Distribution Account Manager at Epson

Job description

You will be accountable for developing and growing a Sales Distributor pipeline to ensure strong funnel of near, medium and long term opportunities to generate business growth and maximise sales of Epson products.

We are open to candidates from various backgrounds however it is essential that you have a full understanding of generate sales from a Distribution network. We are looking for a business minded professional with a proven track record of showing sales growth within South African’s marketplace.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build a sales Distributor pipeline and quarterly goals to ensure strong funnel of near, medium and long term opportunities for new business from named targets and / or assigned markets/geography.
• Ensure the MAINTAIN runrate business is forecasted through Distribution and that the Distributors have adequate stock levels and replenishment rates.
• Identify, nurture and close new opportunities that result in substantial growth in the company market share, revenues, and margin.
• Build account plans and strategies to leverage on existing and run-rate business, to seed and grow new opportunities whilst maintaining the existing customer base.
• Sell designated range of Epson products and services, maximising cross selling opportunities.
• Meet or exceed quarterly and annual revenue & margin targets.
• Build strong professional working relationships at all levels within the Distributors. Understand the Distributors channel partners in their target market sectors, demonstrating breadth and depth of knowledge in aligning Epson’s capabilities to meet customer needs and priorities.
• Understand and document the Distributors requirements to ensure that clear unambiguous value propositions are developed and communicated using appropriate tools.
• Actively engage at all levels with Distribution to influence Distributor and partners early in the sales cycle to ensure that the profile of Epson is high and of priority, to fully leverage the company's portfolio and maximise win rates of deals. .
• Lead the sales process whilst calling upon other internal resources and expertise to assist in solution development, proposal delivery and implementation (e.g. Service, Pre-Sales etc.)
• Ensure quarterly Marketing planning meets the objectives of EPSON and the Distributor
• Lead the Quarterly Business Review process ensuring every Distributor is reviewed quarterly and objectives for following quarters are defined, documented and carried out.
• Ensure compliance and that quality standards are met at all times.

Key Skills and experience:

• Experienced working in a Channel Sales environment with proven record of achieving success through the development of profitable sales.
• Previous experience with a Global IT Vendor and the subsequent expectations around standards, processes and compliance is an advantage.
• Technical expertise in relevant product group(s) or similar discipline and able to communicate and demonstrate the value and technical benefits of products to end users and channel partners.
• Ideally educated to degree or equivalent level in business, technical or sales related discipline.
• Strong selling and business development skills and ideally an understanding of the concept of solution sales. Strong sales negotiation capability in positioning solution value under pricing pressures from customers/procurement professionals.
• Ability to build and proactively manage relationships over short and long term to generate business growth.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to adapt to a variety of audiences.
• Commercially aware and numerate with the ability to understand and manage priorities and risk in commercial terms.
• Self-motivated with good analytical and problem solving skills, both at tactical and strategic account level.
• Strong IT skills, including a good understanding of Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Ideally, experienced using sales productivity and reporting tools.
• Fluent local and good English language skills.