The Area Sales Representative is an individual contributor responsible for developing and growing customer relationships within an assigned territory for Petrotech industrial control, instrumentation, and turbomachinery solutions. The role combines new business development, account management, technical sales, customer engagement, and coordination with Applications, Engineering, Project Management, and Service. This is a field-focused sales role and is distinct from the Vice President of Sales leadership position. The successful candidate will build long-term customer relationships, identify opportunities, communicate customer needs internally, and support the full sales cycle from initial contact through proposal and project handoff.
This role will be focused on the East Coast market. Qualified candidates should be reasonably located within the region they will support and able to travel effectively throughout their assigned territory.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and execute a territory sales plan aligned with Petrotech growth objectives and assigned market priorities.
- Identify and pursue new customers, projects, retrofit opportunities, service needs, and expansion opportunities within existing accounts.
- Build strong relationships with customer decision-makers, engineering teams, operations personnel, procurement groups, and other stakeholders.
- Understand customer technical and commercial needs and coordinate with Applications and Engineering to develop appropriate solutions and proposals.
- Lead customer meetings, presentations, follow-up activities, and commercial discussions within established company authority.
- Maintain a current pipeline, opportunity status, forecasts, customer notes, and sales activity in company systems.
- Coordinate effective handoff of awarded work to Project Management, Engineering, and other internal teams.
- Monitor market activity, competitor positioning, customer investment plans, and emerging opportunities within the assigned territory.
- Represent Petrotech professionally at customer sites, industry events, conferences, and business development activities.
Education and Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, or a related field preferred. Relevant technical sales and industry experience may be considered in place of a specific degree discipline.
- Five or more years of successful technical sales, business development, account management, applications, or customer-facing experience in industrial markets preferred.
- Experience selling engineered products, automation, controls, instrumentation, rotating equipment, power generation solutions, oil and gas equipment, or related industrial services strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to develop customer relationships, manage opportunities, and contribute to revenue growth.
Technical Skills
- Ability to understand and communicate technical concepts related to industrial controls, instrumentation, automation, rotating equipment, or engineered systems.
- Ability to read customer specifications, project requirements, proposals, and commercial documents and coordinate technical questions with internal engineering resources.
- Working knowledge of CRM, Microsoft Office, forecasting tools, and sales reporting practices.
- Strong commercial awareness including pricing discussions, proposal follow-up, negotiation, and customer relationship management.
Soft Skills
- Confident customer presence with strong communication, presentation, listening, and relationship-building skills.
- High level of ownership, responsiveness, follow-through, and professionalism.
- Ability to work independently in the field while maintaining close coordination with internal teammates.
- Strong judgment and ability to balance customer needs, technical requirements, and company objectives.
Preferred Qualifications
- Established customer relationships in power generation, oil and gas, pipeline, petrochemical, industrial automation, or rotating equipment markets.
- Experience selling control system upgrades, instrumentation, automation solutions, engineering services, field service, or turbomachinery-related products.
- Technical background in electrical, controls, instrumentation, mechanical, or process systems.
- Experience working with engineered proposals and long sales cycle capital projects.
Working Conditions
- Customer-facing role requiring regular travel throughout the assigned territory and periodic travel to Petrotech offices, customer sites, industry events, and project locations.
- New hires should expect meaningful onsite onboarding and product training with Engineering, Applications, Research and Development, and other Petrotech teams before transitioning into the normal territory-based sales rhythm.
Compensation and Benefits
- Base salary commensurate with experience, qualifications, and assigned market responsibilities.
- Performance based sales incentive plan.
- 401(k) matching
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Life and disability insurance
- Paid time off and holidays
Schedule
Full-time. Standard business hours with flexibility required for customer meetings, travel, industry events, and business needs.
Work Location
Assigned territory. Territory and primary work location will be established based on business needs and the specific sales assignment.
This job is part of LinkedIn’s Full-Service Hiring beta program. Eligibility is limited to candidates located in and performing services in the United States, excluding those based in Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, South Carolina, or West Virginia.
We’re committed to making our hiring process as smooth and timely as possible, and we understand that waiting to hear back can add to the anticipation. If you’re a potential fit, our team will reach out within two weeks to progress you to the next stage. If you don’t hear from us in that time, we encourage you to explore other opportunities with our team in the future, and we wish you the very best in your job search.