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Sales Manager Needed for Leading Building Products Distributor
Schaffer Associates

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.