Senior Director, Interior Design & Trade
Company Overview
Hooker Furnishings Corporation is currently recruiting a Senior Director, Interior Design & Trade. Hooker Furnishings, in its 102nd year of business, is a designer, marketer, and importer of case goods, leather furniture, fabric-upholstered furniture, and outdoor furniture for the residential, hospitality, and contract markets. The company is committed to delivering quality products, exceptional customer experiences, and innovative solutions to retailers, designers, and consumers worldwide.
The Position:
We are seeking a strategic, customer-focused, results-driven Senior Director, Interior Design & Trade to lead the growth and development of our professional design channel.
This is a commercial channel-leadership role, not an interior design services or product-design position. This individual will be responsible for creating and executing strategies that strengthen relationships with interior designers and trade professionals while driving revenue growth, customer engagement, and operational excellence.
This role serves as the business leader for the Interior Design & Trade channel and works closely with Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Product Development, Operations, and Finance teams to ensure exceptional experience for design professionals throughout their journey with Hooker Furnishings.
This position requires approximately 25-40% travel, including customer visits, industry events, trade shows, and furniture markets.
Main duties include:
Strategic Leadership & Business Growth
- Develop and execute the enterprise strategy for profitable growth and long-term differentiation of the Interior Design and Trade channel.
- Own the annual channel plan and performance outlook, including revenue, gross margin, account productivity, investment requirements, risks and corrective actions.
- Segment the account base by potential, behavior, geography, specialization and service needs; define differentiated coverage and engagement models for each segment.
- Identify the highest-value growth opportunities and translate customer, market and performance insights into a sequenced action plan that balances near-term results with scalable capability building.
- Recommend channel policies, programs, pricing and promotional strategies within established enterprise guardrails.
- Provide the VP of Marketing and executive leadership with concise, evidence-based updates on performance, barriers, decisions required and expected outcomes.
Customer Acquisition & Account Development
- Build a disciplined prospecting and acquisition engine targeting design firms, independent designers, specifiers, purchasing organizations and other qualified trade accounts.
- Define a high-conversion onboarding journey that moves approved accounts rapidly from registration to first quote, first order and repeat purchase.
- Create structured reactivation programs for lapsed and low-engagement accounts, using account potential and customer history to prioritize effort.
- Develop key-account plans for high-potential firms and establish executive relationships with influential designers, principals and purchasing leaders.
- Increase share of wallet, order frequency and average account productivity through relevant assortment, project support, education, events and personalized outreach.
- Clarify account ownership, coverage rules and handoffs across inside teams, field sales and other channel partners to reduce friction and missed opportunities.
Customer Experience & Relationship Management
- Champion a customer-first culture and continuously improve the experience for trade customers.
- Gather and leverage customer feedback to identify opportunities for improvement.
- Partner with Customer Service and Operations teams to enhance communication, issue resolution, order visibility, and overall service quality.
- Develop processes to proactively address customer concerns and strengthen long-term relationships.
- Measure and improve customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with Sales teams to align account planning, opportunity management, and customer engagement strategies.
- Work closely with Marketing to develop designer-focused programs, content, digital tools, and customer experiences.
- Collaborate with Product Development and Merchandising teams to ensure customer insights help guide product offerings and priorities.
- Support Supply Chain and Operations initiatives that improve delivery performance, product availability, and overall customer satisfaction.
- Partner with Finance and Analytics teams to evaluate channel performance and identify opportunities for continued growth and efficiency.
Leadership & Team Development
- Lead, coach, and develop team members supporting the Interior Design & Trade channel.
- Establish clear goals, expectations, and performance standards.
- Foster a collaborative, accountable, and customer-focused culture.
- Utilize CRM systems and business intelligence tools to monitor customer activity, track performance, and identify growth opportunities.
- Represent Hooker Furnishings within the professional design community through customer meetings, industry events, trade organizations, and strategic partnerships.
Candidates that will be a great fit:
- Five or more years of progressive leadership experience within home furnishings, interior design, luxury products, trade distribution, B2B sales, or a related industry.
- Five or more years leading cross-functional business initiatives and growth strategies.
- Demonstrated success growing a business channel, customer segment, or go-to-market strategy.
- Strong understanding of the professional interior design industry and how designers specify, purchase, and manage products for client projects.
- Proven ability to drive revenue growth, improve profitability, and utilize business data to guide strategic decisions.
- Experience with CRM systems, customer lifecycle management, account segmentation, and business performance reporting.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence and collaborate across multiple departments.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and relationship-building abilities.
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Merchandising, Design, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Established relationships within the residential interior design community.
- Experience in furniture or other complex product categories involving inventory management, logistics, and customer service.
- Experience developing trade programs, customer loyalty initiatives, concierge services, or digital customer experiences.
- Familiarity with customer satisfaction programs and customer feedback methodologies.
Why should you apply?
- A company dedicated to fostering a welcoming and supportive workplace where all individuals are valued and respected
- Competitive compensation plans
- 8 paid holidays (Plus an additional 2 floating holidays).
- Paid sick and vacation time.
- The ability to be a part of a Multinational, global organization with 14 locations in the US and offices in Vietnam and China.
- Career development focus including training opportunities and leadership development programs.
- Tuition reimbursement program.
- Emphasis on charitable giving and volunteering in our communities.
- Focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance).
- Comprehensive medical, dental, vision plans including a generous employer health saving account (HSA) contribution each plan year.
- Matching 401k employer contributions.
Pay: Dependent upon experience
