Trainee Technical Sales Manager

Location: Home based regional role – covering Bristol and Wales

Report To: General Manager

Direct reports: None

Benefits: Commission, pension and 21 days holidays plus bank holidays, car allowance & phone allowance

The opportunity: Are you working in the paints, coatings or wood-finishing industry and thinking about taking the next step in your career? Perhaps you have a strong technical background but little or no sales experience but you have a natural commercial instinct. If you're confident, personable, commercially minded and hungry to succeed, this could be the opportunity for you.

Woodfinishes is a family-run business experiencing an exciting period of growth, as part of a wider UK group of companies achieving great things in the paint and coatings sector. We're now expanding into Bristol and South Wales and are looking for a Trainee Technical Sales Manager to help us build our customer base in this brand-new territory. This isn't a traditional trainee role where you'll spend months sitting in a classroom. You'll be learning by doing — developing your product knowledge, building your sales skills and getting out into the market.

And because this is a brand-new territory, there is no established customer base to manage. You'll be learning how to identify potential customers, pick up the phone, open doors, build relationships and ultimately win new business. We'll give you the product knowledge, training and support you need. What we're looking for is the right attitude, confidence and commercial potential. If the idea of turning your technical knowledge into a successful sales career excites you, we'd love to hear from you.

About the role: Working from home and covering Bristol and South Wales, you'll work alongside our experienced team while developing your own territory and sales skills. You'll spend your time:

• Learning about our products, customers and the technical applications of our coatings
• Identifying and approaching potential new customers
• Making calls and arranging face-to-face meetings
• Developing relationships with new contacts
• Understanding customers' requirements and learning how to recommend the right solutions
• Generating and following up leads
• Preparing quotations and learning about pricing and margins
• Developing your negotiation and closing skills
• Supporting the growth of customer accounts
• Keeping up to date with products, processes and developments within the coatings and wood-finishing sector
• Working closely with our small team and head office in Yeovil
• Visiting our Yeovil head office approximately twice a month

This is a role where your earning potential will grow alongside your sales success, with a generous commission scheme.

What we're looking for: We're particularly interested in people who have experience within paints, coatings, wood finishing, abrasives or an associated sector. You don't need to have worked in sales before. What matters is that you have a good understanding of coatings and a genuine desire to develop a career in technical sales.

We're looking for someone with:

• A good technical understanding of paints and coatings
• Confidence talking to customers and new people
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills
• Commercial curiosity and an interest in how businesses work
• The confidence to pick up the phone and start a conversation
• A willingness to learn sales, negotiation and business development skills
• Good organisational and IT skills, including Microsoft Office and customer databases
• A positive, energetic and professional approach

An existing network of contacts within the coatings, wood-finishing or abrasives sectors would be an advantage, but isn't essential. Most importantly, we're looking for someone who has the potential to become a great salesperson.

This is a chance to build a career in technical sales with the backing of an established business and an experienced team. We'll help you develop the sales skills you need, while your existing technical knowledge gives you a valuable head start. You'll have the opportunity to build your own territory from the ground up, develop strong customer relationships and, as your sales skills and results grow, increase your earning potential through our generous commission scheme.

You won't be expected to know everything from day one. We'd much rather find someone with the right attitude, confidence and potential — and help them become brilliant at the rest. If you're ready to take your technical knowledge and turn it into a successful sales career, we want to hear from you.

Hours: 40