District Sales Manager | OH
Columbus/Dayton/Cincy
$87,500 - $115,000
CONFIDENTIAL CAREER OPPORTUNITY
District Sales Manager
Own an Established Automation Territory Across Ohio's Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati Corridor
Automation Solutions Distributor | Central & Southwest Ohio (Territory-Based) | $125K–$165K Target Total Comp
THE HOOK
You already know how to grow a book of business. What you rarely get is proof that the seat itself leads somewhere.
This one comes with that proof built in. A District Sales Manager territory across Ohio's Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati corridor, running at roughly $3.5M in annual revenue today, is open because the rep who built it was just promoted into a Regional Sales Manager role. You would take over an active, established book from day one, in a seat with a documented track record of developing into something bigger.
ROLE AT A GLANCE
Title: District Sales Manager
Territory: Ohio: Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, and west to the Indiana border
Reports To: VP of Sales
Location: Territory-based, Central and Southwest Ohio
Travel: Primarily local day trips across the territory, with occasional overnight travel
Structure: Mostly exclusive territory, backed by in-house applications engineering and inside sales
THE COMPANY
Our client is a private, family-owned distributor of industrial automation technology, representing a lineup of market-leading pneumatics, motion control, and robotics brands used across manufacturing and OEM equipment. The approach is consultative and engineering-led: the team identifies the business outcome a customer actually needs, then applies the right combination of technology to deliver it, rather than just shipping parts off a shelf.
The company was built decades ago by a founder who walked away from a stable, established sales career to represent a then-unknown overseas technology partner in North America. That bet paid off, and the partner brand he championed is now one of the most recognized names in its category. The company is still privately held today, and this role sits just two layers beneath ownership, with daily access to leadership for fast decisions.
Industrial automation is in the middle of a real shift right now. OEMs and end users are investing in new technology to solve workforce and productivity problems, robotics and physical AI are changing how things get built, and reshoring is pulling fresh capital into the region's manufacturing base. This territory sits right in the middle of that shift, and it has barely been touched.
"You are the CEO of your account package, and the mayor of your dirt." — VP of Sales
WHAT YOU'LL OWN
An active Ohio territory across Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati running at roughly $3.5M in annual revenue, not a cold start
An established book built by a rep who was promoted into a Regional Sales Manager role, proof this seat is a launching pad, not a dead end
Relationships at every level of the customer organization, from ownership and purchasing down to operations and engineering
Full pricing authority within margin guidelines on complex, engineered solutions, including negotiations with OEMs and machine builders
A dedicated applications engineering and inside sales team, built specifically to keep field sellers focused on selling
THE COMPENSATION PACKAGE
Base Salary: $87,500 – $115,000
Target Total Comp: $125,000 – $165,000 (70% base / 30% variable)
Bonus Structure: Paid monthly on achievement to plan; 15% holdback released at 85% of plan, with full acceleration to 100% of variable comp at 100% of plan
Performance Bonus: Additional $20,000 annual bonus plan, paid quarterly, for results over 100% of plan
Year One: Subsidized ramp period; new hires are targeted to earn 100% of target total comp in Year 1
Average Deal Size: $30,000 – $100,000
Retirement: 401(k) with 100% match on the first 3% deferred, plus 50% match on the next 2%
Additional Benefits: Car allowance, phone stipend, reimbursed business expenses, health insurance, negotiable PTO
WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR
If you're the rep who wants to run a territory like it's your own business, not someone else's headcount, this was written for you.
You're self-driven enough that daily oversight would feel like a waste of everyone's time
You're curious by nature and want to understand the technology, not just the price sheet
You hate losing, and you're comfortable politely challenging a decision-maker who's wrong
Automation, robotics, or controls sales experience helps, but wanting to win matters more
You can talk to a plant manager about a business outcome, not just a spec sheet
THE PATH FORWARD
The first 12 to 24 months are about full territory ownership: getting fluent in the technology, taking over the warm funnel, and converting the manufacturer-driven leads, trade shows, and lunch-and-learns already in motion into signed business.
It typically takes 2 to 3 years to learn the full breadth of what's sold here, and most people take 3 to 5 years to be fully proficient. Once you're there, there's a path into sales leadership for people who want it, and a separate business development track for people who would rather keep building than manage. This exact seat is proof of that path: the rep who built this Ohio territory was just promoted into a Regional Sales Manager role, and in a comparable seat elsewhere in the company, one seller walked in, built real relationships, and earned more than $200,000 by Year 2.
THE INTERVIEW PROCESS
20-Minute Confidential Call — a short call with Sully at VenTech Search to confirm fit before anything moves
Initial Screen — a conversation with a single member of the leadership team
Round-Robin Team Interview — a presentation to the full leadership group, followed by a breakout 2:1 conversation
Team Decision — the leadership team reconvenes and scores the candidate together; no single person holds the final call. The full process runs about 4 to 5 hours end to end, and the company is moving quickly to fill this seat
READY TO LEARN MORE?
This territory was built for growth and is not posted publicly. If the description above sounds like your next move, let's talk before someone else does the math first.
Contact: Michael "Sully" Sullivan, Director of Business Development, VenTech Search Group
Phone: 602-888-8408 | Email: sully@ventechsearch.com | ventechsearch.com
September 8, 2026