Sales Director

The organisation

Our client is a family owned business which prides itself first and foremost on its entrepreneurial spirit. A spirit in which employees are inspired to pursue their ambitions without the boundaries of classic organizational structure. They embrace critical questioning, innovation, service and continuous improvement, while creating and maintaining a work culture that values collaboration. Client has a highly technical approach to build its product portfolio and expanding into adjacent markets/applications. Client can rely on dedicated R&D staff and on applications and testing laboratories across its several sites. Over 10% of its employees are dedicated to R&D, technical services, and laboratory/applications testing.

Customers are served with extensive application and R&D laboratories, custom production equipment and industry-experienced professionals. They tailor products for specific end-use by customers, thanks to versatile manufacturing capabilities leading to tight specification tolerances. Client’s goal is to obtain full customer satisfaction through the consistent delivery of high-quality products and services. In the EMEA region client is striving to increase revenues at least 10% on a year to year basis the next coming years.

The position

Most of all, as a Sales Director you will lead our organization to the next commercial level and beyond. Being both team leader and cooperative foreman. You are responsible for defining & championing the commercial efforts to substantially expand business in the EMEA region. Besides growing client’s presence in existing markets, the primary focus of the role is on growing new multiple markets across multiple EMEA geographies. Therefore, new opportunities with new prospects, new markets and new applications have to be identified and pursued.

Tasks & responsibilities

You define, develop, plan and execute the commercial strategy. You’ll set up, streamline and manage the EMEA distribution network. Also, you built, coach and support the sales team throughout the sales and business development cycle. As a full-fledged business and sparring partner, you work closely together with the Managing Director on strategic planning and executing the vision and mission of the European activities bringing about an ambitious culture and embracing change.

You show direct leadership within the sales team and indirect leadership being member of a young European Management team. You will report to the Managing Director Europe. In this role, metrics around sales, profits and market share will be key targets and you will be the main driver to create and accelerate growth. Success will be measured by achieving sales growth.

Candidate profile

You have the right competencies in sales leadership and combine these with a proven track record. You have a great entrepreneurial spirit, and you are constantly striving to coach and develop your team and to develop new business with the needs of the customer in mind. You easily connect with people from different backgrounds across all levels in the marketplace. You create team spirit with a culture of trust, transparency and goal getting. You sense and identify emerging trends and opportunities for existing and experimental products. You are an experienced professional with a passion for the job and the ability to create commercial success for our products and customers.

Furthermore, you:

• have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in chemistry or related (technical/scientific)
• have at least 7 years’ experience in global sales, application technology or sales management in the special chemicals/additives industry
• have at least 5 years’ experience in managing an internationally based sales team
• are challenging, ambitious, strategic thinking and hands-on
• are an effective coach and leader, able to motivate and align cross-functional teams
• create clarity for team members, help them find creative deal structures and remove obstacles to help them achieve challenging goals
• are able to build strong customer relationships
• are fluent in English and Dutch, capabilities in other languages are a plus

Interested?

You are invited to apply for this position by using the form below. For more information, please contact Harry Nauta at +31 (0)6 29 50 40 30.