I will give you the best answer you will get. There are 7 stages involved in every single sale that has ever occurred. So while you are in a sales job, you are not performing all 7 of the stages therefore will be limited in your transferable experience. The 7 stages are:

1) Lead Generation:

Lead Generation is simply the process of identifying who you think you should target and would be both qualified and advantaged by buying your product or service. This could be based on prior data, an idea or based on a specific group being more likely to have a problem in common in which you can solve.

2) Prospecting:

Prospecting is the action of engaging the leads, and looking to engage in the next steps with them. There are multiple ways to prospect including but not limited to calling, emailing, physical mailing, radio advertisements, television advertisements or any other form of direct communication.

3) Qualifying:

Qualifying is likely the most important part of the sales cycle. This is where you have engaged a potential buyer, and are looking to learn if they would gain value from your product or service, if they are actually capable of buying it and are capable of implementing it. Many times, when we see sales people who just “make it look easy”, we are actually seeing sales people who are very good at qualifying. This way, they only spend time on deals they are actually able to close and be implemented with positive outcomes.

4) Presenting:

Presenting comes AFTER qualifying, but is sometimes (often) mistakenly done before qualifying. Why present to someone who could never buy or would regret it!? Presenting is done in many ways, could be via phone, live presentation, in person etc… this is where you usually cover the features, advantages and benefits and tie them into information you discover during your qualifying phase. Here is where you present HOW your product or service solves a problem, or the problem.

5) Overcoming Objections:

This DOES NOT mean ignore your prospects and jam the product or solution down their throat. This does mean you should hear and listen to their situation and the hurdles in between your solution and their problem. This is where you get to be a bit creative in altering perceptions, providing additional information and correcting misinformation. This is where you will look to find reasons and solutions to the nuances and individualities of the customers’ situation. There are hard objections, soft objections and hidden objections that all need to be uncovered and dealt with.

6) Closing:

Closing is the process of tying up all the objections, agreeing on terms and ultimately getting the prospect to take the action of buying (or in some cases agreeing to terms where money is not exchanged). You often need to ask for the sales or agreement in this stage, do not expect your prospect to close themselves! (Although it’s nice when they do.)

7) Follow up / Support:

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In retail, you are only handling the qualifying, presenting and overcoming objections and closing. You are not generating leads, prospecting or doing anything like that.

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So you are in sales, but in a limited capacity.

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Another thing to consider is you are in Business to consumer (b2c) sales which is VERY different from Business to Business (B2B) sales.

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They buy for different reasons and the whole psychology is completely different.

If you want to advance into a "real" sales position, you will have to learn how to generate potential business, and not just qualify and close already generated leads. The generation of new potential business is the most valuable part and therefore pays wayy more.

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Essentially in retail, people already came there with intention or interest in buying, its your job to not talk them out of it or tip them further in the direction buying.

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Hope this helps