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Sales Associate

Sales associates work with customer contact, information about products and services, sales and following up customer enquiries. The work involves understanding product information, communicating clearly, using numbers and prices, handling digital systems and assessing information critically.

Sales, retail and servicesDraft – pending professional validationVersion 0.1 · last reviewed 2026-10-09
ReadingWritingNumeracyOral communicationDigital skillsCritical thinking

The occupation and work tasks

Digitalisation has made online shops, digital payment systems, customer information and electronic communication important parts of many sales roles. Tasks vary between shops, service sales and other sales businesses. The profile is not sales technique or marketing training.

Typical work tasks

  • Read and understand product information.
  • Communicate with customers and colleagues.
  • Use numbers, prices and discounts.
  • Record and follow up customer enquiries.
  • Use digital sales and payment systems.
  • Write short messages.
  • Find relevant information about products and services.
  • Assess the credibility of digital information.

Developments affecting the occupation

  • Online shops and digital payment systems
  • Automated recommendation systems
  • AI-supported customer communication

Basic skills in the workplace

Norway officially defines five basic skills. Critical thinking is an additional competence area adopted by Prios. Tasks are typical examples, not mandatory requirements or fixed frequencies.

Find and understand information about products, prices, orders and customers.

About the skill

Daily tasks

  • Read product descriptions.
  • Understand price information and offers.
  • Read messages and customer enquiries.

Regular tasks

  • Read campaign information.
  • Find information about orders and deliveries.
  • Understand internal routines and product updates.

Occasional tasks

  • Read information about new products.
  • Familiarise yourself with new digital services.
  • Assess more extensive customer or market information.

AI and new technology

Supplementary topic linked to digital skills and critical thinking – not an official basic skill.

AI and digital solutions can support sales, customer communication and information handling. For sales associates it can be useful to understand how such tools are used and how to assess the quality of automatically generated information and text.

Assessing automatic text

AI texts can be convincing but wrong.

Checking before passing on

Product information must be checked before it is given to customers.

Protecting customer data

Customer data must not be shared with unauthorised services.

1. AI-supported customer communication

What should be checked in an automatic customer reply?

2. Digital product information

Find gaps in a fictional product description.

3. Automated recommendation systems

Why do different customers get different recommendations?

4. Source criticism and assessing AI-generated sales texts

Distinguish facts from sales arguments in a text.

Suggested learning outcomes

  • Understand the possibilities and limitations of AI-supported text.
  • Recognise incomplete product information.
  • Check information before passing it on.
  • Understand the risks of sharing customer data.

Teaching cases

Practical teaching resources for this profile will be added later.

Related resources

External link

External resources

Utdanning.no – Sales associate

Occupational description from utdanning.no. Provides occupational context for teaching.

Reading
Utdanning.noNO
Open resource
External link

External resources

Occupational basic skills profiles

Explore how basic skills are used in different occupations.

HK-dirNO
Open resource
Guide

Digital learning resources

Using digital forms safely

Practise forms, checking and privacy without real personal data.

Digital skillsWriting
Teaching example from PriosNO / EN
Open resource
Exercise

Teaching activities

Check the source before sharing

Source criticism online: check sender, date and purpose before using or sharing information.

Digital skillsCritical thinkingReading
#Source criticism and information evaluation#Media literacy
Teaching example from PriosNO / EN
Open resource
Exercise

Digital learning resources

Check the AI answer

Evaluate whether AI-generated information is correct and relevant before using it at work.

Critical thinkingDigital skillsReading
#Digital judgement#Source criticism and information evaluation
Teaching example from PriosNO / EN
Open resource

How to use this profile when planning teaching

The occupational profile supports the planning of basic skills training. It is not a vocational training course.

  1. 1

    Identify relevant workplace tasks

    Choose tasks from the profile that participants recognise from their own working day.

  2. 2

    Discuss participants' previous experience

    What do participants already know and do? Many are experienced in their occupation.

  3. 3

    Identify basic skill needs

    Clarify where participants find reading, writing, numeracy, oral, digital or critical thinking challenging.

  4. 4

    Select relevant learning objectives

    Describe what the participant should be able to do better – in basic skills, not in the occupation itself.

  5. 5

    Choose practical teaching cases and resources

    Use the cases and resources in the profile as a starting point for practical exercises.

  6. 6

    Adapt activities to participants' levels

    Make tasks simpler or more demanding depending on participants’ skills.

  7. 7

    Reflect on learning outcomes

    Talk with participants about what they now handle better at work.

Questions for planning

  • Which tasks in the profile do participants recognise?
  • Which skill would be most useful in their working day?
  • How can the cases be adapted to participants’ levels?
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