Design Sales Manager

Design Sales Manager

Position Summary

The Design Sales Manager is a client-facing design and business development leader responsible for generating and closing high-value landscape design-build projects. This role blends creative design talent with consultative selling — meeting prospective clients on-site, developing compelling conceptual design concepts, and converting design vision into signed contracts. This person is the face of the firm during the sales process, using design fluency to build trust, differentiate the company, and drive revenue growth for commercial, municipal, institutional, and large residential clients.

This is a hybrid design + sales role: success is measured as much by closed sales volume and client conversion as by design quality.

Key Responsibilities

Business Development & Sales

• Generate and manage a personal pipeline of prospective design-build clients, in partnership with marketing and business development teams.
• Conduct on-site client consultations to understand goals, site conditions, and budget parameters.
• Translate client vision into compelling conceptual designs that clearly communicate value and justify investment.
• Prepare and present proposals, conceptual design packages, and pricing/estimates that lead to signed contracts.
• Own the sales process from initial consultation through contract signature, including follow-up, objection handling, and negotiation.
• Meet or exceed individual and team sales targets (closed revenue, conversion rate, average project value).
• Build long-term client relationships that generate referrals and repeat business.

Design Leadership (Sales-Support Focused)

• Lead conceptual and schematic design for prospective and active sales opportunities, emphasizing visual impact, buildability, and budget alignment.
• Develop site plans, planting concepts, hardscape concepts, and 3D renderings/visualizations to support the sales narrative.
• Ensure design concepts are realistic, constructable, and priced accurately before presenting to clients.
• Partner with estimating and construction operations to validate scope, cost, and feasibility of proposed designs.
• Hand off signed projects cleanly to design/construction delivery teams with clear intent, documentation, and client context.

Client & Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the primary point of contact for clients during the design and sales phase.
• Facilitate design presentations, client walkthroughs, and proposal reviews.
• Coordinate with architects, engineers, developers, and governing agencies as needed to support proposal development.
• Represent the firm at networking events, industry functions, and business development activities.

Technical & Process Support

• Ensure conceptual designs align with site realities — grading, drainage, ADA guidelines, and local code considerations — to minimize costly revisions after sale.
• Maintain proficiency in design and visualization software to produce fast, persuasive client-facing materials.
• Provide feedback to design and estimating teams on pricing accuracy, win/loss trends, and client preferences.
• Contribute to sales collateral, proposal templates, and design-sales process improvements.

Quality Assurance & Professional Practice

• Maintain high standards for design integrity and accuracy in all client-facing materials.
• Stay current with landscape design trends, materials, software, and sustainability practices to keep proposals competitive.
• Balance creative ambition with commercial realism — designs must sell and be buildable within budget.

Qualifications

Education & Licensing

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Landscape Architecture, Landscape Design, Horticulture, or a related field preferred; strong candidates with equivalent design/sales experience may also be considered.
  

Experience

• 5–15+ years of professional experience in landscape design, ideally within design-build or residential/commercial sales environments.
• Demonstrated success generating and closing design-build sales (quota attainment, revenue generated, conversion rates).
• Advanced proficiency in AutoCAD, LandFX, SketchUp, Adobe Creative Suite, and rendering/visualization tools.
• Solid working knowledge of site grading, drainage, plant materials, and hardscape construction sufficient to design credible, buildable concepts.
• Comfort with CRM tools, proposal software, and pipeline/sales reporting.

Soft Skills

• Strong consultative sales skills — listening, needs assessment, objection handling, and closing.
• Exceptional presentation and storytelling ability; can sell a vision as effectively as draw one.
• High level of professionalism, client relationship management, and follow-through.
• Self-motivated and target-driven, comfortable being measured on revenue outcomes.
• Collaborative mindset to hand off projects smoothly to delivery teams.