TITLE                          Custom Product & Team Sales Specialist

REPORTS TO            Sales Manager, Marketing Director, CFO

GENERAL INFORMATION

Location:                     3445 36th St. Kentwood, MI 49512

Hours & Schedule:      Full-time on-location, Monday to Friday 8 AM – 5 PM

COMPANY INFORMATION – WHO WE ARE

Howies Hockey Tape is a locally owned and fast-growing business that has been around the Grand Rapids area since 2002 with another distribution facility operating out of Burlington, Ontario, just outside of Toronto. Our focus is selling high quality hockey tape, accessories, apparel, and many other sporting goods. Over the years we have become a staple in the hockey community, and we are currently working with every team in the NHL, AHL, and the majority of division 1 colleges around the country.

In 2015 we launched our sister company, Howies Athletic Tape. This allowed us to branch into new markets and has given us the opportunity to work with all sports. We have built this side of the company to an elite level that allows us to supply products to MLB, NFL, MLS, and NBA teams. We are also supporting D1 football programs like the University of Michigan, Alabama, and Michigan State, as well as thousands of high schools across North America. If someone needs tape or sports medicine products, we want to be the ones to supply it.

All in all, we pride ourselves on providing the world’s highest quality products to pro shops, retail stores, teams of all levels, and international distributors. Another facet we are focused on is expanding our internet sales business directly to consumers so everyone can use Howies. Our team-oriented culture, industry-leading customer service, and ability to fulfill orders quickly and error free across all sales channels sets us apart from the competition.

POSITION INFORMATION

“One Thing”: Take amazing care of potential and existing wholesale / custom customers, focusing on facilitating account growth and retaining customers for life

Due to the enormous amount of growth and anticipated new business, especially in the custom market, this will play a pivotal role for our sales team. We firmly believe that custom products will generate countless new opportunities for us moving forward and can be a viable route for revenue. Team sales is another huge focus, particularly with team apparel and jerseys, which will continue to grow with our plans for additional high quality product lines If you are looking to work in the world of sports for an internationally recognized company, this is a great chance to thrive in a fast-paced and culture-focused environment!

WHOLESALE SALES REPRESENTATIVE

• Ensure that your assigned wholesale customer base is well taken care or and predetermined growth goals are being met on a monthly basis
• Work diligently to ensure that customers continue to buy existing Howies products, while working to upsell as many products as possible that are not being purchased
• Work with Sales Manager to manage and create new pricing for customers annually
• Review pricing and volumes to increase overall margins while keeping the customer
• Adapt seamlessly to our sales strategies and have a deep knowledge of our product lines in order to effectively sell to both our hockey and sports medicine client base
• Effectively convert incoming phone / email inquiries about opening new accounts into good relationships and lifelong customers. Must convert on the “low hanging fruit”
• Customer advocated business development – Develop referrals and generate new customers through rapport with existing customers

CUSTOM PRODUCTS REPRESENTATIVE

• Service potential and existing customers who are interested in purchasing custom products, and following up for repeat buys from customers who have bought previously
• Answer phones and respond to emails with excellent attitude. Time is of the essence, and we expect this person to quickly respond to all customer emails and phone calls
• Work with customers to determine their needs, create rapport, and build a genuine relationship to sell them on our custom products and upsell when appropriate
• Work closely with graphic designer and marketing team to make sure the customer’s artwork is acceptable and determine if it is something we can work with for products
• Provide a digital and physical proof to customer and close the sale, and as always, make the customer experience top notch to ensure this leads to a Howies lifelong customer
• Diligently enter customers into our CRM / distribution software SalesPad with excellent attention to detail, treating them as a wholesale customer moving forward
• As a wholesale customer, make sure to contact them by phone or email at least once per quarter, and especially when you get closer to season / tournament start
• Work closely with suppliers to guarantee all products are processed quickly, are up to the quality standards we expect, and are appropriately priced to get the best deal

TOURNAMENT & HOCKEY CAMP SPECIALIST

• Work with tournament and hockey camp organizers to ensure Howies is represented proudly and benefits from the accompanying marketing opportunities
• Respond promptly to all email and phone call inquiries regarding events, tournaments, hockey camps, and golf outings. Must have knowledge of our offerings for these events
• Determine when and where Howies should be involved, and use this information to ensure Howies is gaining the proper exposure to bring in new customers to our website
• Properly educate contacts on different products and options that Howies can offer
• Whenever possible, make a sale! Small accessories (tote / swag bag filler items), or custom products tailored for the specific tournament or hockey camp
• Tournaments and camp that we have worked with in the past are to be treated as wholesale customers. Contact them regularly in goal of working with them again

GENERAL – As a small business there are many other tasks that will be required

• Represent Howies Hockey / Athletic Tape at tournaments and tradeshows as needed
• Order fulfillment – know how to process and pack all orders that come into Howies
• Work with the management and marketing teams to develop new marketing pieces
• Work with the management and sales teams to develop new sales ideas
• Communication and positive relationships with the entire team – top to bottom
• Engage both the operations and sales sides of the business daily
• Assist customer service team to ensure wholesale / online customers are taken care of
• Anything else required from Howies to be a best-in-class business

OUR COMPANY MANTRA

Here at Howies, we take the phrase “work hard, play hard” very seriously. When we are not busy assisting our customers, we are busy playing hockey and having a good time. When the days are just too perfect to be working, we will take a quick trip to the driving range, play pickup basketball, throw the football around, or get some batting practice in to stay seasoned for our summer softball league. Occasionally on one of these nice days in the summertime, we will grab some meat to BBQ and some drinks to share and enjoy each other’s company outside during lunch break. In the wintertime, we will crack open a couple of cold ones and watch the Red Wings or even pop downtown and catch a Griffins game at the Van. All in all, we are always up for a good time, both in the office and out. We strive to make the office an awesome environment that our team is excited to come to on a daily basis and put in a hard day’s work.

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