invoice.
Good salespeople are measured on more than revenue. Return rates, margin, and whether customers come back all form part of the picture, which is why overselling is a short-term strategy that shows up quickly in the numbers.
Key Salesperson Duties and Responsibilities
- Greeting and approaching customers, and establishing what they need.
- Advising on products, options, pricing and availability accurately.
- Demonstrating products and answering technical or practical questions.
- Preparing quotations and explaining terms, delivery and warranty.
- Closing sales and processing orders or transactions correctly.
- Upselling and cross-selling where it genuinely suits the customer.
- Meeting individual and team sales targets.
- Capturing customer and sales information on the point of sale or CRM system.
- Following up on quotations, back orders and pending deliveries.
- Handling returns, exchanges and complaints within store policy.
- Maintaining product knowledge as ranges and promotions change.
- Keeping the sales area, displays and stock presentable and correctly priced.
Daily Tasks of a Salesperson
- Start of day: attend the briefing, check targets and promotions, review outstanding quotes and deliveries.
- Morning: serve customers, prepare quotations, follow up on the most promising open opportunities.
- Midday: handle deliveries and back orders, resolve customer queries, restock and tidy the area.
- Afternoon: continue selling, capture the day’s activity on the system and chase pending business.
- End of day: reconcile transactions, report figures against target and prepare for the next day.
Salesperson Skills and Competencies
- Listening: establishing the real need before recommending anything.
- Product knowledge: knowing what the product does and where it is not the right fit.
- Resilience: maintaining energy and courtesy through a high volume of no.
- Accuracy: correct quotes, orders and paperwork so sales do not unwind later.
- Follow-through: chasing the order after the handshake.
- Honesty: a sale made on a false promise costs more than it earns.
Salesperson Duties by Workplace or Industry
Retail Shop Floor
Reactive selling driven by footfall. Duties include serving walk-in customers, maintaining displays and stock, operating the till and handling returns alongside selling.
Counter and Trade Sales
Building supplies, motor spares and similar environments add technical part identification, account customer handling, credit checks and order preparation for collection or delivery.
Showroom and High-Value Goods
Longer sales cycles with duties around demonstrations, finance applications, trade-ins and coordinating delivery or installation. Pipeline management matters as much as the conversation.
Field and Telephone Sales
Proactive rather than reactive: duties include prospecting, planning a call cycle or call list, and being accountable for activity levels as well as revenue.
Salesperson Duties for a CV
Sales CVs are read for target achievement first. Give the target, the actual and the period. Use the duties for a CV guide for the method.
- Achieved an average of 108% of monthly sales target over two years on the shop floor.
- Grew average basket value by 14% through structured add-on selling.
- Prepared and followed up an average of 40 quotations a month, converting 35% to orders.
- Maintained product knowledge across a range of 1 200 lines and trained two new salespeople.
Related Job Roles and Responsibilities
These guides cover the roles and next steps most closely related to this one.
- Sales Consultant duties and responsibilities
- Sales Representative duties and responsibilities
- Retail Sales Assistant duties and responsibilities
- Cashier duties and responsibilities
- Customer Service duties and responsibilities
- Job description duties and responsibilities
Frequently Asked Questions About Salesperson Duties
What are the duties of a salesperson?
Approaching customers and establishing their needs, advising on products and pricing, demonstrating where relevant, preparing quotations, closing sales and processing orders, meeting targets, capturing activity on the system, following up pending business, and handling returns and complaints.
What is the difference between a salesperson and a sales consultant?
They overlap heavily. “Consultant” tends to signal a longer, more advisory sale with a needs analysis, while “salesperson” is used more broadly, including for straightforward transactional selling. Read the duties rather than the title.
What skills does a salesperson need?
Listening, product knowledge, resilience, accuracy on quotes and orders, follow-through on pending business, and honesty. Most employers train the product and hire on attitude and reliability.
Are salespeople paid commission?
Structures vary: basic plus commission, basic plus incentive, or commission only. Whichever applies, the contract should set out clearly how commission is earned, when it is paid and in what circumstances it can be reversed.
How do you write salesperson duties on a CV without sounding generic?
Anchor every bullet to a number and a product. “Sold products to customers” describes nobody in particular; “Sold a range of 1 200 hardware lines to trade and walk-in customers, averaging 108% of monthly target” describes you. Where you do not have exact figures, give an honest range and be ready to explain how you arrived at it.
Is a salesperson responsible for stock and displays?
In most retail environments, yes. Replenishment, correct pricing, clean displays and stock availability all sit with the sales team between customers, because a product that is not on the shelf or is priced wrong cannot be sold.
Duties vary by employer, product and sales channel. Where a regulated product is sold, the applicable legislation and accreditation requirements take precedence over this general guide.
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026