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Retail account manager skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted experts

Jonathan Byers,

Kaustav Misra Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical retail account manager skills. We ranked the top skills for retail account managers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 18.4% of retail account manager resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a retail account manager needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 retail account manager skills for your resume and career

1. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how retail account managers use customer service:

Promote the best customer service and marketing professionals represent our clients with unparalleled integrity to the business community.
Coordinated efforts with multiple cross-functional areas to provide on-time, error-free shipments and deliver superior customer service.

2. Customer Relationships

Customer relationships are the interactions and efforts made by a company to improve its customer service. Customer relationships cover not just all of the essential roles performed by customer support, but also the initiatives made before and after the interaction with a customer.

Here's how retail account managers use customer relationships:

Establish and maintain professional customer relationships, including anticipating, identifying and resolving customer needs and concerns.
Expanded and maintained customer relationships while simultaneously implementing corporate sales, marketing strategies, and service activities.

3. Account Management

The process of strengthening the relationship between a company and client is called account management. Effective account management has two key objectives, one is to retain loyal customers and the second one is to help the company grow by creating connections with new customers.

Here's how retail account managers use account management:

Review business reports for trending and communicates findings to local national retail account management.
Leveraged excellent account management skills to extend and foster continuing relationships with existing clients.

4. Customer Satisfaction

Here's how retail account managers use customer satisfaction:

Managed internal and external customer expectations with a focus on order accuracy and customer satisfaction.
Recognized for integral role in increasing sales levels and improving customer satisfaction levels.

5. Client Relationships

Here's how retail account managers use client relationships:

Maintained strong influence over client relationships to ensure successful business development.
Established client relationships and membership in industry related associations.

6. Lead Generation

Here's how retail account managers use lead generation:

Identified business opportunities by prospecting for new business through lead generation via outbound calls and distribution of sales and marketing materials.
Increased lead generation of over 1 million in Sales through telephone contact for all Holt products and services.

7. Brand Awareness

Here's how retail account managers use brand awareness:

Networked and executed external marketing opportunities to enhance brand awareness.

8. Develop Long Term

Here's how retail account managers use develop long term:

Develop long term relationships with strategic customers and manages the territory customer portfolio to ensure renewal of targeted existing customers.

9. Product Knowledge

Product knowledge is the skill of having better information and knowledge about the product you are selling. Product knowledge is essential for the employees of the companies so they can communicate and inform the customers about the product. Having great product knowledge is essential for a better sales pitch and to give the customer a better and complete idea of the product that will influence him to buy the product eventually.

Here's how retail account managers use product knowledge:

Develop presentations to effectively convey market conditions, product knowledge, marketing strategy, competitive activity and analyze results.
Executed and introduced product knowledge tutorials to buyers, sales staff, and directly to the consumer and/or end-user.

10. Retail Sales

Retail sales are the method to track consumer demand for finished goods by assessing the purchases of durable and non-durable products over a definite period. Data on retail sales is accumulated monthly by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Here's how retail account managers use retail sales:

Major contributor in retail sales increase by implementing and facilitating innovative product demo and water conservation events.
Recruited and relocated to maximize retail sales potential and manage wholesaler Contemporary Marketing teams.

11. POS

POS is an abbreviation of "Point of Sale" which is the time and place where a customer completes a transaction. It can either be a physical shop that consists of POS terminals or a virtual shop. A POS system helps simplify the retail functions and track important sales data.

Here's how retail account managers use pos:

Identified opportunities (new brands, POS, features, training) in On - Premise accounts.
Supported the sales force all major distributors by visiting the retailers with POS and samples.

12. Business Reviews

A business review is a published survey about a company. It helps the company gauge their performance and see how they can improve, plan and implement policies to increase their companies' revenue.

Here's how retail account managers use business reviews:

Conduct quarterly and yearly business reviews with accounts to identify sales opportunities.
Present semi-annual business reviews with customer.

13. Sales Presentations

Here's how retail account managers use sales presentations:

Identify high potential accounts and execute sales presentations in order to improve brand visibility within market.
Created customized sales presentations for new product placements in assigned retail accounts.

14. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how retail account managers use business development:

Involved in the B2B business development, direct in home sales, and training of key dealer work force.
Work along with business development manager to expand the territory, and assist the transition of new accounts.

15. Sales Volume

Here's how retail account managers use sales volume:

Increased sales volume 3% over FY06 baseline and promotional sales 5% for FY07.
Increase sales volume and grow relationships within core accounts operating in various channels of trade.

What skills help Retail Account Managers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on retail account manager resumes?

