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 direct reference to sales target achievement and KPI delivery, as the advert lists these as the primary requirements.
📊 Quantify your sales results: e.g. 'Consistently exceeded monthly sales targets by 18%, generating £320k revenue across 12 months' — the advert explicitly demands results-driven candidates.
🎯 Mention any experience conducting home visits or client consultations, as the role requires measuring and assessing clients' homes — even if from a non-kitchen background.
🏗️ If you have any CAD or design software experience (even basic), name it explicitly on your CV — the advert flags CAD as preferred, giving you an edge over candidates who omit it.
🤝 Highlight trade or B2B relationship management experience prominently, as the advert emphasises building trusted relationships with trade professionals as a core daily responsibility.
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 a trade account portfolio of 85 customers, generating £290k in revenue within a 12-month period.
- •Conducted 40+ client home visits per quarter to assess kitchen requirements, producing CAD-assisted design proposals that converted at a 72% close rate.
- •Negotiated pricing on 120+ kitchen projects, maintaining an average gross margin of 34% while retaining 96% of trade customer accounts year-on-year.
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 over 950 depots and a £2.4 billion turnover — makes the Kitchen Sales Designer role at your Stanmore depot a compelling next step. My background in trade sales and customer relationship management, combined with a proven track record of hitting KPIs and negotiating confidently on price, aligns directly with what you are seeking.
My background in B2B sales has equipped me with the skills to build lasting relationships with trade professionals, conduct thorough client consultations including home visits, and translate customer briefs into practical, inspiring designs. I am comfortable working to depot targets and thrive when accountable for both sales performance and margin protection. I am keen to develop my CAD skills further through the Ready to Trade Programme and apply them immediately within a depot environment.
Free signup, no card needed. Export to PDF/Word requires a £1.99 trial (14 days).
Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›Walk us through how you would use CAD software to create a kitchen layout for a client with an awkward L-shaped room.
- ›How do you use product knowledge to upsell or cross-sell items such as joinery and hardware alongside a kitchen order?
- ›Describe your process for conducting a home visit — what do you measure, assess and record?
- ›How would you protect margin when a trade customer pushes back on pricing during negotiation?
- ›What steps would you take to resolve a design query raised mid-project by a trade customer's client?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you exceeded a sales target — what approach did you take and what was the outcome?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to build trust with a sceptical trade customer. How did you approach it?
- ›Give an example of when you managed multiple customer projects simultaneously. How did you prioritise?
- ›Tell me about a time a client was unhappy with a design or product. How did you handle it?
- ›Describe a time you had to negotiate confidently under pressure. What was the result?
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 approach did you take and what was the outcome?
Describe a situation where you had to build trust with a sceptical trade customer. How did you approach it?