Furniture Account Consultant

Summary

Staples is a provider of products and services for businesses. The Furniture Account Consultant drives strategic furniture sales growth by partnering with account executives and generalist sellers, developing customer-specific furniture programs, and serving as the furniture expert. The role manages the sales process from solution development and design collaboration through pricing, proposals, contracts, and customer engagement.

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

Skills

• 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
• Preferred Bachelor's Degree
• An equivalent combination of education, training, or experience
• 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

• 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

• Preferred Bachelor's Degree
• an equivalent combination of education, training, or experience
• 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

• Bonus opportunity
• Remote work arrangement
• Regular training on products, vertical market solutions and sales tactics
• Career growth opportunities