Professional London sales jobs typically fall into three general categories across a wide spectrum of sectors of the labour market. Although the actual job titles may be more specific and not include this exact wording, the three categories are sales assistant, sales representative, and sales manager.

Salaries for London sales jobs.

Sales assistant jobs.

These jobs are generally entry level and do not require as much in previous experience and are not as skilled. Therefore, the pay is lower. Most often sales assistants make shopping more enjoyable for people and may deal with a wide variety of different customers.

Employers looking for sales assistants will often be looking for candidates with a positive attitude and the ability to work with people over any formal qualifications. If there is one requirement of a sales associate beyond personality, it is a reasonable standard of mathematics since handling cash and checking stock may be part of the job. Being able to work with a team, being friendly, polite, and helpful are all-important characteristics, which make a good sales assistant. Honesty and reliability are also good qualities.

Sales assistant's jobs can be found in supermarkets, department stores and other retail environments. Some of the duties may include serving and advising customers, helping customers to find the goods they want, taking payment, advising on stock amounts, providing information on products and prices, stacking shelves and/or displaying goods in an attractive manner, arranging window displays, ordering goods, promoting special offers or store cards, and handling complaints or conveying them on to a manager. Fulltime sales salaries for this type of position may be between £11,000 and £15,000 per year.

Sales representative jobs.

Sales representatives are responsible for selling a company's services or products.

Candidates must have:

good people skills
the ability to persuade and
negotiate well
excellent communication skills, confidence, and resilience.

These skills are required in order to be able to deal with a broad range of customers and to carry on doing the job when customers turn down the sale. Jobs as a sales representative do not have concrete entry routes, but attitude, sales skills, and experience are usually the qualifications that most companies will be looking for in a candidate.

Some companies may require a certain type of degree or qualifications in some specialist sales role that is equivalent.

The duties of sales representatives may include:

understanding the customers' needs,
making appointments to meet existing or new customers
making presentations to promote special deals and new products
advising customers about after-sales service like delivery schedules
recording orders and sending details to the sales office
monitoring competitors actions and sales
attending conferences and seminars, keeping up with industry standards,
reporting sales trends to supervisors
meeting sales targets and more.

Salaries in sales representative jobs are usually basic salary plus commission. Commissions are usually based upon meeting targets. Basic sales salaries can be between £15,000 and £20,000 per year plus commission and can reach as much as £35,000 to £50,000 or more with experience.

Sales manager jobs.

Sales manager jobs require a bit more experience and education because the role requires managers to organise, coach, and lead a team of sales representatives.

Management skills are a must and the ability to motivate others with enthusiasm is important. Organisations and good planning skills are also needed.

Companies usually look for candidates with sales experience and management skills, while other specialised areas of sales like scientific, engineering sales, or IT may require more relevant qualifications.

Duties of sales managers may include:

allocating areas to sales reps
recruiting and training sales staff
monitoring the team's performance
developing sales strategies and
setting sales targets
compiling and analysing sales figures
dealing with some major customer accounts,
reporting back to senior managers, and more

Sales salaries for sales managers can start at £18,000 to £25,000 per year plus commission. Sales managers with experience can earn between £25,000 and £55,000 and sales salaries can top over £70,000 per year.

Further breakdown.

Sales salaries can be further broken down for the London area as seen below

Average sales salary: £32,000

Distribution of sales salaries:

90% of sales jobs offer a sales salary more than £19K
75% of sales jobs offer a sales salary more than £25K
50% of sales jobs offer a sales salary more than £35K
25% of sales jobs offer a sales salary more than £50K
10% of sales jobs offer a sales salary more than £70K

Average sales salary by region:

London - £45,000
South East - £30,000
West Midlands - £30,000
East Midlands - £28,000
North East - £28,000
East of England - £25,000
Yorkshire and the Humber - £25,000
South West - £25,000
North West - £25,000

Average sales salary by sector:

IT & Internet - £55,000
Legal - £42,000
Sales - £39,000
Marketing, Advertising & PR - £39,000
Senior Appointments - £39,000
Construction - £37,000
Human Resources - £37,000
Engineering & Manufacturing - £36,000
Health & Medicine - £36,000
Accountancy - £31,000
Banking & Finance - £29,000
Education - £29,000
Catering & Hospitality - £26,000
Customer Services - £24,000
Secretarial & Admin - £23,000

Average sales salaries by skill:

Design - £48,000
Presentation - £44,000
Applications - £42,000
Business Development - £42,000
Commercial - £40,000
New Business - £40,000
Sales - £38,000
Performance - £37,000
Technical Sales - £36,000
B2B - £35,000
Training - £35,000
Database - £34,000
Field Sales - £34,000
Advertising - £31,000

For sales jobs further north, see our informational piece on sales salaries in the north of england.

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