Apparel Retail Sales Associate & Wholesale Sales Assistant (Nw Portland)

Feb. 16, 2012

Portland, OR

Confidential

We are looking for an Apparel Retail Sales Associate/ Wholesale Sales Assistant, that understands the "one minute manager" concept and strives to be one. You must be determined, motivated, confident, independent, and a problem-solver willing to take initiative. We are a local better contemporary women's wear company that has a boutique in NW and is selling nationally and internationally in finer boutiques and specialty shops, as well as well known fashion websites. This position offers the candidate exposure to many aspects of the apparel industry. If you love working with people, are extremely organized, and love sales and cold calling, and also possess an entrepreneurial spirit and a style savvy fashion/merchandising sense, then this will be the ideal position for you. This is predominantly a retail sales position, with the ability to acquire commissions on wholesale accounts .

General Position Summary

The retail aspect of the position requires phenomenal retail boutique sales, personalized customer service, positive customer interactions, fashion merchandising, appointment scheduling, answering phones, entering inventory, entering sales receipts into QuickBooks, creating HTML emails, filling out custom order forms, planning sales and events, writing daily recaps, and keeping the boutique environment clean and attractive. The perfect work environment for an independent superstar salesperson with a strong work ethic.

The wholesale assistant aspect of the position requires cold calling and emailing wholesale prospects, servicing current wholesale accounts and filling reorders, sample packing and preparation for intermittent travel to tradeshows to acquire new accounts (New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Francisco, etc), constant phone follow up, delivery management and issue/quality control mediation, delinquency and collections calling, working directly with the production and design team, providing customers with sales tools to assist them in placing orders, researching new accounts via the web, and data entry into mailing lists and customer management software. Working to build the business and grow sales consistently through every channel possible.

The ideal candidate must have the desire to learn about many new aspects of servicing in the apparel industry, via retail, wholesale, and internet channels. They must thrive on sales, cold calling, following up, and creating organized and well planned relationships with accounts. The candidate must be extremely independent, organized, and professional. They must have 3+ years of retail and/or wholesale apparel sales / fashion PR marketing on their resume, with references. They must like to travel. They must love working with people, and have a strong merchandising fashion sense.

Must have skills in Word, Excel, and basic Photoshop. Must have some simple graphic design abilities, to work with photos and create HTML emails. Must be able to keep an organized customer management database. Must be able to multi task.

The perfect candidate must be able to commit to working with a rapidly growing company, doesn't give up in the face of adversity and keeps pressing forward to find solutions, and gently but firmly doesn't take no for an answer!

Duties

Place outbound calls to prospective customers; offering explanation of service/product and pricing/ordering information when needed throughout the day.

Make sales, encourage reorders, and increase the number of active accounts

Contact customers when necessary to follow-up on customer satisfaction issues or schedule further appointments.

Communicate with other sales reps to make systems run smoothly

Document all contacts, actions, and responses in customer database in the auto-dialer system.

Organize and maintain customer contact information and other related records.

Maintain working knowledge of products and/or services.

Qualifications

Bachelors degree or Associates Degree, specializing in merchandising, marketing, sales, or management preferred

Minimum of 3 years retail/wholesale apparel sales and/or PR marketing experience in the apparel industry

Experience with contemporary womenswear apparel category preferred.

Experience in photo editing and/or graphic design, as well as web shopping cart input is a plus.

Possess thorough knowledge of apparel merchandising procedures, marketing materials, and sale techniques

Knowledge of computer design software Microsoft Office (Excel and Word). and Adobe Photoshop or similar.

Must have a strong merchandising abilities and fashion sense.

The ability to clearly express complex concepts in written form.

Ability to conduct complex interpersonal interactions with employees and customers, troubleshoot, manage, follow direction, coordinate and perform special task/projects simultaneously, make decisions, operate independently and with discretion, and work effectively under pressure.

The fashion industry is highly competitive, so you MUST be self driven, independent, computer literate, and organized, with a very strong work ethic.

Candidate must have a positive, people-oriented demeanor with the highest emphasis on professionalism and integrity.

Requirements

Excellent telephone presentation skills

Excellent customer service skills

Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Previous sales experience

Commitment to excellence and high standards

Strong organizational skills; able to manage priorities and workflow

Ability to meet deadlines

Ability to work independently as well as a member of various teams

Professional appearance, grooming and attire, required at all times

Ability to travel, and the ability to feel comfortable sharing accommodations with other members of the travel team if necessary

Ability to begin work immediately

This position will be 14-21+ hours per week, with the definite possibility of becoming full time, depending on the skill level and performance of the individual. MUST be available weekends.
If you are a superstar salesperson, this job can bring in a very nice paycheck.

(This position is specifically for an in-house sales team employee, yet independent sales reps reading this posting are welcome to contact the business for inquiries regarding possible representation work)

Please send cover letter and resume in .doc or .pdf format only. Please make sure it is in the format of YourName.doc or YourName.pdf. Thank you.