Smart Manufacturing Solution Consultant

Overview

For over 100 years CBT has been one of the most innovative Industrial Distribution companies in Cincinnati and the tristate region. Our mission is to be recognized by our customers and our suppliers as their best business partner. Our success comes from recruiting, hiring, and training the best people in the industry. We invest in our people and our business.

CBT is seeking a Smart Manufacturing Solution Consultant to help grow our Smart Manufacturing business by creating new opportunities, supporting strategic customer engagements, and partnering with account managers to drive growth. This role is ideal for someone who understands manufacturing operations, industrial technology, and consultative sales. The successful candidate will work directly with customers to identify challenges, develop solution concepts, and communicate the value of Smart Manufacturing technologies that improve productivity, visibility, quality, and operational performance.

Position Summary

The Smart Manufacturing Solution Consultant is responsible for driving growth for the Smart Manufacturing business by partnering with customers, account managers, and internal technical teams to identify, develop, and close solution-based opportunities. This role combines manufacturing domain knowledge, consultative selling, and technical solution expertise to help customers improve operational performance through smart manufacturing technologies.

Key Responsibilities

Opportunity Creation and Sales Support

• Partner with account managers to identify target accounts and develop Smart Manufacturing opportunities.
• Engage directly with customers to understand business challenges, operational goals, and manufacturing pain points.
• Lead discovery conversations to uncover opportunities related to automation, industrial data, analytics, connectivity, visualization, controls, and operational improvement.
• Develop and qualify sales opportunities that align with the company’s Smart Manufacturing offerings.
• Support account planning activities by identifying strategic growth areas within existing and prospective customers.
• Build and maintain a strong opportunity funnel to support revenue and booking targets.

Customer Consultation and Solution Development

• Act as a trusted advisor to customers on Smart Manufacturing strategies, technologies, and best practices.
• Translate customer operational needs into practical solution concepts and business value propositions.
• Present solution recommendations, roadmaps, and business outcomes to customer stakeholders.
• Help customers understand the value of technologies such as IIoT, MES, industrial networking, data collection, analytics, edge computing, cloud connectivity, dashboards, and automation modernization.

Sales Enablement and Proposal Support

• Assist account managers in positioning Smart Manufacturing solutions during the sales process.
• Participate in customer meetings, workshops, site assessments, and executive presentations.
• Provide technical and business input to help differentiate the company’s offerings from competitors.
• Work with internal teams to ensure proposed solutions are feasible, scalable, and aligned with customer expectations.

Market and Business Development

• Identify market trends, customer needs, and emerging technologies relevant to Smart Manufacturing.
• Help define repeatable solution offerings, playbooks, and sales strategies.
• Support marketing campaigns, seminars, lunch-and-learns, webinars, and industry events.
• Develop relationships with key technology partners and vendors where applicable.
• Provide feedback to leadership on customer demand, competitive activity, and potential new service offerings.