Commercial Lead Ingredients at Cargill

Job description

Position Purpose & Summary:

The Commercial Lead Ingredients will be to develop profitable sales organic growth in the region, thereby driving bottom line results improvement. New business development and entry strategies into new key markets will be a significant part of the commercial activity. The Commercial Lead Ingredients will drive the implementation of the strategy that has been developed by the MEA Leadership Team (LT). He/she will work closely with Risk Management & Sourcing / Strategic Marketing & Technology departments to drive our organic growth.

Responsible for developing and executing the sales vision and long/medium-term goals for the most complex customer account(s) that will drive significant business/financial impact and will maximize opportunities for the customer and within defined area of scope (i.e. Portfolio of Products/Services, Industry Segment, Major Sales Practice Area/category, etc). This includes building, developing, and maintaining internal/external customer/client relationships; researching and identifying customer’s needs to ultimately create and propose solutions. Work activities also include presenting/developing solutions recommendations, structuring, negotiating, and executing the sales/account contracts as well as setting targets and measuring results.

Most Complex Customer Accounts (Key Accounts/National/Regional). Coordination Across-BU Significant Business/Financial Impact (Impacts BU/Region/Segment/Category) Significant and/or Broader Expertise of Business Single/Multidisciplinary Product/Services Solutions (Complex/Customized Solutions)

Long/Medium-Term Outlook

Principal Accountabilities:

