Reporting to the Managing Director
Purpose of Position:
The purpose of the commercial leader is to enable the sales teams to sell the company’s products and services into markets and segments they have identified and analysed. These sales can be direct or via intermediaries. The commercial leaders’ overall responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Identifying and analysing target markets for their respective products to establish size, attractiveness, and accessibility.
Create a strategy to access the chosen target markets and enable the sales teams to sell competitively into those markets by:
Articulating and ensuring full understanding of the strategy
Implement product, application, and sales training.
Competitor comparisons and product advantages.
Implement training on and access to relevant sales tools and literature.
Key Performance Areas:
Main Responsibilities:
Manage the offer portfolio from offer introduction to rationalization/phase-out.
Accountable for the growth and profitability of the portfolio.
Master product knowledge and the product environment.
Take part in Inventory planning/forecasting process.
Manage a team of product application engineers and drive sales in allocated targeted strategic and key accounts.
Understand and share product strategy with the Sales Teams to adapt and execute it:
Manage and develop their product portfolio.
Manage the launch of new products over time, to achieve market share growth.
Master the Marketing Mix (Product, Place, Price, and Promotion) adapted to each product.
Responsible for the price positioning and margin optimization (price, mix, etc.) for the products in their portfolio.
Product Planning and Management:
Determine product specifications.
Define the long-term strategy of the product and create product road map.
Prepare product documents including battle cards and product use cases to drive product activity.
Develop pricing strategies and product policies. • Determine product packaging solutions.
Negotiate with suppliers.
Master product knowledge and the product environment:
Put mechanisms and processes in place for market measurement, evolution analysis and produce relevant action plans.
Monitor the competition and analyse competitors offer positioning, (strategy, marketing mix, price etc.).
Where relevant participate in standardization committees/associations.
Product Marketing:
Develop product marketing plan and event campaigns to generate product awareness and demand plan product launch.
Liaise with advertising and public relations to promote product.
Support sales and marketing with the necessary product knowledge and technical expertise conduct product presentations
Develop sales tools and sales training material.
Provide input for marketing collateral development.
Supply sales with latest research and marketing information.
Implement marketing plan in conjunction with all departments.
drive ongoing improvement in sales and profitability.
Support the Sales teams in the offer strategy execution:
Provide the elements required to support the offer and build the relevant action plans.
Contribute to define and implement all necessary action plans to boost sales of the offer.
Ensure that all relevant resources are properly trained concerning the offer sold and supply the right tools/methodologies.
Organize training for the sales team and customers.
Help branch sales teams generate leads and secure orders.
Customer and End-User Support:
Manage product-related support, feedback, and inquiries from users.
Co-ordinate market research to track customer and end-user feedback.
Monitor product inventory.
Use market feedback to inform product refinements and ongoing development.
Leadership and management:
Hire, train and retain top talent through motivating and coaching employees.
Define and implement SMART goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) and assess employee performance.
Hold regular 1:1s and provide coaching and feedback.
Key Performance Indicators:
Sales and order growth (overall, per offer and target segments and customers)
Profit margin (overall, per offer and target segments and customers)
Inventory efficiency Measures:
Annual marketing plan monitored monthly
% YoY sales and volume growth
% margin improvement
Inventory split (fast, slow moving and obsolete stock)