Market Development Representative

SouthWood Corporation is a 56-year-old, turn-key sign company known for its exceptional quality and innovation as an industry leading designer, manufacturer, and installer of architectural signage throughout the country. Our core values of passion, curiosity, relentlessness, and a commitment to excellence are our blueprint to success every day and definitive of our community and culture. We are seeking a Market Development Representative to join our team. As a sign professional, you will play a vital role in driving results to meet challenging company goals and client expectations with signs of the highest quality.

In this role, you will be on the front end of growth researching target markets, finding the right decision-makers, starting meaningful conversations, and developing qualified opportunities with organizations that have significant, recurring, multi-location, or program-based signage needs. If you enjoy taking initiative, working with purpose, and turning curiosity into real business opportunities, this role offers the chance to make a visible impact.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop new business opportunities: Identify and pursue high-value signage opportunities with corporations, healthcare systems, financial institutions, developers, general contractors, architects, facility teams, procurement groups, and other organizations with recurring signage needs.
• Research and target ideal prospects: Monitor construction activity, expansions, rebrands, acquisitions, capital projects, and market events that may create signage opportunities.
• Build relationships: Engage key decision-makers with confidence and professional presence through calls, emails, networking, research, referrals, and industry outreach to generate interest and uncover project needs.
• Qualify opportunities: Evaluate potential opportunities based on customer fit, project scope, budget, timeline, profitability, competitive landscape, and likelihood of award.
• Drive bids, RFPs, and proposals: Partner with internal teams to ensure opportunities are scoped appropriately and proposals are completed accurately and on time.
• Lead opportunities through preconstruction: Serve as the sales lead between the customer and internal teams, ensuring customer needs, scope, priorities, and next steps are clearly communicated.
• Manage CRM activity: Maintain accurate records of prospects, contacts, activity, opportunity value, next steps, forecast dates, and pipeline status.
• Advance opportunities through the sales process: Schedule discovery conversations, participate in customer meetings, present capabilities persuasively, address questions calmly and professionally, and help move qualified opportunities toward proposal, negotiation, and award.
• Expand account potential: Identify opportunities to convert successful projects into long-term relationships, preferred-vendor arrangements, or repeatable signage programs.
• Report market intelligence: Share insights related to customer needs, competitors, pricing trends, project activity, and emerging market opportunities.

Qualifications

• Prior experience in business development, sales development, market development, commercial sales, construction sales, architectural products, signage, branding, or a related field preferred.
• Strong prospecting, research, relationship-building, and follow-up skills, with the confidence to initiate contact and the discipline to manage opportunities accurately over time.
• Ability to understand customer needs, qualify opportunities, and communicate value clearly and professionally.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to prepare professional emails, meeting notes, and proposal support materials.
• Able to manage multiple opportunities and priorities while maintaining strong follow-through and clear communication.
• Comfortable using CRM systems, Microsoft Office applications, online research tools, and general business technology.
• Independent, self-motivated, resourceful, and result-oriented, with the persistence to advance long-term opportunities while consistently creating new ones.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 25% of the time for customer meetings, site visits, networking events, trade shows, or industry-related activities.

Key Competencies

• Business acumen and strategic prospecting.
• Social poise, professional communication, active listening, and the ability to build trust with a wide range of decision-makers.
• Collaboration across sales, estimating, design, and operations.
• Attention to detail and sound judgment in qualifying opportunities.
• Confidence, initiative, resourcefulness, and comfort working independently while staying aligned with team goals.
• Strong ownership of pipeline activity, reporting, and results.

What We Offer

• Competitive pay based on experience.
• Opportunities for professional growth, training, and skill development.
• Paid time off and paid holidays.
• Benefits package including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k).