Furniture Account Consultant

Staples Inc.•Framingham, MA

About The Position

The Furniture Account Consultant plays a pivotal role in driving strategic growth within the Staples Service and Solutions Organization. Partnering with our KAE’s and Generalist Sellers, to develop furniture programs across all verticals and segments. The FAC serves as the furniture expert, alongside the KAEs, guiding the furniture solution for all sold furniture programs, which include customer standards programs, single project events, or other strategic holistic furniture programs created for each specific client. FACs will lead all facets of the sales process from developing the furniture programs, engaging our internal design support, and negotiating pricing and contracts. This role requires customer outreach/engagement to drive transactional and programmatic furniture sales. The FAC must be well versed in Staples Furniture value proposition and strategic partner initiatives, and able to deliver solutions that meet customer requirements for budget, function, and timeline—ensuring a seamless and impactful customer experience.

Requirements

Preferred Bachelor’s Degree 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[1]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.

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