The home improvement industry is currently one of the fastest-growing job markets. Your skills and experience as a sales representative could give you a bargaining chip in the following home improvement careers and related industries. The sales path is like a gate that leads to many other career doors. You can rise from a salesperson to higher levels of responsibility and management faster than in most other careers. The other advantage of sales work is that there are always products and services to sell or introduce to people. A suave salesperson can always have job ideas. The market is always there if there are products and services to promote. Below are ten high-paying home improvement careers for anyone in sales.
1. Home Improvement Product Manufacturing
The broad home improvement market can be segmented based on the product type. Items like kitchen tools, bathroom units, and plumbing apply to different industry sectors. There are also indoor and outdoor home improvement products. As a sales representative, you may need to specialize in an area you feel most qualified and passionate about. Are you interested in walls, fencing, flooring, lighting? Or do you feel most qualified in electrical work, repair, and replacement, or distribution in home improvement stores? Decide what home improvement sector you’re passionate about, then prepare your job search pitch accordingly.
With your skills in sales, you can get a job in the manufacturing sector or an electrical goods manufacturing company to promote and sell their products. You can also work as a sales executive pushing plumbing products.
You’ll easily sell faucets, sinks, bathroom units, flooring, and tiles. Another functional area for a sales representative is selling products for the home’s exterior upgrades, such as roofing materials, concrete, and masonry tools. You’ll need in-depth knowledge of gardening tools and garage maintenance parts to succeed in home improvement careers. For homes with pools, as a good sales representative, understand everything about servicing a pool, including the relevant tools. With your sales experience, search for opportunities with pool liner manufacturers, so you can sell their products. Develop rapport with your customers to clinch repeat business.
2. Solar Service Jobs
Sunlight is one of the most abundantly available energy sources. When properly used, it can solve a home’s demand for electric power. A salesperson in the home improvement career with training as a solar sales expert is sought-after by solar manufacturers.
You need solar-specific skills to understand the salient points that’ll endear you to potential buyers. You may work as a sales engineer, sales representative, or sales manager. Your job is to match the buyers’ needs with the company’s products.
Introduce the solar products to potential customers and highlight why they need them. Your job is to pique their interest in the products and close. You’ll sometimes work with distributors and manufacturers of various home improvement products. Keep yourself updated on new products and strive to profile the consumers’ changing preferences.
You can work with solar companies as a sales expert, in which case your job will mainly entail the sale of the solar panel and doing follow-ups for service and maintenance. The U.S. Department of Energy states that there’s enough energy from the sun every hour to power the world’s energy needs for a year.
With the expanding use of solar energy in commercial and residential areas, numerous jobs exist. You can work as a sales associate to sell proposals for building power plants or sell photovoltaic installers to homes to install solar panels.
You can work as a solar sales consultant, advising homeowners on their homes’ energy needs. Other solar industry jobs are in the research and development sector and the construction of power plants. There are more opportunities in solar power plants and the manufacture of solar materials.
3. Specialty Home Equipment Providers
A home improvement career is among the most in-demand. A sales job in this sector demands expertise in home improvement equipment. Knowledge of the functioning of equipment in this sector is crucial. You’re likely to work for a niche manufacturer, such as a company that makes home elevators, or choose to work at a distributorship selling products and providing after-sale services.
A salesperson is always ready to introduce new products to buyers. Your role is to pitch various home improvement products and services to make a sale. If you’re selling home medical equipment, you must have a thorough knowledge of specialty medical equipment for home use. These can be remote patient monitoring solutions and wound care products. Others include nutrition products and automated services to help manage staff shortages, especially in assisted living facilities.
You could get a sales job to sell patios, fencing, and poolside accessories. As an outdoor sales expert, you are best placed to advise on decks and other outdoor structures and where to buy them at reasonable prices. Offer your customers after-sale services such as warranties and regular maintenance.
4. Garage Door Companies
Home improvement careers within the garage doors market need people with sales experience. One can work as a technician, installer, or distributor. Other jobs include repair experts, insulators, and installation technicians.
The sector straddles the industrial and commercial garage door markets and residential garage doors. As a salesperson in this sector, you’ll learn technical terminology about garage doors. Your role will be to explain to potential customers why they should replace their current garage door or have it repaired or serviced.
A garage door is a rewarding investment for any homeowner. It increases a home’s resale value, besides ensuring one’s assets, such as vehicles, are kept away from the elements. Garage doors improve the home’s curb appeal, making for an attractive part of the property. You will be tasked with convincing homeowners to insulate their garage doors for energy efficiency.
5. Hardware Stores
Among home improvement careers, working at a hardware store will test your physical strength the most. You will be required to lift and move heavy items. This may include the lumber supplies ordered by customers.
