Kitchen Sales Designer
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Join Howdens where our trade depots are recruiting Kitchen Sales Designers who thrive in a fast-paced sales environment. We’re looking for commercially minded individuals who can build strong relationships, influence buying decisions and exceed sales targets.
We can offer you a successful career as a Kitchen Sales Designer, and you don’t need previous design experience. We’ll provide you with comprehensive design and sales training to create exceptional kitchens for our trade customers and their clients.
What we can offer you:
- Competitive salary, brilliant bonuses and outstanding depot incentives
- Full CAD, product and sales training via our Ready to Trade Programme
- Competitive Pension Plan up to 12% company contribution
- Up to 32 days annual leave per year including bank holidays, rising with service
- Generous staff discount on Howdens products
- Buy-as-you-earn share scheme
- 40 hour working week working every other Saturday morning.
- No Sunday or Bank Holiday working
- Career progression opportunities into sales management roles
- Virtual GP access and wellbeing support for you and your family
What we are looking for:
- Results driven with experience of reaching sales targets and KPI
- Ability to build trusted relationships with our trade customers and their client
- Excellent communication skills, able to convey your ideas clearly and effectively
- Full UK Driving license with access to your own vehicle for home visits
- Strong attention to detail and an eye for design
- CAD skills are preferred, but not essential as you will receive training
What you will be doing:
- Driving sales performance and profit by achieving your depot targets
- Building strong customer relationships through professional design support
- Delivering exceptional customer service throughout the project
- Conducting home visits to measure, assess and understand your client’s needs
- Negotiating prices confidently while protecting margin and design integrity
- Planning and creating inspirational and practical designs utilising your strong product knowledge to advise customers and resolve queries throughout the process
About Us:
Howdens Joinery is the UK’s number one trade kitchen supplier providing thousands of products across kitchens, joinery, and hardware. We have over 950 depots throughout the UK and Europe, making us the first choice for more than 460,000 loyal trade professionals. With an ambitious and credible growth plan, we continue to build on our £2.4 billion turnover.
How to apply:
If Howdens sounds like the kind of place where you can build and develop your career as a Kitchen Sales Designer, then we are keen to hear from you.
Howdens is founded on the principle of being Worthwhile for ALL concerned. We’re working hard to ensure we provide an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome. We will do everything we can to support you during your application. If you need us to make any adjustments to our recruitment process, please email with the job title and location, and we will be happy to help you.
#LI-LO1 #CVL INDKSD #Reed
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Highlight any sales target or KPI achievement prominently in your Personal Statement — the advert explicitly lists 'results driven with experience of reaching sales targets and KPI' as a core requirement.
📊 Quantify your sales results wherever possible: e.g. 'Exceeded monthly sales target by 22% for 6 consecutive months' or 'Managed a portfolio of 40+ trade accounts'.
🎯 Mention any experience conducting home visits, surveys or client consultations — the advert specifically calls out home visits to measure and assess client needs as a key duty.
🖥️ If you have any CAD or kitchen design software experience (even basic), name the tool explicitly (e.g. 'Experienced with Winner Design CAD software') as CAD skills are listed as preferred.
🤝 Emphasise trade customer relationship management in your work history — Howdens serves 460,000+ trade professionals, so demonstrating B2B or trade-facing experience will directly resonate with the hiring team.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Exceeded depot sales targets by 18% over 12 months by conducting structured home visits for 35+ trade customers and converting design consultations into confirmed kitchen orders.
- •Managed a pipeline of 50 concurrent kitchen projects using CAD planning software, reducing design revision requests by 30% through precise initial client briefing and measurement.
- •Negotiated bespoke pricing agreements with 20 repeat trade accounts, maintaining an average gross margin of 42% while growing account revenue by £85,000 year-on-year.
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Letter preview — tailored to Howdens Joinery
Dear Hiring Manager,
Howdens Joinery's reputation as the UK's number one trade kitchen supplier — backed by a £2.4 billion turnover and 950+ depots — makes the Kitchen Sales Designer role in Alnwick a compelling next step for me. I am drawn specifically by the combination of design-led consultancy and results-driven depot sales, two areas where I have consistently delivered against KPIs and built trusted relationships with trade customers.
My background in trade sales and customer-facing design consultancy has equipped me with the skills to conduct thorough home visits, translate client briefs into practical kitchen plans, and negotiate confidently on price while protecting margin. I have a strong eye for design detail and am comfortable managing multiple customer projects simultaneously from initial survey through to final specification.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How would you approach planning a kitchen layout for a client with an awkward or non-standard room shape?
- ›What CAD or kitchen design tools have you used, and how did you use them to present designs to customers?
- ›How do you balance a customer's design aspirations with their budget constraints while protecting your depot's margin?
- ›Walk me through how you would conduct a home visit — what do you measure, assess and discuss with the client?
- ›How do you stay up to date with kitchen product ranges and joinery trends to advise trade customers effectively?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you exceeded a sales target — what did you do differently to achieve it?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to manage a difficult customer relationship and bring it back on track.
- ›Give me an example of when you had to negotiate a price confidently without sacrificing margin — what was the outcome?
- ›Tell me about a time you had to manage multiple customer projects simultaneously — how did you prioritise?
- ›Describe a situation where attention to detail in a design or order prevented a costly mistake for a customer.
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you exceeded a sales target — what did you do differently to achieve it?
Describe a situation where attention to detail in a design or order prevented a costly mistake for a customer.