Sales Manager

The Sales Manager at Kolar Design and KXI owns the top of the sales funnel for both companies. This is an early-stage seller role: building pipeline, qualifying opportunities before they reach studio teams, and serving as the first-impression face of our work to prospective clients across healthcare, financial, workplace, and specialty sectors. The right person brings real depth in brand environments, experiential design, immersive technology, or themed environments - paired with the curiosity, humility, and business acumen to translate ambitious creative ideas into clear client value.

This is a builder's role. We're not looking for someone to manage an existing pipeline; we're looking for someone to create one - using their network, their instincts, and their ability to articulate why brand environments matter to people who haven't yet realized they do.

In this role, you are expected to embody our core values

• Be Transformative. We are innovators driving meaningful change in the way people build relationships with space and with one another. We lead with an open mind.
• Make Quality Personal. We are humans who create beautiful experiences for other humans. We engage with empathy.
• Be Curious and Dig Deeper. We are opportunity finders, bringing diverse perspectives to the table to learn together. We stay curious.
• Succeed as a Team. We are collectively inspired and individually motivated to bring results to life. We deliver on our commitments.
• Make a Positive Impact. We are connectors of ideas, influencers of our industry and contributors to our community. We drive positive change.

• Build and maintain a robust pipeline of qualified opportunities for both Kolar Design and KXI.
• Develop and execute outbound prospecting strategies tied to our target sectors.
• Identify and pursue strategic accounts where the firms' work would create the most meaningful client value.

• Lead first-meeting and discovery conversations with prospects, articulating our point of view on brand environments, experiential design, immersive technology, and workplace experience.
• Develop initial scopes, timelines, and budget frames in partnership with studio leadership.
• Translate ambitious creative concepts into clear, client-business-relevant value - the bridge between studio thinking and client decision-making.
• Qualify opportunities thoroughly before they reach studio teams: confirm fit, scope clarity, budget alignment, decision-maker access, and timeline.
• Hand off qualified opportunities with clear context, expectations, and momentum so studio teams can run.
• Serve as the connective tissue between studios and prospects through proposal and contract phases.
• Maintain accurate, current pipeline data in Net Suite - every account, opportunity, stage, deal value, and close date current.
• Provide weekly pipeline updates and quarterly forecasts to leadership, with honest read on momentum and risk.
• Track win/loss patterns and surface insights to inform sector strategy, positioning, and offerings.

• Activate existing relationships in target markets (New York, Dallas) to open doors at strategic accounts.
• Represent both Kolar Design and KXI at industry events, conferences, and target-account engagements.
• Cultivate strategic partnerships with complementary firms (architects, AEC, experience designers, AV/tech integrators, CRE) and key influencers.

• Partner with studio leadership on what work we want to win, how to position for it, and where to invest pursuit energy.
• Collaborate with marketing on campaigns, content, account-based programs, and industry presence.
• Provide voice-of-the-prospect insights to inform service offerings, positioning, and pricing.
• Passion & belief
  - Believes in the power of brand environments and experiential design to change how people experience space, work, and one another. Can speak about this at a level that prospects feel and remember.
• Business acumen
  - Fluent in corporate client decision-making. Comfortable in C-suite and executive conversations. Understands how decisions actually get made - budget cycles,…