Sales Lead- Abbot Kinney

Company

“A perfume is a world you can return to over and over again–a keyhole into far off places–material and imaginary.”

D.S. & Durga is a Brooklyn fragrance house on a quest to create thrilling perfumes inspired by music, myth, and the mundane. Founded in 2009 by David (D.S.) and Kavi (Durga) Moltz, the brand is known for its uniquely distinguished perfumes, candles, and aromatic products. All fragrances and design worlds are original compositions, rooted in specificity, surrealism, and clarity.

With distribution across 600 doors globally and five freestanding stores in NYC and LA, the brand is entering a new phase of growth following Manzanita Capital’s majority investment in 2024.

Role Overview

As a key member of the store leadership team, you will be working alongside the store manager; leading sales, operations and the customer experience within the store.

The Lead is not only skilled at providing world class customer service and driving sales in store but has the comfort level and ability to cultivate and grow a customer following through outreach and prospecting efforts outside of our four walls.

This role will support the store manager in all daily operations, as well as in achieving and exceeding fiscal results through community outreach, events, partnership building, clienteling, operational efficiency, leadership, and other initiatives as needed.

This is a hands-on, full-time field position and the ability and desire to spend time on the sales floor working with clients, conducting outreach and prospecting is essential to the success of the role.

Key Responsibilities

• Sales and Customer Experience
• Provide an exceptional and on-brand in-store customer service experience by assisting customers and exceeding their needs.
• Support the store manager to meet and exceed sales goals through in-store efforts and outreach including clienteling, eventing, and networking activities.
• Co-own customer outreach and clienteling to build loyalty and repeat business.
• Maintain a client book via Endear, send daily thank you notes, and consistently think of new ways to connect with customers to drive sales and community.
• Initiate and execute prospecting efforts to attract new clients and develop a customer following.
• Support store manager in planning and executing sales focused, on-brand events in store, and within the community.
• Handle VIP client communication and provide an exceptional brand experience.
• Resolve customer issues and escalations with a customer-centric approach.
• Leadership
• Support store manager in leading, training and onboarding the store sales associate team.
• Serve as the store key point-person for all associates and cross functional partners in the absence of the store manager.
• Demonstrate expert-level product and brand knowledge alongside selling techniques.
• Assist the store manager in daily communication with the team, and cross functional partners.
• Assist the store manager in holding the team accountable to daily sales targets.
• Serve as a role model on the sales floor. Uphold all company policy and procedure, foster best practices and maintain the brand voice and customer experience standards.
• Help create and foster a happy, energetic, and positive store culture.
• Store Operations
• Support the store manager in running all daily operations of the business.
• Assist the store manager in tracking and managing inventory at the store as needed, including but not limited to the following:
• Conducting cycle counts
• Placing re-stock orders
• Running annual inventory counts
• Unpacking and properly entering inventory shipment
• Perform store opening and closing procedures.
• Perform daily cash operations and store banking as needed.
• Maintain a full understanding of daily, weekly and monthly fiscal reporting. Report on business to HQ in the absence of the store manager.
• Support the store manager in all store related facilities needs such as repairs, supply ordering, cleanliness and maintenance.
• Maintain the visual integrity of in-store merchandising standards.
• Take on additional store and retail related projects as needed.

Competencies

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following.

Achievement Focus - Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles. Measures self against standard of excellence. Recognizes and acts on opportunities. Sets and achieves challenging goals. Takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.

Continuous Learning - Assesses own strengths and weaknesses. Pursues training and development opportunities. Seeks feedback to improve performance. Shares expertise with others. Strives to continuously build knowledge and skills.

Communications - Exhibits good listening and comprehension. Expresses ideas and thoughts in written form. Expresses ideas and thoughts verbally. Keeps others adequately informed. Selects and uses appropriate communication methods.

Planning & Organization - Integrates changes smoothly. Plans for additional resources. Prioritizes and plans work activities. Sets goals and objectives. Uses time efficiently. Works in an organized manner.

Problem Solving - Develops alternative solutions. Gathers and analyzes information skillfully. Identifies problems in a timely manner. Resolves problems in early stages. Works well in group problem solving situations.

Teamwork - Balances team and individual responsibilities. Contributes to building a positive team spirit. Exhibits objectivity and openness to others' views. Gives and welcomes feedback. Puts success of team above own interests.

Use of Technology - Adapts to new technologies. Demonstrates required skills. Keeps technical skills up to date. Troubleshoots technological problems. Uses technology to increase productivity.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education/Experience

• 3+ years of luxury retail or hospitality sales experience, preferably within fragrance or beauty.
• Excellent selling, clienteling, and client prospecting skills, existing client book preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience and comfort level with conducting client outreach and local prospecting.
• Experience with event planning and handling of VIP clients.
• Experience working with and building retail partnerships.
• Demonstrated ability in driving sales and developing a client base.
• Ability to work in a fragranced work place/ store, must love fragrance.
• Experience with Shopify POS and Endear is a plus.
• Desire and ability to work a flexible retail schedule; including weekends, some holidays and evenings.

Language ability

Read, analyze and interpret business, professional, technical or governmental documents. Write reports, business correspondence and procedure manuals. Effectively present information and respond to questions from managers, customers and the public.

Mathematical ability

Add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions and decimals. Compute rate, ratio and percent, and draw and interpret bar graphs.

Reasoning ability

Solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

Computer skills

• MS Office

Benefits

• The estimated Hourly rate for this role is: $25-$27
• Full Time employees are eligible for medical, dental and vision insurance, employer paid life insurance, 401k plan, pre tax commuter benefits, quarterly gratis, employee discount, long-term & short- term disability leave and much more.

Supervisory responsibilities: This job has minimal supervisory responsibilities.

Work environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Physical demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit. The employee is frequently required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor.

D.S. & Durga is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender (including gender identity or expression), pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, marital status, domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking victim status, ancestry, national origin, alienage or citizenship, age, disability, military or veteran status, genetic information or predisposing genetic characteristic, or other protected status.