Leadership Philosophy
Lead with a servant’s heart, an owner’s mindset, and an unwavering commitment to customers, people, accountability, operational excellence, and profitable growth while preserving the company’s culture and reputation.
Core Values
Positive Energy > Growth Oriented > Team > Family > Emotional Intelligence > Continuous Improvement > Integrity
Position Summary
The Sales Manager is the senior commercial leader responsible for profitable revenue growth, customer retention, market development, pricing discipline, and sales-team performance across Weaver Brothers Pallet’s manufacturing, brokerage, and transportation businesses. Reporting to the General Manager, this role converts customer needs into practical, profitable solutions while aligning sales commitments with production capacity, sourcing capabilities, fleet resources, and the company’s service standards.
Primary Areas of Responsibility
· Develop and execute the annual sales plan in support of company revenue, gross-margin, EBITDA, cash-flow, and working-capital objectives.
· Lead customer acquisition, account growth, retention, pricing, quoting, forecasting, pipeline management, and commercial reporting.
· Build a disciplined sales process with clear goals, account ownership, follow-up expectations, and measurable accountability.
· Coordinate closely with operations, brokerage, purchasing, transportation, finance, and ownership to ensure every commitment is executable and profitable.
· Develop trusted relationships with customers and represent the company with professionalism, responsiveness, integrity, and positive energy.
Sales Strategy & Profitable Growth
· Translate the General Manager’s strategic objectives into territory, market, customer, and product-level growth plans.
· Identify and prioritize target accounts in pallet manufacturing, recycled pallets, brokerage, logistics, and related wood-products markets.
· Expand share of wallet with existing customers through additional products, locations, lanes, and service solutions.
· Maintain a balanced portfolio that avoids unhealthy customer concentration and protects sustainable margins.
· Use market intelligence, competitor activity, customer feedback, and capacity information to recommend growth investments and commercial priorities.
Customer & Key Account Leadership
· Personally manage or provide executive oversight for strategic and high-value customer relationships.
· Establish regular business reviews with key accounts to discuss service, quality, forecasts, pricing, upcoming needs, and improvement opportunities.
· Resolve escalated customer concerns promptly and coordinate corrective action with the appropriate operating leader.
· Maintain accurate customer requirements, contacts, specifications, pricing agreements, and service expectations.
· Protect long-term relationships through honest communication, reliable follow-through, and commercially sound problem-solving.
Pricing, Quoting & Margin Management
· Own pricing discipline and quoting standards in partnership with operations, purchasing, brokerage, transportation, and finance.
· Ensure quotes reflect current lumber and component costs, labor, freight, third-party sourcing, required specifications, capacity, risk, and target margin.
· Maintain documented approval thresholds for discounts, low-margin business, special terms, freight concessions, and nonstandard commitments.
· Lead timely price reviews and customer communication when material, labor, fuel, freight, or market conditions change.
· Review customer and product profitability, address margin leakage, and recommend repricing, redesign, sourcing changes, or exit strategies when appropriate.
Manufacturing, Brokerage & Transportation Coordination
· Align manufacturing sales opportunities with plant capacity, material availability, quality requirements, lead times, and production economics.
· Use the $5.4M brokerage operation strategically to broaden customer solutions, fill supply gaps, support multiple locations, and improve account penetration.
· Coordinate with the $1.9M transportation operation on routing, delivery commitments, fleet capacity, outside freight opportunities, and delivered-cost economics.
· Conduct structured handoffs for new business so specifications, volumes, timing, sourcing, credit, and delivery requirements are understood before launch.
· Participate in sales and operations planning to improve forecast accuracy, schedule stability, customer service, and resource utilization.
Sales Team Leadership & Development
· Recruit, onboard, coach, and develop sales and customer-service talent as the commercial organization grows.
· Set clear expectations for activity, pipeline quality, account plans, forecast accuracy, margin performance, retention, and new-business results.
