Sales Director - Americas

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The duties & responsibilities of the Director of Sales include but are not necessarily limited to the following:

• Responsibility for the profitable sales and annual sales growth goals.
• Execution of action plans to achieve strategic plans as it relates to Nothum protein processing equipment business.
• Administer and manage the activities of the North American Sales team and the Nothum sales team.
• Manage CRM, to serve as a data base for effective management of sales opportunities, sales history, manpower, and territory effectiveness, and market planning.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Operations, and Finance in forecasting, scheduling, product development, and product cost reduction activities.
• Seek, interview and recruit, territorial and product line salespersons and other specialists to handle sales of food processing tools and equipment in assigned territories throughout the United States.
• Establish and sustain a program for continuous training to assure the highest level of professionalism and achievement possible.
• Train new sales team members using the company sales methodology and ongoing refinement of sales presentation techniques.
• Establish clear, concise goals, objectives, and performance expectations for each salesperson.
• Establish and monitor measurable objectives with each sales professional while thoroughly review sales representative’s performance on a regular basis.
• Facilitate all aspects of engagement and performance management with direct reports.
• Continually seek opportunities for new product development, new product applications, and improvements in marketing channels while reporting such opportunities to the product management team.
• Constantly stay abreast of competitive conditions and new market developments as directly related to Food Processing Equipment and provide reports to appropriate teams and individuals within the Protein Tools & Equipment business.
• Participate in development of an annual sales plan and resulting action plans for the product lines in accordance with instructions from the General Manager. Monitor such plans continuously in CRM and update as often as required.
• Support Marketing to assist in the development of an annual marketing plan.
• Establish objectives and sales quotas for each direct territory and indirect channel. This will be accomplished by developing target markets and prospects with the sales staff considering Company strategic goals and specific marketing plans.
• Develop, with the assistance of the RAM’s, the annual, quarterly, and monthly sales volume forecasts for his product line for the approval of the General Manager.
• Monitor actual sales and make appropriate adjustments and revisions in the forecasts, as necessary, for a quarterly rolling forecast.
• Directly manage the sales activity for Key National Accounts assuring those deep relationships are built and maintained with key executives within the subject company and that long cycle sales activity is managed to continually increase sales to these accounts.
• Continually seek opportunities to execute the sales process through direct sales representatives in the most effective and efficient manner using metrics such as a “quote to close ratio” to measure call effectiveness and “cost of call” to measure call efficiency.
• Provide Voice of Customer and market perspective for the development of pricing strategies.
• Remain aware of U.S. Trade and Anti-Trust Laws and deviate from published selling prices only with prior approval of the General Manager.
• Inform the Product Marketing Manager and the General Manager any deviation from quality standards in products delivered to customers.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Sales/Marketing or related field; a master’s degree is preferred.
• Experience – A minimum of 8-10 years selling experience with Capital equipment demonstrating a record of increasing responsibility. A minimum of 5 years of sales supervisory experience including management of direct sales representatives. Successful track record of Key Account selling experience.
• Knowledge/Skills/Abilities – Sales process management including pipeline management and the use of CRM to optimize sales effectiveness and efficiency. Forecasting, budgeting, and expense management is required.
• Markets & Industries – Food Processing tools and equipment experience strongly preferred. Specific experience within the North American protein suppliers (e.g., Tyson, Cargill, JBS, Smithfield, etc.) strongly preferred. 
• Exceptional communication skills and ability to relate easily to a diverse customer base.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills.
• Strategic and analytical thinker; able to quickly establish direction.