Sales Associate - 2025 Leadership Development Program

Avient Corporation
United States, Alabama, Birmingham
3850 Pinson Valley Pkwy (Show on map)
Mar 17, 2025
Our purpose at Avient Corporation is to be an innovator of materials solutions that help our customers succeed, while enabling a sustainable world. Innovation goes far beyond materials science; it's powered by the passion, creativity, and diverse expertise of 9,000 professionals worldwide. Whether you're a finance wizard, a tech enthusiast, an operational powerhouse, an HR changemaker, or a trailblazer in materials development, you'll find your place at Avient. Join our global team and help shape the future with sustainable solutions that transform possibilities into realities. Your unique perspective could be the key to our next breakthrough! Job Summary Our commercial sales team, guided by the voice of the customer, develops and markets differentiated, value-creating solutions, services and technologies. We help customers enter new markets faster, expand their product offerings, enhance end-use product performance, build their reputation, attain safety and environmental benefits, meet regulatory objectives, differentiate themselves and win against their competition! We are building our next generation of sales professionals, and are seeking recent graduates to begin an exciting career in our Commercial Development Program. This is an ideal opportunity for candidates who have good interpersonal communication skills and want to utilize their technical skills or business acumen to develop solutions and drive value for customers. Individuals will be assigned to a commercial sales team in one of Avient's divisions and locations based on their interests and skills. This extensive program will include a selling curriculum and business unit specific training, lasting approximately 9 to 12 months. Our curriculum delivers a train, practice, and apply approach. During this period, individuals will be exposed to customer service, manufacturing and laboratory operations, marketing / product management, learn our Value-Based Selling program, and shadow experienced Avient sellers in their territories. Upon completion of the training program, individuals will be assigned to their own territory, where they will be responsible for securing business from prospective and current customers, and attaining annual sales and profit objectives. Essential Functions Learn and implement the Avient selling process, strategies, and related tools to win new business over the competition Build relationships with existing customers and prospect new customers Identify customer needs through research, prepared questioning and other learned strategies Work with customers on new application development. Develop, execute and manage sales growth plans and sales budgets. Foster relationships and navigate the internal Avient business environment. After training period, position requires 50-75% travel by car or plane. Other projects / duties as assigned. Education and Experience Bachelor's Degree in Business or Engineering required. Qualifications Proficiency with MS Word & Excel preferred. Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Self-motivated. Team Player. Strong organizational skills required. Physical Demands Must be able to traverse and operate computer and other office equipment. Typical work is in an office environment where the noise level is low to moderate. Avient Leadership Behaviors We believe that all of our global employees are leaders and that the six most important behaviors for driving our strategy and culture are the same no matter if an employee is a leader of self, a leader of others, or a leader of the business. By playing to win, acting customer centric, driving innovation and profitable growth, collaborating seamlessly across Avient, and motivating and inspiring and developing others and yourself you will accelerate your ability to achieve Avient's strategic goals, to meet our customer needs, and to accomplish your career goals. At Avient, we believe a wide variety of thoughts, ideas and backgrounds gives us the creativity to be successful in a rapidly changing world. In support of this, we stress equality of opportunity for all qualified individuals in accordance with applicable laws. Decisions on hiring, promotion, development, compensation or advancement are based solely on a person's qualifications, abilities, experience and performance. Avient is an equal opportunity employer. We maintain a policy of non-discrimination in providing equal employment to all qualified employees and candidates regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, color, religion, national origin, disability, genetic information, protected veteran's status, or other legally protected classification in accordance with applicable federal, state and local law. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to complete an online application, please contact the Avient HR Team by emailing, ApplicationAccommodation@Avient.com.