Estimating & Sales Support Leader

Department: Sales & Operations Support
Reports To: Chief Operations Officer

DockStar Industrial, the factory-direct home of DockStar branded loading dock equipment, is seeking an Estimating & Sales Support Leader to build and lead a high-performing estimating function that supports our sales team, customers, and continued national growth.

This role is responsible for creating fast, accurate, margin-smart quotes and clear proposals that help customers make confident buying decisions. You will turn plans, specs, jobsite photos, RAM input, and product requirements into polished, executable proposals while helping standardize DockStar’s quoting process, templates, pricing assumptions, and handoff workflows.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is detail-driven, process-minded, commercially sharp, and excited to help build a scalable estimating engine inside a growing industrial brand.

Core Objectives

• Build and lead DockStar’s estimating function as a competitive advantage for speed, accuracy, and customer clarity.
• Create margin-conscious quotes and proposals that support both outside sales and inside sales.
• Standardize cost-build methods, quote templates, proposal formats, and markup strategies across DockStar’s product and service offerings.
• Improve quote turnaround times, quote quality, and quote-to-order conversion through better systems, data, and workflows.
• Ensure awarded work hands off cleanly to operations, engineering, production, and installation teams.

Key Responsibilities

1. Estimating & Quote Leadership

• Build and manage DockStar’s estimating process, ensuring quotes are fast, accurate, complete, and aligned with margin expectations.
• Support outside sales and inside sales by preparing professional proposals for loading dock equipment, value-add products, freight, installation, taxes, and related project costs.
• Review project details, drawings, specs, jobsite photos, customer requirements, and RAM input to create clear, executable estimates.
• Balance competitiveness with profitability by applying consistent markup strategies and sound judgment.
• Identify missing information, ask the right questions, and help sales teams clarify scope before quotes are sent to customers.

2. Proposal Development & Sales Support

• Create branded proposal formats that reinforce DockStar’s professional image and make it easy for decision makers to say “yes.”
• Translate technical, operational, and jobsite details into customer-friendly language that contractors and end users can understand.
• Help simplify complex project scopes into clear options, pricing, exclusions, timelines, and next steps.
• Partner with sales to improve proposal quality, presentation, and follow-up effectiveness.
• Maintain quote templates, standard language, product descriptions, scope notes, and proposal documentation.

3. Costing, Process, and Standardization

• Standardize cost-build methods across manufacturing, value-add products, freight, installation, taxes, and other project components.
• Develop quoting SOPs that improve consistency, reduce rework, and make the estimating function scalable.
• Maintain estimating assumptions, pricing inputs, labor/freight considerations, and quote documentation in coordination with operations and finance.
• Use CRM and ERP data to identify quoting trends, improve assumptions, and refine workflows.
• Continuously look for ways to reduce quote turnaround times without sacrificing accuracy or margin discipline.

4. Cross-Functional Handoff & Execution Support

• Partner with operations, engineering, production, and installation teams to ensure awarded quotes transfer cleanly into execution.
• Help prevent scope gaps, rework, delays, and miscommunication by ensuring proposal details are complete and actionable.
• Participate in internal handoff discussions for awarded projects when needed.
• Capture lessons learned from operations and sales to improve future estimating accuracy and proposal clarity.
• Support a smooth customer experience from quote through order handoff.

5. Leadership, Reporting, and Continuous Improvement

• Build, train, and eventually lead estimating and sales support contributors as DockStar grows.
• Track performance metrics such as quote turnaround time, win rate, quote-to-order conversion, gross margin, and rework caused by quoting gaps.
• Create reporting rhythms that help sales and leadership understand estimating workload, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities.
• Bring a continuous improvement mindset to quoting tools, templates, pricing practices, and internal communication.
• Serve as a key bridge between sales, operations, engineering, and leadership.

Success Metrics

Success in this role will be visible through:

• Faster quote turnaround times for outside sales and inside sales.
• Improved quote accuracy, consistency, and gross margin performance.
• Higher quote-to-order conversion rates.
• Cleaner handoffs from sales to operations, engineering, production, and installation.
• Reduced rework, scope confusion, and delays after award.
• Stronger proposal presentation and a more professional customer buying experience.
• Better use of CRM and ERP data to improve estimating assumptions and workflows.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in estimating, sales support, project coordination, operations support, or a related role, ideally in industrial equipment, manufacturing, construction, material handling, loading dock equipment, or a similar technical B2B environment.
• Strong ability to read and interpret project inputs such as plans, specs, photos, product requirements, and customer scope details.
• Commercial understanding of pricing, margin, markup, freight, installation, taxes, and total project cost structure.
• Experience creating customer-facing proposals, quotes, scopes of work, or sales documents.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple quotes, deadlines, and priorities at once.
• Comfort working cross-functionally with sales, operations, engineering, production, and leadership.
• Experience with CRM and ERP systems; HubSpot experience is a plus.
• Strong attention to detail, clear communication skills, and a bias for action.
• Process-minded, entrepreneurial, and excited to help build a function from the ground up.

Compensation and Growth

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience and leadership responsibility.
• Performance-based bonus opportunity tied to estimating performance, quote turnaround, margin quality, and quote-to-order outcomes.
• Full benefits package.
• Opportunity to build and lead a critical function inside a growing industrial brand.
• Clear runway for expanded leadership responsibility as DockStar scales nationally.

About DockStar Industrial

DockStar Industrial is building the next generation of loading dock equipment and industrial solutions. We are focused on speed, quality, safety, and a customer experience that makes complex industrial buying easier.

We are looking for team members who want to build, improve, and lead — people ready to join the rockstars of loading dock equipment.