What Makes a Great Building Products Sales Rep? An Industry Insider's View

If you've been selling windows, cladding, lighting or insulation for a few years, you probably already know most of this. But stick around. There might be something here worth thinking about before your next career move.

I've been recruiting sales talent in the Australian building products industry for over a decade now. That's a lot of conversations with BDMs, Account Managers, Specification Managers and Sales Directors across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Some of those conversations are with people who've built brilliant careers. Others are with good salespeople who keep ending up in the wrong roles. The difference usually isn't talent. It's understanding what actually matters in this industry.

Here's what I've learned.

The Obvious Stuff (That Still Gets Ignored)

You can sell. You can build relationships. You know your product inside out.

If you're reading this, you've probably got those boxes ticked. That's table stakes. What separates the top performers from everyone else is usually simpler and less glamorous.

Tenure matters more than you think.

Three years in a role should be the minimum. Five is pretty good. Anything over that is great. Not because hiring managers are suspicious of job hoppers (though they are), but because the compound effect of staying somewhere actually works. You build the relationships. You earn the territory. You become the person architects or builders call first, not last.

I've seen plenty of talented reps struggle to get interviews simply because they've done two-year stints at three companies. Whether that's fair or not is a separate conversation. But it's real.

The Industry-Specific Stuff

Building products sales isn't one job. It's several.

Specification sales is a different game to merchant sales. Selling to architects requires a different approach than selling to commercial builders. A rep who's spent years in the civil infrastructure space has a different skill set to someone from architectural lighting.

The best performers understand which sub-culture they fit into. A&D reps tend to be warmer, more relationship-focused, often a bit more polished. BDMs in civil tend to be more direct, more blokey, less interested in the soft stuff. Neither is better. But knowing where you belong makes a difference.

If you're considering a move, think about which route to market suits you. Selling to developers is different to selling to electrical contractors. Both can be great careers. But they're not interchangeable.

What the Best Reps Actually Do

After thousands of conversations with candidates and hiring managers, a few patterns keep showing up.

They know the competition.

Not just their own product. The alternative products. What architects are specifying elsewhere. What builders are actually installing. The reps who can have an intelligent conversation about the market, not just their own catalogue, tend to be the ones getting promoted.

They stay in touch.

The obvious version of this is keeping your key accounts warm. The less obvious version is keeping your old colleagues and contacts warm. The building products world in Australia is smaller than people think. Your old Sales Manager at one company might be the GM at another in three years. The architect you dealt with early in your career might now be running a practice.

They don't job hop when things get hard.

There's a difference between leaving a role because it's genuinely broken, and leaving because you had a bad quarter. The market knows the difference. More importantly, your track record knows the difference.

What Companies Get Wrong

This is for the hiring managers reading this, not the candidates.

The best salespeople in building products are usually already employed. They're not scrolling job boards. They're not sending CVs. They're busy hitting target and building relationships.

If your hiring strategy relies on job ads and hoping the right person applies, you're fishing in the wrong pond. The best candidates hear about roles through their network, through recruiters who actually understand the industry, or through people they trust.

The other mistake: obsessing over product-specific experience.

I've seen clients pass over strong candidates because they haven't sold that exact product before. Meanwhile, the hiring manager making that call came from a completely different industry themselves. The irony isn't lost on anyone.

Transferable skills matter. Someone who's spent five years selling insulation to architects can probably figure out how to sell acoustic panels. The relationships, the process, the understanding of how specification works all transfer.

The Real Question

If you're a sales professional in building products, lighting or A&D, the question isn't whether you're good at your job. Most people reading this probably are.

The question is whether your next move will be the right move. Not just a sideways step for slightly more money. Not just escaping a bad situation. A genuine step forward in your career.

That's harder to figure out on your own than most people admit.

Want to Talk?

I'm James Bowesman. I run a boutique recruitment consultancy focused exclusively on sales roles in building products, lighting and A&D markets across Australia.

If you're considering a move and want an honest conversation about what's actually out there in Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane, happy to chat. No pressure, no sales pitch. Just a straight conversation about where the market's at and where you might fit.

Call: 0487 640 299 Email: james@specifiedselect.com

James Bowesman is a recruitment specialist working exclusively in the Australian building products sector. He places Account Managers, BDMs, Specification Managers and Sales Managers for manufacturers and distributors across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.