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.
⭐ Lead your CV personal statement with measurable sales achievements — the advert explicitly requires experience of reaching sales targets and KPIs, so open with a headline figure such as '£X revenue generated' or 'consistently exceeded targets by X%'.
📊 Quantify every sales role: write bullets like 'Grew account base by 22 trade clients in 6 months, contributing £85k in incremental depot revenue' to directly mirror the depot-target language in the advert.
🎯 Mention any kitchen, interiors, or home-improvement sales context prominently — Howdens serves trade professionals, so sector-adjacent experience (bathrooms, flooring, furniture) is a strong differentiator worth naming in your skills section.
🚗 Confirm your full UK Driving Licence in your personal details or skills section, as the advert lists it as a hard requirement for conducting home visits.
🖥️ If you have any CAD or room-planning software experience (even free tools like IKEA Home Planner or RoomSketcher), list it explicitly — the advert notes CAD is preferred, and naming a tool shows initiative before the Ready to Trade training begins.
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:
- •Achieved 112% of annual sales target across a 12-month period by conducting 3 home visits per week and converting 68% of design consultations into confirmed orders.
- •Built a portfolio of 45 active trade accounts within 8 months of joining, generating £320k in depot revenue through consistent relationship management and product upselling.
- •Reduced average project query resolution time from 5 days to 2 days by maintaining detailed CAD design records and proactive communication with trade customers throughout each kitchen installation.
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for Howdens Joinery. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to Howdens Joinery
Dear Hiring Manager,
Howdens Joinery's reputation as the UK's number one trade kitchen supplier — backed by 950+ depots and a £2.4 billion turnover — makes the Kitchen Sales Designer role in Fareham a compelling next step. My experience in trade sales and customer relationship management, combined with a results-driven approach to hitting KPIs, aligns directly with what your depot team needs to drive sales performance and protect margin.
My background in client-facing sales has seen me conduct home visits, manage projects from initial brief through to completion, and negotiate pricing confidently while keeping customer satisfaction high. I am comfortable working to depot targets and thrive when building long-term relationships with trade professionals who rely on consistent, knowledgeable support.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›Walk us through how you would conduct a home visit — from initial measurement to presenting a final kitchen design to the client.
- ›How do you use CAD or design software to communicate a kitchen layout to a trade customer who may not be design-literate?
- ›Describe how you would balance a customer's design aspirations with their budget while protecting depot margin.
- ›A trade customer wants to substitute a product for a cheaper alternative that compromises the design. How do you handle that conversation?
- ›How would you use Howdens' product range to upsell or cross-sell joinery and hardware alongside a kitchen order?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you exceeded a sales target — what specific actions did you take to get there?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to build trust quickly with a new trade customer. What was your approach?
- ›Give an example of when you had to negotiate a price under pressure while maintaining the integrity of the sale.
- ›Tell me about a time a project didn't go to plan during delivery. How did you manage the customer relationship?
- ›Describe a time you had to manage multiple customer projects simultaneously — how did you prioritise and stay on top of each one?
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 specific actions did you take to get there?
Give an example of when you had to negotiate a price under pressure while maintaining the integrity of the sale.