• 25% BUILD, DEVELOP & MAINTAIN INTERNAL / EXTERNAL CUSTOMER / CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS
• Initiates, develops, and maintains long/lasting customer working relationship with external/internal customers/clients at multiple levels for the most complex customer accounts
• Accountable for the overall success of the customer relationships by delivering significant business/financial impact within Ingredients business in MEA region
• Builds relationships with senior/key stakeholders in customer’s organization. Identifies/builds relationships with a broad set of key gatekeepers, influencers, and decision-makers to ensure that margins and sales goals are exceeded through a significant understanding of the customers’ need and ways to enhance Cargill added value proposition. Prioritize the customers portfolio in close cooperation with the Regionals directors
• Partners with a broad internal/external network of business stakeholders to exchange ideas (marketing/brand managers, solutions/technical sales specialist, technical services consultants, product line managers, etc). Leverages and develops long-lasting external network contacts .
• Monitors closely the customer relationship for continuous value creation and optimization. Collaborates/partners with Logistics/Procurement/Supply Chain/R&D/Marketing/Quality/Product Line professionals to ensure availability of raw materials and ability to meet customer specifications and timelines. Ensures that customers are satisfied and that any inquiries, incidents and/or issues are resolved in a timely manner.
• Supports customer needs through effective collaboration with Cargill functions (Supply Chain, Technical Services, Customer Services, Operations, Logistics/Transportation, etc)
• Establishes strategic/tactical coordination across-BUs and may directly drive cross-selling opportunities with other business units to provide an integrated approach to meet/exceed customers current/future needs and requirements as well as gain customer longterm/ continued commitment.
• 25% RESEARCH & IDENTIFY CUSTOMER / BUSINESS NEEDS
• Researches and identifies customer requirements/expectations for the most complex accounts.
• Partners and leverages extensive network of support functions ( Go-To-Market organizations, Marketing, R&D, Operations) as well as with senior level managers to develop a deep understanding of most complex accounts products and services capabilities and the overall business strategy to ultimately anticipate and address current and future needs of the customer(s).
• Possess and continuously develops deep knowledge of the customer business strategy, requirements/needs and competitor offerings. Develops extensive industry knowledge across a broad and/or specialized spectrum of products/services/segments/channels as well as direct competitor’s offerings.
• Proactively analyzes competitor capabilities along with comparisons to business’s capabilities to determine gaps and to position account offerings against competitive options.
• In collaboration with marketing groups, may execute targeted customer analysis for individual or groups of customers using Cargill marketing tools (customer segmentation).
• Ensures that sales/marketing strategies and tactics (product/market segmentation, pricing, channels of distributions) utilized by the business are effectively aligned with the regional/local marketplace practices. Recommends adaptations and changes to the sales/marketing strategy as appropriate.
• Collaborates with sales management leader/teams to develop overall objectives and growth strategies for new and existing products.
• Discovers new prospective customers and qualifies new sales opportunities.
• 20% SOLUTION PROPOSAL & DEVELOPMENT / NEGOTIATION & SALE EXECUTION
• Within our portfolio of Ingredients product/services, creates and validates the ability to deliver distinctive value propositions/solutions by linking needs, benefits, and added-value offerings apart from competitors.
• Develops and supports the translation of business plans and sales strategy into account specific growth plans. Positions Cargill’s portfolio of Ingredients products/services for most favorable opportunities by presenting the company’s capabilities and solutions.
• Provides input and/or develops direct/indirect sales forecasting that includes most complex (unique solutions) opportunities that are critical/strategic to the customer.
• Prioritizes, improves, and executes sales/account planning delivery process which consists of the detailed deliverables of an action plan. Accountable for overseeing and/or executing sales transactions through the portfolio pipeline.
• Develops and executes the sales planning process for the most complex accounts for multiple value propositions and solutions as part of the account plan; synthesizes themes across complex customer plans.
• Identifies and develops long/medium-term outlook solutions with key developers and cross-functional teams to create new/existing products/services geared towards growing/maintaining mark et share as well as increasing margin contribution.
• Develops and structures complex sales proposals (i.e. structure proposals for primary customized solution) that represent maximum value optimization to customer and business. Ensures that proposal addresses customer’s key issues, needs and requirement.
• Provides input to the market pricing policy and/or executes on customer pricing programs against established market pricing policy and procedures. Independently communicates and makes pricing changes that improve effectiveness and further develops the sales prospects into closed deals.
• Executes most complex contracting process by partnering with the Law Department and other senior account/sales leaders to draft/structure contracts. Negotiates,
• presents, and finalizes sales for the most complex accounts.
• Possesses deep expertise on negotiation techniques that focuses on long-term customer relationship and “win-win” outcomes.
• Demonstrates control and understanding of buyers needs and prepares for negotiation by gathering detailed information/facts.
• Predicts/resolves potential issues, settles disagreements, and clarifies misunderstandings with customers, teammates, or supervisors to enhance account performance. Develops mitigation strategies before issues materialize.
• May directly participate and influence the marketing/sales/technology strategy of BU’s product portfolio and innovation projects as well as the development of objectives and growth strategies for new and existing segments/products/channels, etc.
• Participates in cross-functional/departmental collaboration to leverage innovative revenue generating solutions, including branding, pricing segmentation and product configurations. Shares cross-functional implications to the broader businesses segments and collaboratively develops and implements solutions for the most complex account(s).
• In collaboration with the marketing professionals/ managers, executes customer trade/sales events (i.e. industry related events, trade shows, customer based visits including plant visits, scale-ups, R&D seminars and work sessions, and HQ visits, etc).
• 15% PERFORMANCE TARGETS, MEASUREMENTS & RESULTS
• Executes on defined/quantifiable sales targets for the most complex accounts. Provides input to the detailed sales plan of activities to monitor, assess, and ensure sales goals are achieved.
• Executes long/medium-term outlook account management/sales forecast that incorporates market variations of a defined portfolio of products/services goals.
• May participate in the development of annual fiscal year sales budget. Provides updated forecast on any major new, lost or incremental fluctuation in customer requirements and takes appropriate action to achieve and/or exceed sales budget targets.
• Has overall responsibility for the execution and tracking of score card metrics that are related to the performance and overall customer satisfaction.
• Delivers on sales performance/financial targets/budgets; sales volume, prices, revenue, profitability.
• 15% PEOPLE, TALENT & BUDGET MANAGEMENT (COACHING & TALENT DEVELOPMENT)
• May coach more junior account managers on all aspects of sales/account management.

Desired Skills and Experience

Minimum Required Qualifications:

• University degree in Animal Nutrition, Veterinary Science or having relevant industry experience.
• 5+ years of experience in senior commercial roles with a track record of being able to grow a sustainable business
• Strong team player with a genuine own identity
• Proven financial and operational understanding
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Business to Business Experience
• Superior key account management skills
• Can handle tight deadlines and manage priorities. Well organized.
• Proven skills in leading broad projects
• Result oriented
• Local language & excellent command of English
• Ability to work in multi-cultural environment
• Good computer skills, full domain of Microsoft Office

Preferred Qualifications:

• University degree (in Animal Nutrition, or Veterinary Science) ideally combined with business degree or training.
• Demonstrated ability in coaching, training and developing employees.