Packing items into the delivery vehicle and transporting them to a customer are some of the duties of a hardware salesperson. You must enjoy working with tools, so you can explain to customers how to use them once you make a delivery. Most of your work will involve helping customers understand what they need and then helping them find the right tools to solve their problems. You will also help walk-in customers by helpfully answering their questions. You’ll need a thorough knowledge of the store’s system to locate the items customers seek.
6. Roofing Jobs
The roofing industry has many home improvement careers a salesperson must be conversant with. They should be comfortable with the jargon and other technical terms and be ready to explain them to customers in simple language. With your sales experience, you can add extra practical knowledge of the features of various roof types.
You’ll need information about roofing materials appropriate for a client’s locality. Information about metal roofing and its advantages should be at your fingertips. You can easily get promoted to a roofing supervisor if you’re competent enough.
Learn the different roofing systems and advise different homeowners on whether their roofs need repair or require a new installation. You can work with a company specializing in commercial or residential roofing. Each comes with its unique demands that, as a salesperson, you should be ready to handle.
As the company’s sales representative, you understand the needs of your area best. Ensure that products are in stock when needed. For locations that experience extreme weather, ensure you know which products must be in stock before the start of each season.
7. Interior Finishing Sales
As a sales representative in a fast-growing industry, there should be very little about home interiors you don’t know. Information about the most durable hardwood floors and their pricing must be at your fingertips should a customer inquire. The customer must trust your information about new interior finishing products based on your vast knowledge.
Can you point out the different types of tiles ideal for bathroom walls? What kind of lighting would you recommend to homeowners to light up their hallways or backyards? How about using affixed wall coverings or textured finishes?
Is the staircase structurally sound? The information on railings, columns, counters, and cabinets should be at your fingertips. In short, your wealth of industry experience will determine whether you’ll succeed in any of the home improvement careers you’ve chosen.
If your interest and passion in the sector are impressive, your employer will train you in sales tactics and product knowledge. Other skills you’ll need include analytics and customer psychology. This is better for you if you have retail experience since you’ll deal directly with homeowners.
8. Water Testing and Conditioning Jobs
As a salesperson within the water testing and quality industry, you can try several home improvement careers. As a professional water taster, you have the skills to ensure water meets particular quality standards. Test for different chemicals and other unique features that make water safe or unsafe for human consumption.
As a product sales specialist, you must provide water testing documentation, including the test results. Your technical expertise and business acumen in testing water and primary metals will be helpful when providing pre-sales and post-sales support to your teams and clients. It would help if you could train your distributors on water conditioning systems.
As a water treatment plant operator, you’ll test water and sewage samples in wastewater treatment plants. You will operate machines to treat water and wastewater while also monitoring gauges. You must also report test results to the government agencies regularly.
Another highly-paid career is that of an environmental specialist. They work to protect human health and the environment. In this job, you will collect water samples, soil, biological, and air samples for pollution tests. The results of these tests will help you provide solutions and take preventive measures to protect your environment.
9. Door and Window Sales
You bring sales experience to the door and windows home improvement careers table. You need knowledge of materials that make custom windows and doors. Arm yourself with information about energy-efficient windows and how to retrofit them for efficiency.
Be ready to tell the difference between types of windows for different home designs. When customers ask for help with home repairs and maintenance services, with your sales expertise, you should close a sale without much struggle. Most companies will provide sales training that’s tailored to their products.
Expertise in sales allows you to advise customers on buying residential steel doors for their homes. These doors give a bold first impression of your home. They’re also very durable and come in various sizes and shapes for different types of buildings.
Arm yourself with information about metal doors. Understand the different types, such as the sliding, double, and French doors. As a sales representative, you should be able to explain the unique characteristics of each of these doors and their return on investment. Your knowledge of the different types of doors will help you recommend the most energy-efficient ones, which can be operated remotely with just a touch of a button, such as pivot doors with invisible hinges.
10. HVAC Sales and Services
One of the most competitive home improvement careers is working as a salesperson in HVAC products and services. Your job entails building positive customer relationships besides ensuring they get appropriate products and services. You’ll be tasked to develop new accounts and ensure repeat business from customers with whom you’ve closed a deal. You’ll likely make several cold calls on a typical day as you hunt for new business.
You’ll attend meetings with contractors and participate in trade shows. These are opportunities to showcase your company’s products. How you utilize them will determine your success or otherwise as a salesperson in this niche.
One of your responsibilities is to address customers’ needs for heating and cooling services, including HVAC replacement. Spruce up your resume if you’re looking for a job as an HVAC sales engineer, HVAC sales consultant, or HVAC sales representative.
The home improvement industry is highly versatile and packed with lucrative careers, especially for those with sales experience. A sales career is an open door to developing your professional skills while banking on industry knowledge. It’s a good career path if you love working with people and solving their problems. The beauty of a career in home improvement is that you don’t need to relearn sales and marketing. The skills you applied in another career will also work in the home improvement career space.