BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER - STRATEGIC CONTRACTOR AND DATA CENTER (49379)

Looking to start an exciting new career? City Electric Supply (CES) offers excellent career opportunities for people who are friendly and passionate about providing incredible customer service. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401K, paid time off, and internal growth opportunities.

About City Electric Supply

CES is a family-owned electrical wholesaler with the benefits of a worldwide service network and the personal service of a neighborhood store. Our "customer service first" core value has allowed us to grow continually for over over over 65 years while keeping our founding principle of empowering people to make local business decisions. CES now employs more than 7,400 people at over 1,000 branches world-wide of which there are over 500 branches across North America.  Our vision is to add 30-35 branches a year, while staying true to our Company values.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Business Development Manager (BDM) owns revenue and gross profit growth for an assigned portfolio of strategic general contractors, electrical contractors, data center owners and developers, OEM;s, modular builders and the engineering firms that design mission-critical facilities. The BDM is responsible for the full sales cycle, from opening new accounts and shaping specifications through award, and for growing those relationships into long-term, multi-project programs for CES.

Data center and large strategic-contractor work is won early. Electrical scope, basis-of-design equipment, and approved manufacturers are often set long before a bill of material exists. The BDM's defining responsibility is upstream specification selling; getting CES and its supplier partners written into designs, approved product lists, and contractor standards at the site-selection, design, and preconstruction stages, rather than quoting against someone else's specification after the fact.

The BDM reports to the Regional Sales Manager, works closely with the National Business Development Manager – Data Centers on hyperscale and colocation programs, draws on NSD's value-added groups to differentiate CES, and relies on the teams warehouse and logistics, centralized branch services and local branch network and the group's operations team to deliver.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Account and Territory Ownership:

• Develop and execute account plans for assigned strategic contractors (GC & EC), data center owners and developers, OEM’s, modular builders, EPCs, and consulting engineers, with defined targets for sales, gross profit, and category penetration.
• Open new accounts and expand existing ones by building relationships at the executive, preconstruction, estimating, project management, and procurement levels.
• Map the buying center on every major project, including owners, owner's representatives, design engineers, electrical contractor leadership, and procurement, and manage each relationship deliberately.

• Maintain an accurate pipeline and monthly forecast for the territory and report results to the Regional Sales Manager.

Client Experience and Partnership Development

The BDM owns the client experience end to end and is responsible for building each assigned account into a long-term partnership, using the NSD Partnership Continuum as the operating framework. Target allocation of effort and expectations by stage:

• Stage 1 – Identify (5% of effort): Controlled top of funnel with documented qualification criteria and fast, written disqualification.
• Stage 2 – Pursue (10% of effort): Confirmed decision-maker, defined problem, budget signal, and documented next step before operations is engaged.
• Stage 3 – Win (10% of effort): Pricing, negotiation, and technical alignment closed out with a written hand-off to operations.
• Stage 4 – Deliver (20% of effort): Weekly customer touchpoint during execution; issues documented and resolved before they escalate.
• Stage 5 – Serve (20% of effort): Known by name at multiple levels; documented regular touchpoints between projects.
• Stage 6 – Expand (15% of effort): Account plan mapping spend, share-of-wallet gaps, and a 12–24 month pursuit sequence.
• Stage 7 – Partner (20% of effort): QBRs, multi-year agreements, and consulted before RFPs as part of the customer’s capital planning.

• Own the customer experience across every stage, including accountability for the quality of delivery and service provided by CES operations, branches, and value-added groups, even where those teams execute the work.
• Complete a written hand-off to operations at award so that every verbal commitment is documented and there are no surprises after the purchase order.
• Maintain a weekly customer touchpoint on active projects, and document issues and resolve them before they escalate.
• Establish documented, recurring touchpoints at multiple levels of each account between projects and anticipate service needs.
• Build and maintain account plans that map current spend, share-of-wallet gaps, and a 12–24 month expansion sequence across other locations, facilities, and product lines.
• Lead quarterly business reviews with top-tier accounts and pursue multi-year agreements, joint planning, and a seat in the customer's capital planning conversations ahead of RFPs.
• Apply the weekly self-check before adding new opportunities: every top-tier customer touched, open commitments documented and current, and no stale pipeline being avoided.

Specification Selling and Early Engagement:

• Identify data center and large-scale projects at announcement, site selection, and utility interconnection, and engage owners and engineers before electrical design is finalized.
• Drive specification of CES-supplied equipment into basis-of-design documents, approved manufacturer lists, owner standards, and contractor preferred-supplier programs.
• Lead design-assist and preconstruction engagements, coordinating manufacturer and CES technical resources to support value engineering, equipment selection, and schedule planning.
• Protect specifications through submittal, bid, and award, and respond to substitution attempts with technical and commercial justification.