Jonathan Byers

Assistant Director, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

- Professional skills related to career development competencies such as strong oral & written communication, teamwork & collaboration, leadership, problem-solving ability & creativity, and professional integrity, but we recommend that applicants do not just list these skills. They should provide evidence of how they have used them in their work experience, volunteer experience, academic experience, etc.
-The ability to use technology effectively to solve problems or improve collaboration; this could relate to social media management, computer hardware or software skills, proficiency with general programs like Microsoft Office Suite (also being able to demonstrate the use of these skills in various experiences).
-With diversity, equity, and inclusion becoming more important in 2020, the ability to appreciate different points of view, accept and appreciate different cultural backgrounds & types of identities, and increased awareness of one's own cultural biases and assumptions can also be important to market on a resume.

What retail account manager skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Kaustav Misra Ph.D.

Associate Dean, Central Connecticut State University

This pandemic taught us many things and one important thing that we have an efficiency gap.

The way of doing business will be much more technology orientated. Hence graduates should be ready to unskill and upskill their credentials. This time it is necessary to forget the old way of doing business and learn new skills to get a job or stay in a current job. Soft skills have become much more important than before, but a different soft skill set would be essential to interact with future market participants. Thus, a gap year should be utilized to unskill-upskill and enhance relevant credentials by getting into short-long term programs, training, and workshops would be highly recommended.

What type of skills will young retail account managers need?

Michael Mikitka

Executive Vice President, MHI – Material Handling Industry

Courses and internships are essential. While the required depth of knowledge may vary from one position to another, employers are generally looking for candidates with strong "people-related" skills, those who are willing to continue to learn, and those with the ability to be flexible and adapt.

By "people-related" skills, I mean the abilities associated with effective communication (listen and express ideas and direction) and the skills related to working independently and a team.

As for the interest to continually learn... from a technology, data, and equipment perspective, today's supply chain looks very different than it did 10-years ago. The willingness and ability to continually learn are essential for anyone in a leadership role.

As for flexibility and adapting...supply chain/logistics is as much about responding to disruption and demand as it is planning for it. There is a predictable demand (i.e., seasonal...everyone knows when back-to-school shopping begins). Then there is the unpredictable demand (i.e., power-outages, wildfires, pandemic) that impact market and the ability to operate. Candidates that express flexibility and problem-solving skills will be much sought-after.

What technical skills for a retail account manager stand out to employers?

Todd Lee Goen

Instructor & Internship Director, Christopher Newport University

Technical skills are often industry and/or position specific. Applicants should highlight any technical skills related to the position advertisement and those that add value to the position/organization. Most importantly, requirements for technical skills change with time and technological advances. This means employers value workers capable of adapting to change and continually improving and acquiring new technical skills. Thus, it's usually more important to demonstrate you are capable of learning and developing technical skills than it is to have a specific skill set upon hire (although this is not true for some positions/industries).
That said, technical skills related to online presentations, virtual meetings, virtual networking, remote working and the like are hot commodities right now. While most organizations were in the process of adopting many of these technologies and ways of doing business pre-pandemic, the pandemic accelerated the process. Organizations are making it work, but they often don't know best practices or the most efficient means of working in the largely virtual, pandemic environment. Post-pandemic, many of the remote/virtual changes the pandemic brought will stay in some form. Technical skills that support this type of workplace will make applicants stand out to many employers because they need/want to do virtual/remote business better.

What soft skills should all retail account managers possess?

Eric Bostwick Ph.D.

Professor of Accounting, The University of West Florida

Similar to the answer above, oral and written communication skills have been important for a number of years, but in our current environment, these skills have become much more important. Our ability to pick up on the context surrounding email messages is reduced since we have fewer in-person interactions, and even our virtual meetings eliminate much of the body language that we use--both consciously and unconsciously--to interpret what other people mean by what they say. Thus, candidates will stand out when they can clearly articulate their thoughts in both written form, via email or chat, and in oral form, via the ubiquitous "Brady Bunch" layout on their coworkers' computer screens.

Do you want to know more?

List of retail account manager skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a retail account manager resume and required skills for a retail account manager to have include:

Customer Service
Customer Relationships
Account Management
Customer Satisfaction
Client Relationships
Lead Generation
Brand Awareness
Develop Long Term
Product Knowledge
Retail Sales
POS
Business Reviews
Sales Presentations
Business Development
Sales Volume
Gross Margin

ROI
Trade Shows
R
Relationship Building
Sales Associates
Sales Objectives
Store Management
Sales Strategies
Product Line
Customer Accounts
Retail Accounts
Sales Growth
Product Sales
Sales Targets
Sales Efforts
Incentive Programs

Gross Profit
Product Distribution
Grocery Store
Retail Store
Margin Analysis
Retail Locations
Market Trends
Depot
Promotional Events
IDT
Costco
Direct Sales
Customer Issues
YOY
Gross Sales
Inventory Management

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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