Sales Director (Workforce Development)

Brief Description Responsible for developing and executing growth strategies across an assigned market, with accountability for revenue growth, new customer acquisition, market penetration, pipeline development, and overall sales performance.

This leader will leverage market intelligence, customer insights, competitive dynamics, industry trends, and sales analytics to identify growth opportunities, establish sales and market priorities, and translate organizational objectives into actionable sales strategies and business plans.

They will provide direct leadership for assigned sales and business development professionals, building a high-performing team through talent development, coaching, accountability, and consistent execution. The role will use SFDC as the primary platform for managing business performance and will collaborate across the organization to align resources around customer and market opportunities.

MAJOR FUNCTIONS:

• Develop and execute market-level sales strategies and business plans with accountability for revenue growth, new customer acquisition, market penetration, and pipeline objectives.
• Analyze market intelligence, customer needs, competitive activity, industry trends, territory performance, and win/loss data to identify opportunities and inform market and sales strategy.
• Identify market whitespace, priority segments, target accounts, and emerging opportunities and translate those insights into actionable growth plans.
• Drive retention, account growth, and expansion within the assigned market by establishing clear ownership, customer-engagement expectations, and coordination across sales and customer-support resources.
• Provide direct leadership and people management for assigned sales and business development professionals, including recruitment, onboarding, retention, talent development, succession planning, and performance management.
• Address underperformance promptly through clear expectations, timely feedback, documented coaching, development or improvement plans, and appropriate corrective action.
• Establish a consistent management cadence, including individual coaching, pipeline reviews, forecast reviews, performance reviews, and timely action to address performance or capability gaps.
• Translate sales objectives into clear team and individual business plans, goals, and performance expectations while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and consistent execution.
• Use Salesforce.com, sales analytics, dashboards, KPIs, and leading indicators to manage business performance, assess pipeline health, maintain reliable forecasts, and identify risks and opportunities.
• Own pipeline health and forecast accuracy while ensuring sufficient pipeline coverage, consistent opportunity qualification, and disciplined sales execution.
• Provide strategic leadership on complex, high-value, competitive, and multi-stakeholder opportunities.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of market conditions and business performance and adjust strategies, priorities, and resource deployment as needed.
• Partner with Marketing, Client Success, Sales Operations, Services, and other internal teams to align market targeting, demand generation, sales execution, customer transitions, and growth initiatives.
• Communicate business performance, forecasts, market intelligence, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions to senior leadership.
• Lead and support organization and process change that imporves sales effectiveness and scalability.
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements MINIMUM EDUCATION, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• At least 10+ years of progressive B2B sales, business development and revenue-growth experience, including significant sales leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience leading, coaching, and developing employees, including establishing clear expectations, managing performance, and addressing underperformance.
• Demonstrated success developing and executing market, territory, or regional growth strategies.
• Proven record of achieving or exceeding revenue and new customer acquisition objectives.
• Strong capabilities in market intelligence, market segmentation, competitive analysis, customer analytics, and opportunity assessment.
• Strong business and financial acumen with the ability to translate market and sales data into growth strategy and action.
• Advanced proficiency with Salesforce.com, including dashboards, reporting, sales analytics, pipeline management, forecasting, and leading indicators.
• Proven ability to build high-performing teams through coaching, talent development, accountability, and effective performance management.
• Experience recruiting, onboarding, retaining, and developing sales talent.
• Experience leading business development and geographically distributed sales resources preferred.
• Experience managing complex solutions-sales opportunities involving multiple stakeholders and executive decision-makers.
• Strong strategic thinking, executive communication, presentation, negotiation, and decision-making capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across functions and lead organizational and process changes.
• Manufacturing, training, SaaS, technology, or related solution-sales experience preferred.

Key Competencies: Core Competencies:

• Communication and Collaboration
• Relationship Management
• Professionalism and Integrity
• Critical Thinking and Decision-Making
• Execution
• Initiative, Leadership, and Development

Leadership Competencies:

• Leadership and Vision
• Talent Management and Development
• Change Leadership

Job Specific Competencies:

• Sales Strategy and Market Growth
• Business and Financial Acumen
• Market and Industry Acumen
• New Customer Acquisition and Account Growth
• Pipeline Management and Forecasting
• Sales Analytics and Data-Driven Decision-Making
• Consultative Selling and Complex Deal Strategy

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Normal office environment.
• Regular, in-person attendance required
• Primary office location: Cleveland, OH
• Travel required: Approximately 50%.
• Visits to customer manufacturing facilities may involve exposure to noise, operating machinery, and varying temperatures, as well as walking and standing on production floors.
• Adherence to customer site safety requirements, including use of required personal protective equipment (PPE)

Summary POSITION TITLE: Sales Director (Workforce Development) GROUP: Tooling U-SME FLSA CLASSIFICATION: Exempt SME is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and veteran status. Applicants must reside in the United States and be legally authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for sponsorship. The salary range for this position is $138,000 - $172,000 per year, based on experience and qualifications. Offers typically fall within this range based on individual qualifications and budget availability. In addition to base salary, SME offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 403(b) with company matching, generous paid time off and holidays, professional development and training opportunities, and additional wellness and work-life balance benefits. Certain positions may also be eligible for bonus/incentive compensation, subject to role and company policies. SME is currently unable to hire employees residing in California, Colorado, Oregon, or Washington.