Business Development Specialist

Northwest Playground Equipment, Inc. is a family-owned company that has been building community through play since 1996. From our home base in Issaquah, WA, we deliver turn-key outdoor play and recreation projects for public spaces across the Pacific Northwest and beyond, handling design, procurement, and installation. We partner with high-quality manufacturers to offer playground equipment, safety surfacing, site furnishings, interactive play features, and more.

About the role

As our Business Development Specialist, you’ll get NPEI involved in projects long before they go to bid. You’ll build relationships with the landscape architects, architects, engineers, and planners who design public spaces, and with the agencies and owners who fund them. You’ll help them plan with our manufacturers’ products in mind, get those products specified, and turn early conversations into qualified opportunities. You’ll own NPEI’s relationships with design firms and specifiers. When a project takes shape, you’ll hand it to the territory Park Consultant, who manages the customer account, the proposal, and the sale. You’ll plan outreach together with our Park Consultants so customers see one coordinated team. This role has no sales quota. Instead, you’ll be measured on the relationships, specifications, and pipeline you build. This is a new, permanent role and the start of a long-term business development function at NPEI. You’ll begin in the Seattle and Tacoma markets and help us expand into new markets as the program grows.

Responsibilities

• Map the market: Research and categorize design firms, civil engineers, general contractors, public agencies, school districts, and parks departments across Seattle and Tacoma by size, project focus, and markets served.
• Build designer relationships: Create and carry out an engagement plan for landscape architects and other design professionals: set meetings, revive inactive accounts, and become their go-to resource for play and recreation.
• Get our products specified: Promote our priority manufacturer lines and give designers and owners early budget guidance, basis-of-design language, and design detail support.
• Find projects early: Gather project and bid intelligence before the quote stage, create qualified opportunities in Salesforce, and hand them off smoothly to territory Park Consultants.
• Partner with Sales: Plan outreach timing and approach with Park Consultants, and support them with presentations and resources for their existing design accounts.
• Open new markets: Identify and develop outreach to segments outside our usual channels, such as port authorities and higher education.
• Lead education programs: Deliver continuing education (CEU) courses and Lunch & Learns. Earn CEU accreditation for manufacturer coursework, develop NPEI