Business Development Representative

WARDJET Waterjet; Akron (OH); On-site; USD 42,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

WARDJet, a leading CNC waterjet system provider, seeks a motivated Business Development Representative in Ohio to build the sales pipeline across the United States. You’ll generate new opportunities, follow up inbound leads, and qualify prospects for the Sales team.

You will learn waterjet technology, applications, and customer needs while coordinating with Sales, Marketing, and Applications teams to optimize lead flow and drive revenue growth.

Qualifications

• 1–3 years of experience in business development, inside sales, lead generation, sales development, customer service, or another customer-facing sales role preferred.
• Experience in manufacturing, industrial equipment, CNC machinery, automation, fabrication, or technical B2B sales is a strong plus.
• Strong phone communication skills and confidence initiating conversations with new prospects.
• Strong written communication skills with the ability to create professional, concise, and personalized email outreach.
• Comfortable communicating with prospects through phone, email, video meetings, and other digital channels.
• Ability to ask effective discovery questions, actively listen, identify business needs, and qualify opportunities professionally.
• Strong prospecting discipline with the persistence to consistently follow up and develop opportunities over time.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience using a CRM system to manage leads, activities, notes, tasks, and opportunities.
• Familiarity with HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or similar CRM platforms is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Generate new sales prospects through outbound calling, email outreach, targeted account research, CRM campaigns, trade show lists, past inquiries, and other prospecting activities.
• Respond quickly and professionally to inbound website inquiries, PPC leads, marketing campaign responses, webinar attendees, trade show leads, and other incoming opportunities.
• Conduct initial discovery and qualification conversations with prospective customers.
• Qualify opportunities based on the customer’s application, materials, production requirements, equipment needs, budget, purchasing timeline, decision process, and overall purchase intent.
• Identify the appropriate WARDJet solution or next step based on the customer’s application and business requirements.
• Schedule qualified discovery calls, machine demonstrations, application reviews, sample-cutting discussions, virtual meetings, and other sales appointments for WARDJet Sales Representatives.
• Research target companies, manufacturing facilities, decision-makers, industries, and applications to support effective and personalized prospecting.
• Identify manufacturers and fabricators that may benefit from adding or upgrading waterjet cutting capabilities.
• Re-engage dormant leads, stalled opportunities, previous quote requests, former prospects, and customers that may be entering a new equipment purchasing cycle.
• Maintain consistent follow-up with prospects throughout the early stages of the sales process.
• Work closely with outside Sales Representatives to prioritize territories, target accounts, market segments, and prospecting campaigns.
• Develop working knowledge of AXYZ CNC router and knife cutting systems to support cross-selling and lead qualification opportunities when appropriate.
• Maintain a professional, customer-focused approach in all prospect and customer interactions.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Skills

Phone communication

Email outreach

CRM usage

Prospecting

Organization

Time management

Lead qualification

Tools

HubSpot

Salesforce

Microsoft Dynamics

Job description

WARDJet and AXYZ are leading manufacturers of advanced CNC cutting systems serving manufacturers, fabricators, job shops, educational institutions, and industrial customers across North America and around the world.

WARDJet specializes in high-performance CNC waterjet cutting systems designed for precision, flexibility, and demanding manufacturing environments. Our systems are used to cut a wide variety of materials, including metal, composites, glass, stone, plastics, rubber, foam, gasket material, tile, and other materials where waterjet technology provides a competitive advantage.

As part of the broader AXYZ organization, WARDJet combines advanced cutting technology with applications expertise, customer training, technical support, and a strong commitment to helping customers improve their manufacturing capabilities and productivity.

Role Description

We are seeking a motivated, results-driven Business Development Representative (BDR) based in Ohio to help grow the WARDJet sales pipeline throughout the United States.

The BDR will be responsible for generating new sales opportunities, quickly following up with inbound leads, prospecting targeted accounts, re-engaging dormant opportunities, and qualifying prospective customers before transitioning opportunities to the appropriate Sales Representative.

This role sits at the front end of the WARDJet sales process and plays an important part in ensuring our outside sales team spends more time working with qualified, high-potential customers.

The ideal candidate is persistent, organized, comfortable communicating by phone, email, and video, and curious about manufacturing technology. You do not need to be a waterjet expert on day one, but you must be motivated to learn our equipment, applications, customers, and industries.

