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 — the advert lists these as the primary requirements under 'What we are looking for'.
📊 Quantify your sales results wherever possible: e.g. 'Consistently exceeded monthly sales targets by 15%, generating £180k in annual depot revenue'.
🎯 Mention any experience conducting home visits or client consultations, as the role explicitly requires measuring and assessing clients' homes — even if from a non-kitchen context.
🛠️ If you have any CAD or design software experience (even basic), name the specific tool (e.g. 'Winner Design', 'Fusion 360', 'AutoCAD') as the advert flags CAD skills as preferred.
🤝 Highlight trade or B2B customer relationship experience prominently, as Howdens serves 460,000+ trade professionals and the advert repeatedly emphasises building trusted trade relationships.
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 monthly sales KPIs by an average of 18% over 12 consecutive months, contributing £220k to annual depot revenue through proactive trade customer engagement.
- •Conducted 40+ home visits per month to measure, assess and design bespoke kitchen layouts using CAD software, achieving a 92% conversion rate from design consultation to confirmed order.
- •Negotiated pricing agreements with 30 regular trade accounts, maintaining a gross margin of 38% while securing repeat business worth £95k over a six-month period.
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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, combined with the structured Ready to Trade Programme at the Thurmaston depot, makes the Kitchen Sales Designer position a natural next step for me. My track record of exceeding sales targets and building trusted relationships with trade customers aligns directly with what you are looking for in this role.
My background in sales and customer-facing design consultation has equipped me with the ability to conduct thorough home visits, translate client briefs into practical kitchen layouts, and negotiate confidently while protecting margin. Over the past three years I have consistently delivered against monthly KPIs, managing a portfolio of trade accounts and resolving design queries from initial brief through to project completion.
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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 room.
- ›How do you ensure your product knowledge stays current when Howdens has thousands of SKUs across kitchens, joinery and hardware?
- ›Describe the process you would follow from an initial home visit through to finalising a kitchen design and closing the sale.
- ›How would you approach protecting margin when a trade customer is pushing hard for a discount on a large order?
- ›What steps do you take to measure a kitchen accurately on a home visit, and how do you translate those measurements into a CAD design?
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 an example of when you had to balance multiple client projects simultaneously — how did you prioritise?
- ›Tell me about a time you had to negotiate on price while protecting your company's margin. What was the outcome?
- ›Describe a situation where attention to detail in a design or project prevented a costly mistake.
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?
Tell me about a time you had to negotiate on price while protecting your company's margin. What was the outcome?