Regional Client Services Manager (Program Manager), Outbound Sales (Kentucky)

Kentucky Manufacturing Extension Partnership; Louisville (KY); Remote; USD 77,000 - 116,000; Full time

Job summary

Kentucky Manufacturing Extension Partnership is seeking a Regional Client Services Manager. This home-based, field-focused role covers a defined territory to open doors, diagnose plant issues, write tailored solutions, and close agreements.

You will coordinate with KY-MEP specialists and measure impact while growing a national network of manufacturing clients. Ideal candidates have 3+ years in B2B outreach, direct sales in manufacturing, and CRM experience.

Qualifications

• 3+ years’ experience in outreach/direct sales in a B2B environment.
• Experience engaging with manufacturing leadership and operations.
• Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM tools.

Responsibilities

• Open doors: own a defined regional territory and build a pipeline of manufacturers.
• Diagnose before you prescribe: observe operations and identify key improvement areas.
• Write the solution and close: develop tailored scopes of work and secure signed agreements.
• Make sure it delivers: coordinate with KY-MEP specialists and follow up for impact.
• Run your business: track KPIs in Salesforce and coordinate student workers.

Job description

Kentucky makers build things. We help them thrive.

Kentucky builds vehicles, appliances, aerospace components, bourbon, and thousands of products most people never see. Behind every one of those plants is a leadership team juggling throughput, people, quality, and growth, often all in the same week. KY-MEP exists to solve those problems. Over the past five years, our work has produced more than $717 million in measurable impact for Kentucky manufacturers, through cost savings, new investment, and sales growth.

We’re looking for a Regional Client Services Manager to take that impact to more people and the plants they work in.This is a field sales role. Working with our team, you’ll find the companies, earn the meeting, figure out what’s really holding them back, and close the agreement that fixes it.

What You'll Do

Open doors. Own a defined regional territory and prospect it by phone, email, events, and plant visits. Build and work a pipeline of manufacturers, from 20-person job shops to multi-site operations, and keep it moving.

Diagnose before you prescribe. Walk the floor, ask challenging questions, and talk with everyone from the front line leaders to the CEO. Use what you see and hear to pinpoint the problems worth solving in four areas: workforce and leadership, operational efficiency, growth and innovation, and automation.

Write the solution and close it. Turn your findings into tailored scopes of work and proposals. Then carry them through to a signed agreement.

Make sure it delivers. Coordinate with KY-MEP specialists and partners on each project, follow up to keep it on track, and turn first projects into long-term client relationships.

Run your business. Track your KPIs in Salesforce. Direct student workers who support your outreach. Work with UofL departments, program directors, and statewide partners to expand KY-MEP’s reach.

What Success Looks Like

• In your first 90 days, you know your target accounts and have walked a steady stream of plant floors. Your first proposals are out.


• In your first year, you’ve built a pipeline yourself, closed new business, and earned a reputation as the person manufacturers call when something isn’t working.


• Over time, you’ve built a book of repeat clients whose results become the success stories we tell.

You’ll Thrive Here If You

• Would rather be in a plant than in a conference room.


• Pick up the phone without being told, and treat "not right now" as information, not rejection.


• Know manufacturing well enough to earn credibility in your first ten minutes on the floor.


• Measure a good week in meetings booked, proposals sent, and agreements signed.


• Know your region’s manufacturers, or want to know every one of them.


• Can switch from a CFO conversation to a shift-supervisor conversation without missing a beat.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Proposal Writing: Develop comprehensive scope of work based on client reviews, observations, and discussions to deliver custom tailored KY-MEP solutions.


• Growth Orientation: Identify, evaluate, and implement expansion activities aligned with KY-MEP's focus on innovation and sustainable revenue growth.


• Continuous Improvement: Uncover and eliminate non-value-added activities from operations, leveraging proven and innovative approaches to enhance results.


• Self-Motivation: Maintain organization, attention to detail, and task focus to independently drive KY-MEP's mission of empowering manufacturers.


• Project Management: Organize tasks, delegate responsibilities, and follow up to ensure successful implementation of consulting and training programs.


• Analytical Skills: Evaluate data and information to develop optimal solutions for manufacturing challenges in growth, automation, workforce, and operations.


• Team Orientation: Collaborate by serving, leading, mentoring, and following others to advance KY-MEP processes, programs, and client outcomes.


• Interpersonal Relations: Build trust-based relationships with manufacturing clients, employees, colleagues, management, and vendors through effective communication.


• Work Ethic: Exhibit motivation, diligence, and persistence to complete tasks efficiently in support of KY-MEP's high-impact services.


• Critical Thinking and Flexibility: Analyze issues, identify options, and adapt quickly in a dynamic environment with interruptions to meet client needs.


• Delivery and Client Interaction: Ability to deliver quality programming while cultivating meaningful client trust and interactions.


• Outbound Sales and Support: Lead and track sales activities, coordinate student workers in marketing support, and collaborate cross-functionally with partners to achieve KY-MEP goals in manufacturer support and statewide impact.


• Collaborate cross-functionally with program leads, university departments, and external partners to support KY-MEP goals and initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• 3+ years’ experience as an outreach/direct sales representative in a B2B environment.


• Demonstrated experience interacting with all levels of leaders within a manufacturing facility.


• Experience in the full sales process; initial cold call through executed agreement. Proven track record of growing sales from direct involvement.


• Experience within a manufacturing environment.


• Experienced setting and managing Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for success


• Extensive instate vehicle travel.


• Ability to stay overnight as needed.


• Experience with a manufacturing-centric organization such as the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) or similar.


• Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM tool.


• Experience working out of a remote office.


• Working knowledge of marketing and outreach techniques and best practices.

Details

This is a home-based, field-focused position. Your territory will be finalized based on your location, experience, and where client opportunity is strongest. KY-MEP’s office is at the JD Nichols Campus for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in downtown Louisville, and you’ll come in for team meetings and collaboration as needed. This is a renewable grant-funded position, currently funded through 12/31/27. Continued employment depends on funding.

Target Compensation Maximum:

$115,989.00

Target Compensation Minimum:

$77,326.00

Compensation will be commensurate to candidate experience.

The University of Louisville is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. The University strives to provide equal employment opportunity on the basis of merit and without unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, color, national origin, ethnicity, creed, religion, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, veteran status, marital status, or pregnancy.In accordance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Vietnam Era Veteran Readjustment Act of 1974, the University prohibits job discrimination of individuals with disabilities, Vietnam era veterans, qualified special disabled veterans, recently separated veterans, and other protected veterans. The University acknowledges its obligations to ensure affirmative steps are taken to ensure equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment. It is the policy of the University that no employee or applicant for employment be subject to unlawful discrimination in terms of recruitment, hiring, promotion, contract, contract renewal, tenure, compensation, benefits, and/or working conditions. No employee or applicant for employment is required to endorse or condemn a specific ideology, political viewpoint, or social viewpoint to be eligible for hiring, contract renewal, tenure, or promotion.

Consistent with applicable law, demographic information is collected for aggregate reporting requirements. Demographic information provided through this application is not available to hiring managers/committees and is not considered in hiring or employment decisions.

Assistance and Accommodations

Computers are available for application submission at the Human Resources Department located at 2315 South First Street Walk, Room 02C - Louisville, Kentucky 40292.

If you require assistance or accommodation with our online application process, please contact us by email [e-mail] by phone [phone].