SCIENCE · VERIFIED DEVELOPMENT
Store Managers’ Support Boosts Sales by Up to 13% in Fortune 500 Retail
WHY IT MATTERS
The findings give managers a data‑driven basis for balancing oversight and direct selling, potentially raising revenue and reducing early turnover in retail teams.
What happened
A new study of 5. 5 million real‑world sales exchanges at a Fortune 500 retailer shows that when managers step in to help sales associates, teams outperform those without such support by 5% to 13%, generating an extra US$13 million in annual revenue.
The largest gains occur when managers join teams dealing with new customers and adopt a supportive, rather than leading, role. Experiments confirm that customers view this secondary support positively, raising the salesperson’s status and increasing purchase willingness.
Across the industry, 12%–20% of sales managers intervene in transactions, and a survey of 85 business‑to‑consumer managers found they spend 41% of their time selling. The research highlights a decision framework for managers to allocate time between management duties and direct sales involvement, and points to future work on when such interference becomes counterproductive.
PRIMARY SOURCES
It’s OK if managers step in to help their sales staff – but not too much
The Conversation US · Daniel E. Chavez, Research Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee · CC BY-ND; link/attribution intake only—no edited republication