Trade & Field Sales Director BE+Lux

Solenis is a leading global producer of specialty chemicals focused on delivering sustainable solutions for water-intensive industries, including consumer, industrial, institutional, food and beverage, and pool and spa water markets.

Your Role:

As a sales director, you manage a team of sales managers and account managers. You co-create the strategic directive in the country and drive for implementation. In this role, you actively nurture and grow the trade partnerships in the country to help grow the business and you leverage the field organization to drive up end-customer demand for our products – whether they are directly delivered by Diversey/Solenis or indirectly delivered through distributors. As a Sales Director you are also part of the Benelux Institutional Management Team.

About your team:

A sales manager oversees a team of account managers. Account managers (field and/or trade) own a portfolio of customer sites/groups, for which they own the sales relationship and drive for revenue growth and profitability improvements. Identifying, capturing and explaining the value created by our solution for the customer is key.

Key Accountabilities:

You will be ultimately held accountable to reach the sales and profitability target of the country, by focusing on the following areas:

• Drive Strategic (Sales) Initiatives: Help set the strategic direction and drive for the implementation of these strategic initiatives. As a director you are expected to be a visible leader.

• Optimize Trade Partnerships: Review, optimize and grow our trade partnership network in the country. Ensuring that we have the right trade partners, with the right coverage across the country and our market sectors. Setting the right contracts and incentives, trainings & programs for these trade partners to ensure they help drive growth for our business. Also engage and train our own field sales team, next to trade account managers, to leverage trade partnerships locally within sales districts.

• Sales Performance Management: Have frequent 1:1s with your team managers/members to review the size and quality of their sales funnel (in our CRM); next steps for their opportunities; win rates; account plan reviews; track value creation for the customer; actual sales growth performance; account profitability; and white-spot analysis leading to up- and cross-selling.

• SLA Management: Manage your team's SLA commitments towards their Accounts utilizing scheduled sales (and service) calls. Ensuring each team member is making enough high-quality calls and safeguard customer satisfaction. Prioritize as needed.

• Facilitate Training: Both perform training of your team members directly yourself and facilitate training for them by others in areas which you are not an expert (yet). This can be on a wide range of subjects, including (but not limited to): sales skills, technical understanding, and product expertise.

• Coach and develop your team: Actively work with your team members to both help them improve in their current job and support them in their career aspirations. Do some on the job training as needed. Recruit new team members in case of vacancies.

• Cost control and P&L management: Manage expenses both on the team/people side and non-people side (T&E, 3rd party vendors, etc.) while also optimizing Cost of Goods Sold through active mix management. To ensure that our topline growth translates to excellent bottom-line profit.

• Project Management: participate in (continuous) improvement projects, helping the company to further optimize processes and procedures and improve the quality of our solutions.

• Cross-functional alignment: align across teams and functions, including but not limited to (Technical) Customer Service, to ensure your team and the rest of the company are successful. Working together as “one company”. Also responsible to coordinate and work with Application Experts and Sales Support.

• Personal Development: Ensure you carve out time for your own personal development and training.

Qualifications / Requirements

• A Bachelor/Master’s degree in the area of business, marketing, accounting, economics, finance or a related field is a must.

• Minimum 10 to 15 years of experience

• Experience with B2B key account management, communication and negotiation. Knows how to capture value for the customer.

• Knows how to build high performing sales teams in a B2B market.

• Knowledge about the cleaning & hygiene industry and/or markets which Diversey/Solenis customers operate in.

• Leadership skills and know how to engage teams.

• Team player & people person.