Director, Commercial & Specialty Sales

About the role

Benchmade is a premium American brand with decades of craft, a fiercely loyal customer base, products people are proud to carry for life, and meaningful momentum across the business. We are hiring a Director, Commercial & Specialty Sales to report directly to the Vice President of Sales & Marketing and own the build of a repeatable field machine that compounds momentum in specialty retail and priority commercial accounts.

This is not a scripted job—you will help write the script. Your mission is to turn momentum into a national field advantage by maximizing displays, turns, and recurring unit growth.

Responsibilities

• Own unit growth across existing and new specialty dealers and assigned priority commercial accounts, including units per active dealer, reorder rate, sell-through, assortment depth, active displays, rep productivity, account expansion, and new doors.
• Lead and transform the national independent rep network into a coordinated Benchmade field force by establishing market plans, conducting ride-alongs, setting expectations, training selling motions, and driving accountability.
• Work the retail floor: assess business, improve displays, train staff, run product demonstrations, build events, present programs, ask for orders, and close next steps.
• Build the Benchmade field playbook for dealer tiering, route planning, visit preparation, merchandising, staff training, program pitching, account expansion, whitespace unlocking, and new door openings—based on real market success.
• Run the activation engine by creating a national calendar of dealer activations, demonstrations, market visits, product drops, retail events, and territory-level Super Clinics to make Benchmade feel alive at retail.
• Bring rigor to the field with a visible scoreboard tracking units, displays, turns, reorders, assortment, coverage, rep productivity, priority-account growth, and next moves.
• Shape the future structure, tools, resources, and capabilities of the commercial organization as the channel scales.

What success looks like

• First 90 days: Spend time in market with rep agencies, dealers, and accounts; establish revenue, unit, and territory baselines; tier the dealer base; launch the field scoreboard; and secure early wins.
• Six months: Operational field standard in market; rep agencies aligned with expectations; priority displays expanded; dealer training and activation on a repeatable calendar; first Super Clinics and marquee events completed or scheduled; accelerating metrics against baseline.
• Year one: Credible, repeatable national field-growth system; larger, more productive recurring revenue base; visible and managed rep productivity; dealers carrying the right assortment and reordering on cadence; priority accounts with clear growth plans; scalable field engine driving compounding momentum.

Requirements

• Experience leading field sales, wholesale, specialty retail, national accounts, market development, or commercial growth for a premium consumer brand (e.g., outdoor, performance, footwear, fashion, EDC, sporting goods, or specialty hardgoods).
• Proven track record of building or transforming a territory, channel, team, rep network, account portfolio, or commercial system.
• Experience growing measurable revenue or units—not just inheriting them.
• Led independent rep agencies or influenced teams without direct reporting lines.
• Worked successfully with independent specialty dealers and meaningful national accounts.
• Turned product and brand stories into effective retail selling motions.
• Used data to identify growth whitespace, prioritize markets, and drive field decisions.
• Created activations, events, trainings, or merchandising programs that drove sell-through.
• Personally asked for and closed meaningful business.
• Operated with urgency while maintaining relationships, judgment, and brand integrity.
• Comfort moving from executive conversations to rep huddles to dealer floors with commercial math, brand instinct, energy, direct communication, and low-ego leadership.
• Travel is core to the role—field work is the job, not an interruption.

About the opportunity

You will be handed a premium brand, world-class products, major business momentum, direct leadership access, and the opportunity to build the field engine that carries the next chapter of growth. The hiring leader values truth, data-driven decisions, and proactive problem-solving, with a commitment to removing obstacles and providing support without micromanagement.