Sales Manager

Our client is a specialized industrial heat treatment service provider based in Alabama, serving a diverse manufacturing and industrial customer base with particular strength in the aerospace and military defense ecosystem. As an established leader in precision metal treatment, the company delivers critical heat treating solutions that enhance the durability, strength, and performance of metal components for both small machine shops and major defense contractors. This growth-oriented organization values relationship building, operational excellence, and the ability to serve customers across the entire aerospace and defense supply chain with agility and technical precision.

Summary

The Sales Associate / Sales Manager role is a business development position designed to drive growth across a broad industrial customer base, with notable focus on the aerospace and military ecosystem. This is a technical and commercial "consultative seller" role, requiring the ability to learn customer operations, identify fit, and sell solutions rather than transactionally peddle products. The successful candidate will learn the business, quoting processes, and contracting procedures while gaining increasing autonomy over time. The primary intent is to add a self-directed hunter who can extend market coverage beyond current sales leadership capacity. This position requires navigating both small machine shops (engaging owner/operators on the shop floor) and large prime contractors (presenting to executive and boardroom stakeholders at major defense and aerospace accounts). The role demands patience for long sales cycles, disciplined pipeline management, and the ability to adapt as the company adds new capabilities through organic growth and potential acquisitions.

Responsibilities

• New Business Prospecting and Pipeline Development: Actively hunt for new business opportunities by building and maintaining a comprehensive call list and sales pipeline, identifying prospects across the aerospace, defense, and industrial manufacturing sectors within the assigned territory.
• Consultative Discovery and Needs Assessment: Conduct thorough discovery sessions to understand customer business operations, process flows, and pain points, positioning Pinson Valley's heat treating services to win work and improve margins through value-based selling rather than price competition.
• Quote Coordination and Customer Service Collaboration: Work closely with customer serviceon quoting processes, pricing strategies, and day-to-day job coordination to ensure seamless service delivery and customer satisfaction.
• Multi-Level Stakeholder Engagement: Navigate diverse customer environments from small machine shops to large prime contractors, demonstrating both shop-floor credibility when engaging owner/operators and executive presence when presenting to C-suite and boardroom stakeholders at major accounts.
• Long-Cycle Opportunity Management: Manage complex sales opportunities with extended timelines (ranging from months to multiple years), sustaining consistent activity, relationship nurturing, and strategic follow-through until successful close.
• CRM and Activity Documentation: Systematically document all sales activities, customer interactions, and opportunities in a CRM or tracking system to reduce reliance on memory, enable business continuity, and provide leadership visibility into pipeline health and coverage.
• Capability Expansion and Cross-Selling: Adapt selling approach as the company adds new capabilities through organic growth and potential add-on acquisitions, learning and cross-selling expanded service offerings as they come online to maximize customer wallet share.
• Territory Coverage and Travel Management: Maximize efficiency of windshield time and travel within the Southeast U.S. territory (primarily within 100-200 miles of Birmingham, AL), strategically planning customer visits to optimize face-time and relationship development.
• Sales Reporting and Pipeline Reviews: Produce regular call lists, activity reports, and pipeline updates for leadership review, maintaining transparency and accountability while operating with high independence between check-ins.
• Market Intelligence and Competitive Positioning: Gather and share customer feedback, competitive intelligence, and market trends with leadership and internal teams to inform business strategy, service development, and competitive positioning initiatives.

Education and Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Sales, Engineering, or related field preferred; equivalent combination of education and proven sales experience will be considered
• Minimum 3-5 years of B2B sales experience with demonstrated track record of new business development and consistently meeting or exceeding sales targets
• Experience in industrial, manufacturing, aerospace, defense, or technical services sales strongly preferred; heat treating industry experience is a valuable bonus but not mandatory
• Proven ability to manage long, complex sales cycles with multiple stakeholders and extended timelines from prospecting through close
• Experience selling to both small businesses (owner/operators) and large enterprise accounts (Fortune 500, defense contractors, aerospace primes) is highly desirable
• Proficiency with CRM systems (Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar) and demonstrated discipline in pipeline management, activity tracking, and sales reporting
• Strong consultative selling skills with ability to conduct discovery, identify customer pain points, and position solutions based on value rather than price
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to present effectively to diverse audiences from shop floor to boardroom
• Self-motivated and independent work style with proven ability to manage territory, prioritize activities, and produce results without daily supervision
• Technical aptitude and willingness to learn heat treating processes, metallurgy basics, and aerospace/defense industry specifications and quality requirements
• Existing relationships within aerospace, defense, or industrial manufacturing sectors in the Southeast U.S. region is a significant advantage but not required