Territory Manager

Outside Sales Representative – Residential Building Materials Northeast Ohio | Mentor and Chardon

Bridgeway Partners has been retained to complete the search for a Territory Manager with Mentor Lumber & Supply.

A Century-Old Independent Company—Built to Help Its Salespeople Win

There is a difference between selling building materials and having a company behind you that can deliver what you sell.

Mentor Lumber & Supply has served Northeast Ohio’s building community for more than 100 years. From its full-service locations in Mentor and Chardon, the company gives its sales professionals the inventory, products, estimating capabilities, operational support, and delivery resources needed to become indispensable to their customers.

Mentor Lumber offers the reach and capabilities expected from a major building-materials supplier without the layers, restrictions, and corporate distance that often come with one.

For the right Territory Manager, that means:

• Access to an extensive range of lumber, decking, trim, windows, doors, millwork, and other building products
• The freedom to develop a diverse portfolio instead of being restricted to a narrow product category
• Quality materials and respected brands that sales professionals can confidently put in front of their customers
• A modern delivery fleet and an organization committed to next-day delivery whenever possible
• A renewed operational focus, including a dedicated operations leader and a triple-check process designed to improve load accuracy
• New Simpson Pipeline estimating technology that sales representatives report has reduced takeoff time by as much as 50%
• Shared coordinator support to help manage orders, communication, and customer follow-through
• Meaningful control over pricing strategy, product mix, gross profit, and ultimately earning potential

Most importantly, this is still an independent company where ideas do not disappear into a corporate structure.

The president of Mentor Lumber works in the same building, listens to the people closest to the customer, and is willing to join a salesperson at the jobsite. He spent 12 years as a carpenter, understands the work, can complete a takeoff, and knows what builders expect from their suppliers.

In an industry undergoing constant consolidation, Mentor Lumber remains independent—and intends to stay that way.

This is not an order-taking position.

Mentor Lumber is looking for someone energized by the pursuit of new business, the challenge of winning a project, and the connection between gross profit and personal earnings.

The Territory Manager will focus primarily on residential homebuilders throughout Northeast Ohio. The company’s general market extends east toward Conneaut, west toward Westlake, and south toward Akron, although customers are not assigned simply by drawing lines on a map. Accounts are matched based on product needs, project mix, existing relationships, and the salesperson best equipped to serve them.

The company works extensively with custom and independent residential builders—customers who value product quality, dependable delivery, knowledgeable support, and a supplier that treats their business as important.

This person will spend part of the day working through takeoffs, pricing, orders, customer communication, and project details before getting into the market to visit builders, jobsites, and current or prospective customers.

The opportunity combines the technical and entrepreneurial sides of building-materials sales:

• Build and deepen relationships with residential builders, remodelers, and contractors
• Identify and pursue new customers throughout Northeast Ohio
• Visit active jobsites and understand what customers are building
• Complete or coordinate material takeoffs, estimates,…