Sales Representative, Industrial Wood Coatings

Company: The Sherwin-Williams Company
Location: Cleveland
Posted on: March 24, 2025

Job Description:

Sales Representatives initiate and manage relationships with customers and serve as the point of contact for the Company. This position will be responsible for developing Wood coating sales in a specific geographic territory. In this position, you will secure new accounts while maintaining existing customer accounts. You will utilize professional selling tools for pre-call planning and documenting sales calls. You'll develop a territory market strategy, as well as conduct product demonstrations and competitive product comparisons.

• 
  
• Achieve or exceed sales budget.
  
• Achieve or exceed margin contribution budget.
  
• Maintain expenses at or below budget.
  
• Increase gallon growth.
  
• Grow opportunity account sales.
  
• Collect reliable customer/territory information and estimate individual customer potential.
  
• Conduct competitive product testing and comparisons to S-W and identify current competitors' strengths and weaknesses and S-W's competitive advantage.
  
• Develop territory market development plan and obtain approval.
  
• Develop a strategy to sell target customers and identify items or product categories that require specific attention in support of this strategy.
  
• Develop weekly selling plan and conduct sales calls accordingly, occasionally in conjunction with servicing Store/Facility Manager.
  
• Determine where customer is in the overall selling process and what steps are necessary to move the process along.
  
• Conduct product demos to support the selling process.
  
• Obtain information necessary to open a new account and communicate to credit office.
  
• Access product/technical information to support customers' application requirements.
  
• Complete required call and expense reports on a timely basis.
  
• Identify sources of sales leads and follow through on leads provided by store/Facility personnel as appropriate.
  
• Understand servicing store/Facility's strengths and weaknesses and communicate effectively with staff members to ensure that commitments made are within the store's capabilities.
  
• Identify products and quantities that must be carried in inventory to support customer needs and communicate this to store/Facility.
  
• Identify potential problems and work with Store/Facility Manager to resolve.
  
• Handle customer complaints within lines of authority and manage process to resolution.
  
• Assist Store/Facility Manager in resolution of product supply problems.
  
• Conduct customer surveys.
  
• Assist in servicing stores/Facilities' physical inventory.
  
• Service existing accounts to insure continued loyalty.
  
• Other duties as assigned.
  
  
  
  KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE:
  Required:
  
  • 
    
  • Strong communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to work with all levels of internal and external contacts.
    
  • Ability to interface effectively with sales, technical and manufacturing management required.
    
  • Training and utilization of project management techniques, value selling, and six sigma tools required.
    
    
    Preferred:
    
    • 
      
    • Knowledge of the wood adhesives market.
      
    • Ability to identify specific wood adhesives users, knowledge of wood coatings (surfacers, stains, pigmented finishes, sealers) used in this marketplace, and applications of these coatings as well as different wood species and the preparation of these surfaces.
      
      Travel:
      
      • 
        
      • 20%
        
        
        

Keywords: The Sherwin-Williams Company, Cleveland , Sales Representative, Industrial Wood Coatings, Sales , Cleveland, Ohio