Sales Manager Needed for Leading Building Products Distributor
[POSITION FILLED] Schaffer Associates is recruiting for a Sales Manager for a leading building products distributor in Chicago. Our Client is dedicated to serving the customer first and maintains a strong commitment to ethics and integrity. The Sales Manager-Chicago will be responsible for supervising 5-10 employees in the Sales Department, including Territory Managers, an Inside Sales Manager, and Inside Sales Representatives. The supervisory responsibilities of this role will include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; and addressing complaints and resolving problems, motivating/coaching.
For more information, contact Bridget Tesler at (704) 535-9939 or Bridget@SchafferAssociates.com.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES & TASKS
- Developing and implementing strategic sales plans to accommodate corporate goals.
- Directing sales and implementing strategic sales plans to accommodate corporate goals.
- Reviewing market analyses to determine customer needs, price schedules, and discounts.
- Directing staffing, training, and performance evaluations to develop and control sales.
- Directing channel development activity and coordinating sales distribution by establishing sales territories, quotas, and goals.
- Advising dealers, distributors, and clients concerning sales and advertising techniques.
- Assigning sales territory to sales representatives; regularly traveling with outside sales personnel to assist in developing new business as well as relationships with customers, and to improve overall sales performance effectiveness.
- Preparing and performing weekly, monthly, and annual employee reviews.
- Directing product simplification and standardization to eliminate unprofitable items from sales line.
- Representing the company at trade association meetings or events to promote product.
- Delivering sales presentations to key clients in coordination with sales representatives.
- Meeting with key clients, assisting sales representatives with maintaining relationships and negotiating/closing deals.
- Coordinating liaison between sales department and other sales related united; keeping the Distribution Center informed of local market and competitive conditions.
- Analyzing and controlling expenditures of division to conform to budgetary requirements.
- Assisting other department within the organization to prepare manuals and technical publications.
- Preparing periodic sales reports showing sales volume, potential sales, and/or deficits and areas of proposed client-base expansion.
- Monitoring and evaluating the activities and products of the competition.
- Creating DC-specific promotional offerings; creating, presenting and maintaining independent rebate programs
- Analyzing DC inventory positions, both performing and underperforming.
- Uncovering new product opportunities and providing the market research on the product.
- Regularly traveling with outside sales to attend Trade Association meetings and customer/client meetings.
EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS
- Bachelor’s degree from four-year college or university; or one to two years related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
OTHER SKILLS & ABILITIES
- To perform this job successfully, an individual should have strong knowledge and understanding of Outlook, CRM systems, Company Reporting Software, Internet Software, Excel Spreadsheet and Word Processing software. SAP preferred.
COMPANY-FOCUSED COMPETENCIES
The Company’s core competencies are outlined below. Such competencies make the Company and its employees who they are in today’s marketplace.
- Customer Focus – Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
- Action Oriented – Enjoys working hard; is action oriented and full of energy for the things he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others.
- Ethics & Values – Adheres to an appropriate (for the setting) and effective set of core values and beliefs during both good and bad times; acts in line with those values; rewards the right values and disapproves of others; practices what he/she preaches.
- Integrity & Trust – Is widely trusted; is seen as a direct, truthful individual; can present the unvarnished truth in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; doesn’t misrepresent him/herself for personal gain.
- Problem Solving – Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn’t stop at the first answers.
- Time Management – Uses his/her time effectively and efficiently; values time; concentrates his/her efforts on the more important priorities; gets more done in less time than others; can attend to a broader range of activities.
JOB-SPECIFIC COMPETENCIES
To perform this job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:
- Approachability – Is easy to approach and talk to; spends the extra effort to put others at ease; can be warm, pleasant, and gracious; is sensitive to and patient with the interpersonal anxieties of others; builds rapport well; is a good listener; is an early “knower,” getting informal and incomplete information in time to do something about it.
- Building Effective Teams – Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in his/her team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.
- Business Acumen – Knows how businesses work; knowledgeable in current and possible future policies, practices, trends and information affecting his/her business and organization; knows the competition; is aware of how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace.
- Conflict Management – Steps up to conflicts, seeing them as opportunities; reads situations quickly; good at focused listening; can hammer out tough agreements and settle disputes equitably; can find common ground and get cooperation with minimum noise.
- High Decision-Making Quality – Makes good decisions (without considering how much time it takes) based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; most of his/her solutions and suggestions turn out to be correct and accurate when judged over time; sought out by others for advice and solutions.
- Directing Others – Is good at establishing clear directions; sets stretching objectives; distributes the workload appropriately; lays out work in a well-planned and organized manner; maintains two-way dialogue with others on work and results; brings out the best in people; is a clear communicator.
- Interpersonal Savvy – Relates well to all kinds of people–up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
- Managing Vision and Purpose – Communicates a compelling and inspired vision or sense of core purpose; talks beyond today; talks about possibilities; is optimistic; creates mileposts and symbols to rally support behind the vision; makes the vision shareable by everyone; can inspire and motivate entire units or organizations.
- Motivating Others – Creates a climate in which people want to do their best; can motivate many kinds of direct reports and team or project members; can assess each person’s hot button and use it to get the best out of him/her; pushes tasks and decisions down; empowers others; invites input from each person and shares ownership and visibility; makes each individual feel his/her work is important; is someone people like working for and with.
- Planning – Accurately scopes out length and difficulty of tasks and projects; sets objectives and goals; breakdown work into the process steps; develops schedules and task/people assignments; anticipates and adjusts for problems and roadblocks; measures performance against goals; evaluates results.
- Process Management – Good at figuring out the processes necessary to get things done; knows how to organize people and activities; understands how to separate and combine tasks into efficient work flow; knows what to measure and how to measure it; can see opportunities for synergy and integration where others can’t; can simplify complex processes; gets more out of fewer resources.
- Self-Development – Is personally committed to and actively works to continuously improve him/herself; understands that different situations and levels may call for different skills and approaches; works to deploy strengths; works on compensating for weakness and limits.
This job posting is for information purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer or guarantee of employment.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Schaffer Associates is a national management consulting firm specializing in executive search and organizational strategies for the hardware, home improvement, building materials, and consumer products industries. As the premier management consulting firm serving the industry, we help build organizations and leadership teams that foster corporate growth and success well into the future.
Call us at (704) 535-9939 or find us at www.SchafferAssociates.com