Distric Sales Manager / Inside Account Manager

Minnesota Territory

Lapp Tannehill Wire & Cable Distribution
Entry-Level Sales Development Track

Launch Your Sales Career. Build Something Real.

You just finished your degree. You had a taste of sales — and you want more. Lapp Tannehill is looking for a driven, curious recent graduate to join our team as a District Sales Manager / Inside Account Manager. This is not a job where you watch from the sidelines. From day one you will own a territory, build real customer relationships, and develop the commercial skills that will define your career.

You bring the drive, the coachability, and the sales instincts you started building in your internship. We bring the training, the mentorship, the product knowledge, and a clear path to becoming a top-performing territory owner.

What This Role Is

You will split your time evenly between two things — hunting new business and managing a portfolio of established key accounts. Half your week is offense: finding new customers, qualifying leads, and closing deals. The other half is relationship management: keeping key accounts engaged, growing wallet share, and making sure Lapp Tannehill is the partner they call first.

This is a field-facing role with approximately 35% travel — customer visits, Quarterly Business Reviews with remote accounts, and industry events. If you want to be in an office all day, this is not the role. If you want to be in front of customers building real relationships, it is exactly the right place to start.

What You Will Do

Own Your Territory

1. Manage a defined geographic territory across Minnesota — you are the face of Lapp Tannehill to your customers
2. Build and maintain 6–10 points of contact within each key account — not just the buyer, but engineering, operations, and management
3. Develop account strategies for your key accounts — proactive communication, regular check-ins, and quarterly business reviews that deepen the relationship between visits
4. Manage your calendar and territory with discipline — 35% travel including customer site visits, QBRs, and industry events

Drive New Business

1. Prospect and qualify new customers through cold outreach, lead follow-up from trade shows, digital channels, and referrals
2. Learn and execute a structured sales process — from first call through proposal, negotiation, and close
3. Build your pipeline to 2.5x your territory revenue target and maintain it with rigor
4. Complete 15+ meaningful sales conversations per week — face-to-face and virtual

Build Product and Market Knowledge

1. Learn Lapp Tannehill's full wire, cable, and connectivity portfolio — including industrial connectors (IDC, ÖC, Epic, and more) — through structured training and hands-on product demonstrations
2. Develop the technical fluency to have credible conversations with engineers, procurement teams, and operations leaders
3. Collaborate with customers on design projects and application-specific solutions as your knowledge grows

Work the Partnership Ecosystem

1. Build working relationships with manufacturer representatives — joint calls, co-selling, and business development partnerships
2. Attend local, regional, and national wire and cable industry events and OEM shows to build your network and market presence
3. Coordinate with inside sales and operations teams to deliver a seamless customer experience across your territory

Who We Are Looking For

You recently graduated with a business degree — or a related field — and you are hungry to put it to work in a real commercial environment. You had a sales internship and got a taste of what it means to prospect, qualify, and close. You liked it. Now you want a role where you can own a territory, develop real skills, and build a career — not just fill a seat.

Specifically you bring:

1. A bachelor's degree in business, marketing, communications, or a related field
2. Sales internship experience — you have made cold calls, managed a pipeline, or worked in a customer-facing commercial role and you know the basics of how a sales process works
3. Natural curiosity — you ask good questions, you listen well, and you genuinely want to understand what a customer needs before you start talking about solutions
4. Self-motivation — you do not need someone standing over you to make calls or manage your calendar. You know what needs to get done and you do it
5. Relationship instincts — people like talking to you. You are easy to trust, you follow through on what you say, and you treat people with respect
6. Coachability — you are not too proud to take feedback, try new approaches, and keep improving. The best salespeople never stop learning
7. Comfort with ambiguity — you can manage multiple accounts, multiple priorities, and a full calendar without needing everything to be perfectly defined
8. Willingness to travel — 35% of your time will be in front of customers. That is a feature, not a bug

You do not need:

1. Years of distribution or industrial sales experience — we will teach you the product, the industry, and the process
2. A technical or engineering background — curiosity and the willingness to learn matter more than what you already know
3. An existing book of business — we are building yours from the ground up

What the First Year Looks Like

Days 1–30: Learn the Foundation

1. Structured onboarding covering our product portfolio, systems, sales methodology, and customer base
2. Shadow experienced reps and your mentor on live customer calls — watch how it is done before you are expected to do it
3. Get comfortable with CRM, quoting tools, and internal processes

Days 30–90: Start Building

1. Begin making your own calls — with your mentor on the line and coaching after every conversation
2. Take ownership of your first accounts and start developing your initial pipeline
3. Attend your first customer visits and industry events with a senior team member

Days 90–365: Own the Territory

1. Full territory ownership with increasing autonomy as you demonstrate results
2. Regular performance check-ins with your manager — clear feedback, clear expectations, clear path forward
3. Hit your ramp targets and unlock greater account responsibility and deal size

Full-Ramp Performance Targets

1. Revenue target met with a 1:1 booking ratio
2. Pipeline maintained at 2.5x territory revenue target
3. 15+ sales conversations per week — face-to-face and virtual
4. 3+ manufacturer partner calls per quarter
5. QBRs executed with all key remote accounts on a quarterly cadence

Your Decision-Making Authority

Even early in your career you will have real authority — not a glorified administrative role:

1. Apply standard pricing and negotiate within approved discount thresholds
2. Authorize samples, demonstrations, and standard payment terms
3. Develop and execute territory-specific account strategies with mentor support
4. Manage your territory expense budget within approved limits
5. Recommend trade show participation and account tier classifications

As you demonstrate results, your autonomy, account size, and deal complexity grow with you.

Where This Role Goes

This is not a dead end — it is a launching pad. Lapp Tannehill is a growing, PE-backed specialty distributor with real career paths for people who perform. Top performers in this role move into senior territory management, key account ownership, sales leadership, or specialist commercial roles as the business scales. We promote from within and we build careers — not just fill headcount.

Compensation and Benefits

Base salary: $65,000 – $75,000
Plus participation in Lapp's performance bonus plan tied to territory revenue and growth metrics.

We also offer:

1. Medical, dental, and vision insurance
2. 401(k) with company contribution
3. HSA / FSA
4. Paid time off and paid holidays
5. Life insurance
6. Mileage reimbursement and travel expense coverage
7. Structured product and sales training — fully paid
8. Manufacturer training programs and industry event attendance

Why Lapp Tannehill

We are a specialty wire and cable distributor with the backing of the global LAPP Group and the focus of a performance-driven regional business. We are not a place where you disappear into a big company and hope someone notices you. We are a place where your territory is yours, your results are visible, and your growth is directly connected to the effort and skill you bring every day.

If you want to learn sales the right way — with real coaching, real customers, real accountability, and a real career path — this is where you start.