Sales Manager

Company Overview:

Our Client is a well-established manufacturer with over 75 years of experience in designing and producing specialized industrial machinery and components—particularly for the production of tubular electric heating elements and related components. Since 2014, the company has been part of a larger Italian industrial group with a complementary product portfolio. In the U.S., the company operates as both a manufacturer and distributor, also offering selected equipment from other companies within the group, through a direct-to-customer sales model.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Sales Manager to lead and grow our Client's commercial operations in North America and Mexico. This is a strategic role responsible for maintaining relationships with existing customers (mainly in the heating elements sector) while expanding into new verticals and adjacent markets. This is a consultative B2B sales role focused on understanding industrial production processes and offering tailored technical solutions.

The Sales Manager will report operationally to the U.S. COO and functionally to the Group Sales Manager based in Italy. He/she will coordinate one Internal Sales Support resource.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and implement sales strategies aligned with group objectives
• Propose and execute market-specific sales plans
• Maintain and grow relationships with existing industrial clients (mainly manufacturers of tubular heating elements for appliances and related sectors)
• Identify new business opportunities and adjacent applications
• Conduct market research and develop customer insights
• Prepare technical/commercial proposals in collaboration with the commercial and technical departments
• Support clients with consultative selling and basic technical advisory
• Ensure CRM (MS Dynamics) is used for full tracking of interactions and opportunities
• Collaborate with production and engineering teams on custom machine requests

Qualifications & Skills:

• 5–10 years of experience in industrial B2B machinery sales (preferably involving mechanical equipment or process-related systems)
• Familiarity with consultative/technical sales approaches
• Strong communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills
• Proficiency in CRM systems (preferably Microsoft Dynamics) and MS Office
• Understanding of market segmentation, sales forecasting, and performance tracking
• Comfortable interacting with engineers and production managers
• Must be an Italian native speaker or bilingual with 10–15 years of experience in the U.S. industrial market
• Must be authorized to work in the U.S. (Green Card or citizenship preferred; candidates with transferable visa also considered)
• Comfortable travelling up to 50% of the time domestically and internationally..

Compensation & Benefits:

• Annual Bonus: Up to 25% (Year 1: 60% individual performance / 40% company results; Year 2: inverted ratio)
• 401(k) with 3% company match.
• Health Insurance
• 3 weeks of vacation, plus 10 paid holidays

Notes:

• This role is on-site in the Chicago area; partial remote work can be discussed after onboarding and training
• Product training and customer visits will be conducted jointly with global sales team during onboarding phase
• The ideal candidate is expected to consolidate current clients and generate at least $1M in new business within 12–18 months