BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER - STRATEGIC CONTRACTOR AND DATA CENTER

City Electric Supply•Raleigh, NC

2d•Onsite

About The Position

The Business Development Manager (BDM) owns revenue and gross profit growth for an assigned portfolio of strategic general contractors, electrical contractors, data center owners and developers, OEM;s, modular builders and the engineering firms that design mission-critical facilities. The BDM is responsible for the full sales cycle, from opening new accounts and shaping specifications through award, and for growing those relationships into long-term, multi-project programs for CES. Data center and large strategic-contractor work is won early. Electrical scope, basis-of-design equipment, and approved manufacturers are often set long before a bill of material exists. The BDM's defining responsibility is upstream specification selling; getting CES and its supplier partners written into designs, approved product lists, and contractor standards at the site-selection, design, and preconstruction stages, rather than quoting against someone else's specification after the fact. The BDM reports to the Regional Sales Manager, works closely with the National Business Development Manager – Data Centers on hyperscale and colocation programs, draws on NSD's value-added groups to differentiate CES, and relies on the teams warehouse and logistics, centralized branch services and local branch network and the group's operations team to deliver.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business, construction management, electrical engineering or engineering technology, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
5+ years of outside sales, business development, or project sales experience in electrical distribution, electrical contracting, or with an electrical manufacturer or rep agency.
Demonstrated record of growing accounts and winning large, multi-phase construction projects, including influencing specifications before bid.
Working knowledge of power distribution equipment and the project lifecycle from design through construction and closeout.
Proficiency with CRM platforms and Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams).
Valid driver's license and ability to meet Vehicle Incentive Program requirements.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience selling into data center, mission-critical, or large commercial & industrial projects, with established relationships among national or regional electrical contractors, general contractors, developers, and/or MEP engineering firms.
Familiarity with long-lead equipment supply dynamics, manufacturer allocation, and factory production scheduling.
Ability to read single-line diagrams, electrical specifications, and equipment schedules.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute account plans for assigned strategic contractors (GC & EC), data center owners and developers, OEM’s, modular builders, EPCs, and consulting engineers, with defined targets for sales, gross profit, and category penetration.
Open new accounts and expand existing ones by building relationships at the executive, preconstruction, estimating, project management, and procurement levels.
Map the buying center on every major project, including owners, owner's representatives, design engineers, electrical contractor leadership, and procurement, and manage each relationship deliberately.
Maintain an accurate pipeline and monthly forecast for the territory and report results to the Regional Sales Manager.
Own the client experience end to end and is responsible for building each assigned account into a long-term partnership, using the NSD Partnership Continuum as the operating framework.
Complete a written hand-off to operations at award so that every verbal commitment is documented and there are no surprises after the purchase order.
Maintain a weekly customer touchpoint on active projects, and document issues and resolve them before they escalate.
Establish documented, recurring touchpoints at multiple levels of each account between projects and anticipate service needs.
Build and maintain account plans that map current spend, share-of-wallet gaps, and a 12–24 month expansion sequence across other locations, facilities, and product lines.
Lead quarterly business reviews with top-tier accounts and pursue multi-year agreements, joint planning, and a seat in the customer's capital planning conversations ahead of RFPs.
Identify data center and large-scale projects at announcement, site selection, and utility interconnection, and engage owners and engineers before electrical design is finalized.
Drive specification of CES-supplied equipment into basis-of-design documents, approved manufacturer lists, owner standards, and contractor preferred-supplier programs.
Lead design-assist and preconstruction engagements, coordinating manufacturer and CES technical resources to support value engineering, equipment selection, and schedule planning.
Protect specifications through submittal, bid, and award, and respond to substitution attempts with technical and commercial justification.
Develop pricing and commercial strategy for major bids in partnership with Quotations and supplier partners, balancing competitiveness with margin targets.
Negotiate project pricing, supply agreements, and terms with customers within approved authority.
Secure manufacturer support, allocation, and production slots for long-lead power distribution equipment such as switchgear, switchboards, busway, transformers, UPS, and generators.
Monitor margin performance on awarded work and manage change orders with Project Management.
Position NSD's value-added groups as differentiators, including Gear Solutions for engineered power distribution equipment, Warehousing Solutions for jobsite staging and inventory programs, Lighting Solutions, and Technology Solutions.
Work with CES branches as needed in project markets to leverage local relationships, confirm service coverage, and coordinate account ownership and client requirements.
Partner with Inside Account Managers, Quotations, and Project Management so that awarded work transitions cleanly into execution and customer expectations are met.
Provide directions and coaching to Operations Team to support scaling resources to client needs.
Track data center market activity, competitor positioning, manufacturer lead times and allocation, and pricing trends, and share insights with the group and division leadership.
Represent CES at industry events, trade shows, and contractors, engineering, and manufacturer functions.