Commercial Execution:

• Develop pricing and commercial strategy for major bids in partnership with Quotations and supplier partners, balancing competitiveness with margin targets.
• Negotiate project pricing, supply agreements, and terms with customers within approved authority.
• Secure manufacturer support, allocation, and production slots for long-lead power distribution equipment such as switchgear, switchboards, busway, transformers, UPS, and generators.
• Monitor margin performance on awarded work and manage change orders with Project Management.

Value-Added Solutions and Internal Collaboration:

• Position NSD's value-added groups as differentiators, including Gear Solutions for engineered power distribution equipment, Warehousing Solutions for jobsite staging and inventory programs, Lighting Solutions, and Technology Solutions.
• Work with CES branches as needed in project markets to leverage local relationships, confirm service coverage, and coordinate account ownership and client requirements.
• Partner with Inside Account Managers, Quotations, and Project Management so that awarded work transitions cleanly into execution and customer expectations are met.
• Provide directions and coaching to Operations Team to support scaling resources to client needs. 

Market leadership:

• Track data center market activity, competitor positioning, manufacturer lead times and allocation, and pricing trends, and share insights with the group and division leadership.
• Represent CES at industry events, trade shows, and contractors, engineering, and manufacturer functions.

Key Performance Measures:

• Sales and gross profit growth: Year-over-year sales and GP dollars on assigned accounts and territory against plan.
• New account acquisition: Strategic contractors and data center owners or developers converted to active CES customers.
• Specification wins: Projects where CES-supplied equipment is written into basis-of-design, approved manufacturer lists, or contractor standards.
• Pipeline value and win rate: Qualified pipeline in CRM and conversion from opportunity to award.
• Gross margin performance: Margin on awarded work versus quoted, including change orders.
• Account penetration: Share of wallet and product-category breadth across assigned accounts, including value-added group attach.
• CRM discipline and forecast accuracy: Timeliness and completeness of activity, opportunity, and forecast records.

Qualifications

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in business, construction management, electrical engineering or engineering technology, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• 5+ years of outside sales, business development, or project sales experience in electrical distribution, electrical contracting, or with an electrical manufacturer or rep agency.
• Demonstrated record of growing accounts and winning large, multi-phase construction projects, including influencing specifications before bid.
• Working knowledge of power distribution equipment and the project lifecycle from design through construction and closeout.
• Proficiency with CRM platforms and Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams).
• Valid driver's license and ability to meet Vehicle Incentive Program requirements.

Preferred:

• Direct experience selling into data center, mission-critical, or large commercial & industrial projects, with established relationships among national or regional electrical contractors, general contractors, developers, and/or MEP engineering firms.
• Familiarity with long-lead equipment supply dynamics, manufacturer allocation, and factory production scheduling.
• Ability to read single-line diagrams, electrical specifications, and equipment schedules.

COMPETENCIES:

• Strategic account management: Builds and executes multi-year plans that grow share of wallet across complex, multi-stakeholder accounts.
• Specification influence: Earns credibility with engineers and owners and turns it into specified positions for CES and its supplier partners.
• Commercial acumen: Understands the economics of large projects and makes pricing decisions that protect margin while winning work.
• Technical credibility: Speaks knowledgeably about mission-critical electrical infrastructure and knows when to bring in specialists.
• Negotiation: Reaches agreements that hold up through execution and preserve the relationship.
• Collaboration and influence: Mobilizes branches, value-added groups, manufacturers, and operations teams without formal authority.
• Ownership and resilience: Owns results across long sales cycles and responds constructively to setbacks.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position has no direct reports. The BDM is expected to guide Business Development Representatives on assigned accounts and to coordinate across branches, value-added groups, and internal support teams without formal authority.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  This position is very active and requires standing, walking, bending, kneeling, stooping, and climbing.  The employee must be able to lift and move items up to 50 pounds.  

Travel

40% to 60% including regional & potentially nationwide travel to meet with clients, team members, branches and CES facilities to set up client solutions.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job.  Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

EEO Statement

CES provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and candidates for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics or other protected class status.  In additional to the federal law requirements, CES complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.  CES also makes reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities, in accordance with the ADA.  This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfers, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

CES is a drug free workplace.

For further information about CES, visit our website at www.cityelectricsupply.com.