While the primary focus of the position will be WARDJet waterjet systems, the BDR may also support lead-generation activities for AXYZ CNC router and knife cutting systems as business needs require.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Generate new sales prospects through outbound calling, email outreach, targeted account research, CRM campaigns, trade show lists, past inquiries, and other prospecting activities.
• Respond quickly and professionally to inbound website inquiries, PPC leads, marketing campaign responses, webinar attendees, trade show leads, and other incoming opportunities.
• Conduct initial discovery and qualification conversations with prospective customers.
• Qualify opportunities based on the customer’s application, materials, production requirements, equipment needs, budget, purchasing timeline, decision process, and overall purchase intent.
• Identify the appropriate WARDJet solution or next step based on the customer’s application and business requirements.
• Schedule qualified discovery calls, machine demonstrations, application reviews, sample-cutting discussions, virtual meetings, and other sales appointments for WARDJet Sales Representatives.
• Research target companies, manufacturing facilities, decision-makers, industries, and applications to support effective and personalized prospecting.
• Identify manufacturers and fabricators that may benefit from adding or upgrading waterjet cutting capabilities.
• Re-engage dormant leads, stalled opportunities, previous quote requests, former prospects, and customers that may be entering a new equipment purchasing cycle.
• Maintain consistent follow-up with prospects throughout the early stages of the sales process.
• Work closely with outside Sales Representatives to prioritize territories, target accounts, market segments, and prospecting campaigns.
• Develop a strong understanding of WARDJet equipment, waterjet cutting technology, customer applications, competitive positioning, and the overall capital equipment sales process.
• Learn enough about customer applications to have credible conversations with manufacturing professionals and identify when Applications or technical resources should become involved.
• Maintain accurate and timely CRM records, including contact information, lead source, qualification status, call notes, opportunity details, next steps, and follow-up tasks.
• Ensure qualified opportunities are clearly documented before being transitioned to the appropriate Sales Representative.
• Support Sales and Marketing campaigns by following up with targeted prospects and measuring campaign response.
• Work with Marketing to provide feedback on lead quality, messaging, customer questions, and market trends identified during prospect conversations.
• Participate in sales meetings, pipeline reviews, product training, and prospecting campaigns.
• Provide regular updates on prospecting activity, meetings booked, qualified opportunities, lead status, reactivated opportunities, and pipeline contribution.
• Support customer open houses, trade shows, demonstrations, and other sales events when required.
• Develop working knowledge of AXYZ CNC router and knife cutting systems to support cross-selling and lead qualification opportunities when appropriate.
• Maintain a professional, customer-focused approach in all prospect and customer interactions.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Target Customers & Applications

The BDR will prospect and engage businesses across industries where waterjet cutting can provide significant manufacturing value, including:

• Metal fabrication and sheet metal processing
• Job shops and contract manufacturers
• General industrial manufacturing
• Aerospace and defense manufacturing
• Automotive and transportation
• Machinery and equipment manufacturing
• Stone and tile fabrication
• Glass processing
• Plastics and composites
• Gasket and seal manufacturing
• Educational and technical institutions
• Prototype and research facilities
• Other manufacturers using CNC cutting technology

Typical prospects may be cutting or considering cutting materials such as steel, stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, composites, glass, stone, rubber, foam, plastics, tile, gasket material, and other materials suitable for abrasive or pure-water cutting.

Qualifications

• 1–3 years of experience in business development, inside sales, lead generation, sales development, customer service, or another customer-facing sales role preferred.
• Experience in manufacturing, industrial equipment, CNC machinery, automation, fabrication, or technical B2B sales is a strong plus.
• Strong phone communication skills and confidence initiating conversations with new prospects.
• Strong written communication skills with the ability to create professional, concise, and personalized email outreach.
• Comfortable communicating with prospects through phone, email, video meetings, and other digital channels.
• Ability to ask effective discovery questions, actively listen, identify business needs, and qualify opportunities professionally.
• Strong prospecting discipline with the persistence to consistently follow up and develop opportunities over time.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience using a CRM system to manage leads, activities, notes, tasks, and opportunities.
• Familiarity with HubSpot, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or similar CRM platforms is a plus.
• Ability and willingness to learn technical products, manufacturing processes, and CNC cutting applications.
• Comfortable working within a longer-cycle B2B capital equipment sales environment.
• Ability to research companies, industries, manufacturing processes, and potential decision-makers.
• Self-motivated and comfortable balancing inbound lead follow-up with proactive outbound prospecting.
• Coachable and receptive to sales training, call feedback, and continuous improvement.
• Professional, accountable, and comfortable working toward measurable sales activity and pipeline goals.
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work effectively with Sales, Marketing, Applications, Service, and leadership teams.
• Genuine curiosity about manufacturing, machinery, cutting technology, and how customers make products.
• Prospecting discipline and persistence
• Effective discovery and qualification
• CRM accuracy and follow-through
• Organization and time management
• Accountability and professionalism
• Collaboration with Sales and Marketing
• Coachability and willingness to learn
• Goal-oriented mindset
• Consistent follow-up

Measures of Success

Success in this position will be measured through a combination of activity, quality, and pipeline development metrics, including:

• Qualified opportunities generated and accepted by the Sales team.
• Discovery calls, demonstrations, application reviews, and sales meetings booked.
• Speed and consistency of follow-up on inbound, PPC, marketing campaign, and trade show leads.
• Outbound prospecting activity and engagement.
• Lead-to-qualified-opportunity conversion.
• Dormant and stalled opportunities successfully reactivated.
• CRM accuracy and completeness, including notes, lead sources, status, next steps, and follow-up activities.
• Pipeline value generated or influenced.
• Closed revenue influenced by BDR-generated opportunities.
• Effective collaboration and handoff of qualified opportunities to outside Sales Representatives.

The BDR position is intended to be an entry point into a long-term career in technical and industrial sales.

A successful BDR will gain exposure to CNC machinery, waterjet cutting technology, manufacturing applications, capital equipment sales, customer discovery, applications testing, and territory development.

High-performing team members may have opportunities to progress into positions such as:

• Senior Business Development Representative
• Applications Sales
• Regional Sales Manager / Outside Sales Representative
• Other commercial or customer-facing roles within WARDJet and AXYZ

We are looking for someone who wants to develop their sales capabilities, technical knowledge, and understanding of the manufacturing industry over time.