Territory Sales Manager

Aerol Territory Manager

Department: Sales – Aerol

Reports To: Vice President of Sales

Classification: Exempt

Position Type: Full-Time

Travel: Approximately 25–35%, including overnight travel

Summary / Objective

Aerol is seeking a motivated, technically curious, results-driven Territory Manager to grow an assigned geographic territory. This position is responsible for increasing sales with existing customers, developing new accounts, identifying new applications, and building long-term relationships that support Aerol’s profitable growth objectives.

The Territory Manager is the primary commercial owner of the territory and works closely with Inside Sales, Engineering, Marketing, Production, and Sales Leadership. Aerol serves demanding aerospace, defense, military ground support, shipboard, and other mission-critical applications with engineered casters, wheels, running gear, jacking systems, carts, trailers, and mobility solutions.

Essential Functions

Territory Growth & Account Management

• Own territory sales performance, account development, pipeline, and growth strategy.

• Develop and execute an annual territory plan aligned with Aerol sales and profit goals.

• Grow existing customers by identifying additional applications, departments, facilities, programs, and product opportunities.

• Identify, qualify, pursue, and close new customers in target markets.

• Maintain a focused list of strategic prospects with defined potential, contacts, opportunities, next steps, and win plans.

• Identify declining accounts, determine causes, and develop recapture plans.

• Prioritize activity based on account potential, strategic value, and probability of success.

• Conduct regular face-to-face visits and business reviews with strategic accounts.

• Build relationships across engineering, operations, maintenance, purchasing, program management, manufacturing engineering, safety, and leadership.

• Expand Aerol business across additional plants, programs, business units, and affiliated companies.

New Business Development

• Prospect consistently within the assigned territory.

• Research organizations where Aerol’s capabilities provide a strong technical or operational fit.

• Develop relationships within aerospace, defense, ground support equipment, military, marine, specialty vehicle, heavy equipment, and other appropriate markets.

• Understand competitive products, incumbent suppliers, customer specifications, and barriers to winning business.

• Develop strategic pursuit plans for high-value targets rather than relying solely on transactional quoting.

• Participate in trade shows, industry events, and customer events as required.

Technical & Application Selling

• Develop a working knowledge of Aerol products, including aluminum and steel casters, high-speed casters, jacking and leveling casters, pneumatic casters, specialty/FOD-sensitive casters, military and aerospace running gear, wheels, braking systems, carts, trailers, and custom mobility solutions.

• Conduct application discovery covering load, speed, environment, duty cycle, terrain, shock, corrosion, FOD requirements, maneuverability, braking, leveling, towing, maintenance, safety, and applicable specifications.

• Visit customer facilities when onsite evaluation will improve the opportunity.

• Gather complete technical and commercial information for Engineering and internal teams.

• Collaborate with Aerol Engineering on custom or non-standard applications.

• Translate technical capabilities into customer value, including reliability, safety, reduced maintenance, improved uptime, longer life, improved mobility, and lower total cost of ownership.

Sales Process & Pipeline

• Follow the company sales process, including Sandler principles and Up Front Contracts.

• Qualify opportunities by understanding the problem, application, business impact, budget, timeline, decision process, competition, stakeholders, and next steps.

• Maintain ownership of opportunities from discovery through order.

• Maintain accurate 30-, 60-, and 90-day pipeline forecasts.

• Review major opportunities and strategic targets with Sales Leadership.

• Record meaningful closed-lost reasons and competitive information.

CRM & Reporting

• Maintain accurate customer, contact, activity, opportunity, and pipeline information in the company CRM.

• Document meetings, calls, technical discussions, competitive information, and agreed next steps.

• Maintain future follow-up tasks and current opportunity close dates, values, probabilities, and project status.

• Be prepared to discuss the status, strategy, and next action for major territory opportunities.

• Provide required sales reporting.

Internal Collaboration

• Work closely with the assigned Inside Sales/Territory Support partner.

• Clearly communicate account priorities, customer expectations, open projects, quotes, and follow-up needs.

• Coordinate before, during, and after travel so customer needs continue to move forward.

• Collaborate with Engineering, Marketing, Production, Customer Service, Quality, and Sales Leadership.

• Communicate market intelligence including competitive activity, customer trends, emerging applications, and potential new markets.

Travel Expectations

• Approximately 25–35% travel, including overnight travel.

• Approximately two targeted territory trips per month, or more as business needs require.

• Plan trips around strategic customers, high-potential prospects, and major projects.

• Maximize field time by building multiple productive meetings around each trip.

• Maintain an organized travel schedule and manage company equipment and expenses according to policy.

Performance Expectations

Success will be measured by:

• Territory revenue and gross margin growth

• Growth within strategic existing accounts

• New customer acquisition

• Development of significant new programs and applications

• Pipeline quality and value

• Progress within strategic target accounts

• Customer retention and account penetration

• Consistent prospecting and business-development activity

• CRM and forecasting discipline

• Effective use of customer-facing travel

The ultimate expectation is measurable, profitable territory growth.

Competencies

• Initiative and personal accountability

• Business development and strategic account planning

• Technical curiosity and problem-solving ability

• Strong questioning, discovery, negotiation, and closing skills

• Ability to communicate technical information clearly

• Strong written and verbal communication

• Ability to present to groups of 2–100 people

• Ability to discuss financials and budgets and use them to influence mid- to senior-level decision makers

• Emotional intelligence, time management, and organizational discipline

• Ability to work independently and collaborate with internal teams

• Comfort working in manufacturing, aerospace, defense, and industrial environments

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

• Three or more years of outside sales, technical sales, business development, industrial sales, aerospace sales, defense sales, or related experience.

• Demonstrated ability to develop new business and grow existing accounts.

• Experience selling technical, engineered, or application-specific products preferred.

• Familiarity with aerospace, defense, military ground support equipment, industrial manufacturing, or material handling is strongly preferred.

• CRM experience required; Sandler or similar consultative sales training preferred.

• Hands-on engineering experience is a plus.

• U.S. Military service is a plus.

• Top Secret clearance is a plus.

• Valid driver’s license and acceptable driving record required.

Security & Access Requirements

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.

• Must be able to obtain access to military bases and secure facilities, which requires no felony charges.

Work Environment & Physical Demands

This position operates from a home or company office, customer manufacturing and aerospace facilities, military or defense-related locations where access is permitted, and while traveling. The Territory Manager may be exposed to noise, weather, moving equipment, and other normal industrial conditions and must use required PPE.

The employee may be required to sit or drive for extended periods, communicate by phone, video, and in person, walk through customer facilities, inspect equipment and applications, take measurements, and safely navigate industrial environments.

About Aerol

Aerol provides highly engineered casters, wheels, running gear, leveling systems, carts, trailers, and mobility solutions for demanding applications where performance, durability, safety, and reliability are critical. Aerol combines proven products with application-specific engineering and manufacturing capabilities to help customers safely and reliably move critical equipment and payloads.

Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this position at any time.