Sales Support Specialist

About Petra Spark

Petra Spark is a packaging company that helps consumer brands doing $1M–$50M+ in sales get packaging that looks better AND costs less. We own our factory in China — no middlemen, no sourcing agents. Our clients are fast-growing social commerce and retail brands in the US and Europe.

We're a small, intense, high-standards team split between the West (sales, clients) and China (factory, production). You'll sit in the middle of that.

The Role in One Sentence

You make sure nothing falls through the cracks between the client saying "yes" and the factory producing exactly what the client expects — every spec, every file, every message, every time.

Mission

Clients send over large amounts of information across three critical stages — quotation, sampling, and production. Your job is to collect, verify, structure, and relay that information, answer client messages fast, and keep our ERP as the single source of truth.

A missed dimension, wrong Pantone code, or outdated artwork file costs us thousands of dollars and weeks of delay. That's why this role exists.

What You'll Own

1. Client information collection

• Quotation stage: collect complete specs from clients — product type, dimensions, materials, finishes (foil, emboss, spot UV, etc.), print colors, quantities per order, annual volume, dielines, ship-to address/port, target dates. Chase what's missing until the spec is 100% complete.
• Sampling stage: collect final artwork files, confirm sample specs against the quote, collect shipping addresses, coordinate sample dispatch and delivery, track client feedback and approval/revision decisions.
• Production stage: verify final artwork matches approved sample, confirm PO details, quantities, packing/carton requirements, labeling requirements, and shipping details before anything is released to the factory.

2. Client communication

• Answer inbound client messages (email primarily) within agreed SLAs.
• Send structured follow-ups when information is missing — polite, persistent, precise.
• Follow our email conventions (subject format, CC rules) on every thread.
• Draft status updates so clients always know where their project stands.

3. ERP & data hygiene

• Log every meaningful client interaction in our ERP (comms log).
• Keep order statuses, files, and specs current — artwork, dielines, spec sheets attached with correct file types.
• Flag anything ambiguous or contradictory before it moves downstream — never guess.

4. China team liaison

• Translate client requirements into clear, complete production-ready briefs for our internal quoting lead and factory team.
• If you speak Chinese: communicate directly with the China team in Mandarin, and ensure nothing gets lost in translation between client English and factory Chinese.
• Chase internal answers (pricing, lead times, feasibility) so client responses never stall.

What Success Looks Like (first 6 months)

• Zero production errors caused by wrong/missing information handed to the factory.
• Every client email answered within SLA; no thread ever goes stale.
• Quotes turn around faster because specs arrive complete the first time.
• ERP is trusted internally as fully accurate — anyone can open an order and see the true state.
• Shabir is out of the information-collection loop entirely.

Requirements

• Packaging industry experience — you've worked in or with packaging manufacturing or trading. Paper packaging strongly preferred (folding cartons, rigid boxes, corrugated, mailers, labels). Other substrates OK. You know what a dieline, GSM, Pantone, and tolerance are without googling.
• Exceptional attention to detail — this is the #1 hiring criterion. You catch the 2mm discrepancy, the wrong file version, the missing finish callout. Our screening process tests this directly.
• Strong written English — professional, clear, client-facing quality.
• Organized and self-managing — remote role, high volume of parallel threads, nothing gets dropped.
• Timezone: able to work with significant China (GMT+8) overlap plus a few hours of US-client overlap.

Big Plus

• Fluent Chinese (Mandarin), spoken and written — you can talk to our factory team directly. Candidates with strong English + strong Chinese + packaging experience go to the front of the line.
• Experience with ERPs/CRMs and structured process work (SOPs, checklists).
• Experience serving Western (US/EU) e-commerce or consumer-brand clients.

What This Role Is NOT

• Not a cold-calling / lead-gen sales role. You don't hunt; you support live deals and clients.
• Not a design role. You handle files and specs, not creative work.
• Not a passive inbox job. You proactively chase, verify, and close loops.