Furniture Account Consultant

Summary

Staples Canada provides products and services to meet the unique needs of businesses of all sizes. The Furniture Account Consultant drives strategic furniture sales by partnering with account executives and generalist sellers, developing customer programs, managing sales opportunities, and delivering furniture solutions aligned with customer budgets, functions, and timelines.

Responsibilities

• Partner with KAEs and Generalist sellers to grow revenue and margin while maintaining a customer centric focus
• Serve as primary point of contact for all furniture programs and opportunities for a variety of clients ranging from commercial, healthcare, public sector, and K-12/Higher Ed
• Utilizes selling tools such as GPO’s, State and local contracts, and manufacturer-driven purchasing agreements
• Effectively manage a sales funnel and pipeline to meet or exceed established KPIs
• Partners with generalists to build and execute on transactional furniture strategy for targeted accounts
• Serve as furniture expert, presenting furniture insights/trends, best practices, solutions on generalist team calls and presentations to clients
• Responsible for executing sales campaigns and sales initiatives
• Develop solutions for customers, including product selection and specification by collaborating with our design team
• Research product solutions, delivery options, sourcing conditions
• Pricing and product proposals to include identifying alternative products when applicable and necessary
• Complete regular training on products, vertical market solutions and sales tactics to maintain expert status
• Generate and revise quotes and present to the customers in conjunction with the sellers on shared accounts
• Create standards programs, including both transactional contracts, standards programs, and stand-alone project solutions
• RFP and bid pricing in support of sellers and Staples held contracts
• Collaborate with selling partners and work independently to market and generate sales through multiple approaches
• Develops solutions for customers, including product selections
• Research product solutions, delivery options, sourcing conditions
• Pricing and product proposals to include identifying alternative products
• Generates and revises quotes

Skills

• Bachelor's Degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, or experience
• 4+ years Related work experience
• Proven self-starter with energy and motivation to uncover, develop and close sales
• Ability to work independently with nominal supervision
• Ability to sell company values and services, in addition to program features and benefits via phone and internet, while some customer-facing presentations may surface on occasion
• Demonstrate strong time management skills with a high degree of understanding prioritization
• Demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills while maintaining a professional appearance
• Demonstrate strong interpersonal skills to be able to interact across the different departments within Staples Furniture as well as with clients, existing or prospect
• Context-switching expert: the ability to balance multiple concurrent responsibilities of varying priorities and to shift focus from one to another with minimal loss of productivity or work quality
• Problem Solving Skills with a Customer focused mentality
• Furniture industry/product knowledge – ability to anticipate competitive positioning and respond; accordingly, knowledge of current industry trends in order to recommend relevant and leading edge solutions to customers, engaging manufacturing partners when necessary for competitive analysis
• Strong computer experience in MS Office Platforms, AS400 and furniture quoting software, Salesforce.com is a critical experience requirement

Qualifications

Must Haves

• Bachelor's Degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, or experience
• 4+ years Related work experience
• Proven self-starter with energy and motivation to uncover, develop and close sales
• Ability to work independently with nominal supervision
• Ability to sell company values and services, in addition to program features and benefits via phone and internet, while some customer-facing presentations may surface on occasion
• Demonstrate strong time management skills with a high degree of understanding prioritization
• Demonstrate strong verbal and written communication skills while maintaining a professional appearance
• Demonstrate strong interpersonal skills to be able to interact across the different departments within Staples Furniture as well as with clients, existing or prospect
• Context-switching expert: the ability to balance multiple concurrent responsibilities of varying priorities and to shift focus from one to another with minimal loss of productivity or work quality
• Problem Solving Skills with a Customer focused mentality

Nice to Haves

• Furniture industry/product knowledge – ability to anticipate competitive positioning and respond; accordingly, knowledge of current industry trends in order to recommend relevant and leading edge solutions to customers, engaging manufacturing partners when necessary for competitive analysis
• Strong computer experience in MS Office Platforms, AS400 and furniture quoting software, Salesforce.com is a critical experience requirement

Benefits

• Remote work arrangement
• This role may be eligible for bonuses, or other forms of variable compensation.