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 a clear sales achievement — the advert opens with 'exceed sales targets', so quantify a target you've hit (e.g. '118% of quarterly sales target across 6 consecutive months').
📊 Quantify your sales results throughout your work history: 'Grew account base by 22 trade customers in 12 months, increasing depot revenue by £34k'.
🎯 Mention any CAD or design software experience (even basic) in your skills section — the advert lists CAD as preferred, so naming a tool such as Winner Design or Articad will differentiate you from candidates with none.
🚗 Explicitly state 'Full UK Driving Licence — own vehicle available' in your contact details or profile header, as the advert flags this as a firm requirement for home visits.
🤝 Include a bullet in each relevant role showing how you built trusted relationships with trade professionals or contractors, mirroring the advert's emphasis on 'trade customers and their clients'.
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 115% of annual sales target across 48 trade accounts, generating £280k in kitchen and joinery revenue within a single depot year.
- •Conducted 120+ home visits over 12 months, converting 78% of consultations into confirmed kitchen orders through tailored CAD design presentations.
- •Negotiated pricing with 30+ trade contractors on high-value projects averaging £8,500 per kitchen, maintaining a gross margin above 42% throughout.
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 a £2.4 billion turnover and 950+ depots — makes the Kitchen Sales Designer position in High Wycombe a compelling next step. My background in trade sales and customer relationship management, combined with a track record of consistently hitting KPIs, aligns directly with what your depot team needs.
My background in sales and design consultation has equipped me with the ability to conduct thorough home visits, translate client briefs into practical kitchen plans, and negotiate confidently while protecting margin. I have worked closely with trade professionals, building the kind of trusted, repeat-business relationships that Howdens places at the heart of its model. I am confident I can absorb the Ready to Trade Programme quickly and begin contributing to depot targets from an early stage.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›Walk us through how you would use CAD software to plan a kitchen layout for a client with an awkward L-shaped space.
- ›How do you ensure your product knowledge stays current across a wide range of kitchen ranges and hardware?
- ›Describe the steps you take during a home visit to gather the measurements and information needed to produce an accurate kitchen design.
- ›How would you handle a situation where a trade customer's client changes the brief significantly after the design has been finalised?
- ›What approach do you take to protect margin when a customer pushes back on pricing during a negotiation?
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 build trust with a sceptical trade customer. How did you approach it and what was the outcome?
- ›Give an example of when you resolved a complex customer complaint while maintaining the relationship and protecting the sale.
- ›Tell me about a time you managed multiple customer projects simultaneously under time pressure. How did you prioritise?
- ›Describe a situation where you identified an upselling opportunity during a design consultation and successfully converted it.
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 you had to build trust with a sceptical trade customer. How did you approach it and what was the outcome?