· Conduct regular one-on-one coaching, opportunity reviews, field visits, and performance evaluations.
· Create a team culture of preparation, accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and service.
· Recommend incentive plans that reward profitable growth, collections quality, retention, and teamwork—not revenue alone.
Sales Process, Forecasting & Reporting
· Maintain a current sales pipeline with opportunity value, probability, margin expectation, next action, owner, and anticipated close date.
· Provide accurate weekly and monthly forecasts by customer, product/service line, and division.
· Report sales results, backlog, wins, losses, risks, pricing actions, market conditions, and customer concentration to the General Manager.
· Establish practical CRM or account-management disciplines appropriate to the business and ensure consistent use.
· Partner with finance on credit limits, payment terms, receivables risks, contract review, and the quality of new revenue.
Culture & Amish Workforce Alignment
· Respect the company’s Amish workforce and community relationships by communicating customer needs clearly, practically, and respectfully through operations leadership.
· Avoid making commitments that create unnecessary schedule instability, conflict with practical operating constraints, or undermine trust.
· Build constructive relationships between customers, sales, and production while respecting leadership channels and cultural differences.
· Model humility, fairness, face-to-face communication, consistency, and integrity.
Decision Rights & Accountability
· Recommend annual sales targets, market priorities, pricing strategies, staffing needs, and commercial investments for General Manager approval.
· Approve quotes, pricing, and customer commitments within established authority limits; escalate material exceptions before commitment.
· Own the accuracy of the sales forecast and the commercial quality of the pipeline.
· Remain accountable for profitable growth while operating leaders retain authority over safe capacity, scheduling, production methods, sourcing execution, and fleet compliance.
Key Performance Indicators
Measure
Management Focus
Revenue Growth
Growth by customer, market, and division versus plan
Gross Margin
Gross-margin dollars and percentage; price realization
New Business
Qualified wins, annualized value, margin, and launch quality
Customer Retention
Revenue and gross profit retained; churn and at-risk accounts
Pipeline Health
Coverage, stage quality, conversion rate, and sales cycle
Forecast Accuracy
Actual results compared with weekly and monthly forecast
Customer Concentration
Exposure to largest customers and progress diversifying
Service & Quality
On-time delivery, complaints, returns, and corrective-action closure
Working Capital Quality
Payment terms, receivable performance, and credit compliance
Cross-Division Growth
Manufacturing, brokerage, and transportation opportunities captured
Qualifications
· 7+ years of progressive sales, business-development, or commercial leadership experience in wood products, pallets, lumber, packaging, manufacturing, logistics, or a related industrial market.
· Demonstrated record of profitable revenue growth, key-account development, pricing discipline, negotiation, and customer retention.
· Strong business and financial acumen, including the ability to understand costs, gross margin, freight economics, working capital, and customer profitability.
· Experience leading a sales process, developing forecasts, managing a pipeline, and coaching commercial team members.
· Clear communicator who can work effectively with ownership, customers, production leaders, office staff, drivers, suppliers, and a predominantly Amish production workforce.
· High integrity, positive energy, emotional intelligence, humility, practical judgment, and an owner’s mindset.
· Bachelor’s degree in business, sales, marketing, operations, or a related field preferred; relevant industry leadership experience may substitute.
Working Relationships
Reports to: General Manager
Key internal partners: Operations Manager, Production Manager, Brokerage Lead, Transportation Lead, Purchasing/Buyer, Office Manager/Controller, maintenance leadership, and ownership.
External relationships: Strategic customers, prospects, purchasing and plant contacts, supplier partners, third-party manufacturers, carriers, and industry organizations.
Position Expectations
This is a hands-on leadership role requiring regular customer contact, disciplined follow-up, field travel, plant coordination, and active participation in leadership meetings. The Sales Manager is expected to balance urgency with operational reality, protect the company’s reputation, and consistently choose profitable, sustainable growth over volume without adequate return.
Pay: $80,000.00 - $115,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
