Global Sales Director
Field Based With Significant International Travel
About James Walker
James Walker is part of the James Walker Group of Companies, who are a successful global Industrial organisation supplying high performance sealing products and solutions. With state-of-the-art material technology skills, the James Walker Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of the James Walker Group specialises in the provision of sealing solutions (elastomers, polymers, composites, engineering plastics, high nickel alloys).
Our worldwide group of companies has operations, sales and service entities across Europe, Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, SE Asia, South Africa and North and South America
Your Role
We’re recruiting a Global Sales Director to spearhead the drive in global sales, develop and inspire the sales teams, leverage the company’s advanced solutions, capabilities and extensive range of products.
This is a James Walker SBU Board role, so along with the other Board Directors, the purpose of the role is to develop a strategy to deliver long-term strategic and financial strength.
Key Responsibilities
- Champion the voice of the customer and also that of distributors.
- Globally lead Sales to grow input at a rate higher than global GDP growth.
- Proactively foster brilliant working relationships with other functions – Product Management, Technical, Operations, Finance, HR, IT.
- Proactively input to all Board discussions so that balanced outcomes are achieved.
- Generate a sales strategy including dependencies that will reduce the business reliance on Europe.
- Extensively develop our Sales teams’ capabilities so that they can sell all products where appropriate and for nominated salespersons in each region to be sales champions for specific product ranges –leveraging the whole of James Walker’s extensive products and services.
- Develop talent, ensuring that performance reviews are carried out for the Sales organisation and appropriate development plans and routes for high potentials are in place.
- Recruit talent that will enhance our ability to win and that will develop very strong customer relationships and partnerships.
- Champion key sales opportunities with some critical accounts, and where appropriate, lead from the front to build relationships with customers at an executive level.
- Build the James Walker brand with the Product Management Director.
- Create a winning and upbeat spirit within the Sales team so that our customers are fully engaged and enjoy doing business with James Walker.
- Ensure our global sales processes are efficient and effective.
- Develop a sales strategy that determines:
- What sales resources we need and where.
- Which customers we should be targeting and how.
- Which channels and partners we should be working with and selling through.
- Develop a network and structure of distributors (where not appropriate to go direct) and put in place effective management mechanisms.
- Ensure bottom-up accurate forecasting in each territory.
- Work with the Sales territories to establish a realistic budget, both from a sales perspective as well as a cost perspective. Ensure that the budget reflects the agreed strategic aims.
- Review, challenge and refine all numbers in advance of reports being submitted. Ensure that Sales entities adhere to reporting timelines and requirements.
- Develop a cross-selling culture so that the Sales team also leverages the products and services from other Group companies.
- Effectively communicate any important changes, successes, lessons and announcements.
- Ensure adherence with the Group’s ethics and other associated policies and that the Sales function is aware and operates within agreed governance limits.
Travel
Very significant international long-haul travel in particular to Asia and Middle East will be required (or if based in Asia, to Europe and occasionally to the Americas). Successful candidates should expect, within at least the first 2 years, to be travelling more than 40% of the time to lead business growth globally.
About you
Key Skill & Experience
- Proven customer-facing sales experience within a global industrial company.
- Sales team leadership across multiple countries, continents and cultures, having led transformational results.
- Expertise in the leadership of budgeting, targeting key account management, performance review.
- Financial and IT acumen with the ability to interpret data.
- The ability to work in an executive capacity, ideally with Board level experience. Has developed extensive sales outside of Europe.
- Experience of working in or with the following sectors: O&G, Process Industries, Pharmaceuticals, Defence, Nuclear.
- Has set up and managed distributors / agents.
- Ideally has experience in sealing technologies.
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