by Elizabeth Rowe

Created on: October 17, 2008

If you can't sell yourself, you can't sell anything else.

Retail work is all about selling: usually you stock shelves, run a cash register and/or assist customers. You're in contact with the public for your entire workday, and the store's bottom line depends on your behavior.

To land a retail job, you have to convince the manager that you will make money for the company.

Some things to mention at your interview:

1) You know that shelves have to be kept stocked.

Customers won't buy if there's nothing there to buy. The longer they linger poring over stuff they're not going to buy, the better the odds that they'll buy something.

Think of something similar you've done in the past: perhaps you've run a bake sale counter, or worked at a banquet, and you know the importance of keeping stock available. Make sure the interviewer knows it.

2) You know that you have to keep your eye on the customers.

One of a store's biggest problems is "shrink," the portion of their inventory that leaves the sales floor without being paid for. This can be because it was damaged, because it went out of date or because it was stolen. To get the job, you need to convince the manager that you have the human relations skills to manage the customer so as to minimize shrink without giving offense.

There's a host of experience that may be applied to this. One of the more obvious ones is group babysitting or working with a youth group, but there are many others.

3) You can to make change accurately.

Nothing prevents a first-time customer from becoming a repeat customer faster than being short-changed. Nothing will get a clerk fired faster than money going missing from the cash drawer. If you want the job, you have to convey your competence in this key field.

This is one place where an out-and-out brag may be in order, if you ran a register somewhere and were never more than thirty cents off over a period of several months. If you've handled money in some other context, find a way to work that in, too.

4) You are reliable and flexible.

Sadly, retailers frequently have to deal with employees who habitually don't come to work, or who want their schedules changed on a whim. It's a rare clerk who will go out of his way to accommodate the company's needs. You want the interviewer to get the idea that you are that rare person.

5) You can abide by the rules.

Retailers, particularly in chains, often have to ask their employers to do things that don't make sense. Think of the fast food cashier who comes over the drive-through microphone parroting a set script. It's stupid, but they still have to do it. The thing to get across is that you know your being paid to do what the company wants done, not what you think should be done.

Make these five points at your interview, and the next thing you know, you'll be working at selling customers instead of interviewers.

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