Sales Director at Hitachi Data Systems

Job description

Reporting to: Managing Director SSAF

Role Purpose

The purpose of the role is to ensure that the HDS South Africa achieves its planned sales objectives within the scope defined by the Managing Director Sub-Saharan Africa. The Sales Director would be required to plan and implement sales (and marketing) activities in order to meet company targets for growth, profitability, retention and development of customers, and to contribute to the sales and business development management of the HDS South Africa.  The Sales Director would be expected to form part of the HDS SSAF Leadership Team and provide strategic guidance and leadership to the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Set appropriate plans for local operation following AOP and sales review with Managing Director Sub-Saharan Africa. Manage and control departmental expenditure and headcount within agreed budgets.
• Monitor on-going progress against AOP, submitting monthly business forecast and reviewing plans on a regular basis with manager, taking corrective action where appropriate.
• Plan and direct team activities to achieve agreed revenue margins against target and standards for financial and trading performance, quality, culture, ethical and legislative adherence.
• Plan and implement sales and marketing strategy, including advertising and PR.  Plan and implement sales and customer retention and development. 
• Manage and ensure that all business development and pre-sales activities are executed in line with the overall sales strategy.
• Set sales goals and allocate targets to team. Review account territories on a regular basis, reallocating and rebalancing where necessary.
• Direct team activities with personal involvement as appropriate. Ensure identified sales opportunities are properly qualified and high quality of campaigns through appropriate review processes.
• Manage all aspects of resources needed to meet the HDS solution and customer requirements.
• Within appropriate headcount policies and AOP, approve selection and recruitment of team members, ensuring advice and counsel is sought from appropriate HQ functional management and that new team members go through an appropriate induction process.
• Develop, guide, coach and educate staff to ensure continued improvement and career progression.
• Manage team performance on an ongoing basis, ensure appropriate personal development plans are established for direct reports and that regular appraisals take place.  Positively encourage the development of sales staff through regular reviews of staffing issues.
• Implement appropriate reward and recognition programmes for employees and initiate timely, fair and appropriate actions where employee performance is inconsistent with team objectives.
• Ensure HR policies and practices are observed, from local, legal and ‘good practice’ aspects.
• Reinforce Corporate/SSAF policies within the sales and business development organisation through regular meetings with team and peers, acting as a member the HDS SSAF Leadership team.
• Maintain and promote Corporate image of sales excellence, service, growth, stability, values and reputation in company markets and with staff, customers, suppliers and partners through a range of initiatives including:
• New customer and prospect visits
• Press briefings
• Participation in Trade and Professional Institutions
• Product launches

Ideal Candidate Experience

• Significant experience of building, managing and driving sales teams to sustainable growth, minimum of 10 years experience in sales management position
• Strong strategic planning ability and business foresight
• Proven stakeholder management abilities
• Strong business and financial understanding
• Ability to transform strategic goals into operational measures
• Familiar with and able to address the important future of IT trends (IoT, Cloud, Big Data, etc.)
• Strong track record in sales capabilities
• Able to manage complexity and ambiguity to drive plans to successful execution
• Natural communicator at all levels, with strong presentation skills
• Change-orientated; able to positively influence others to embrace change
• Demonstrates a strong desire to achieve, with an ability to motivate and collaborate with a team to achieve success
• Personable and empathetic qualities
• Shows respect to others and adhere to high ethical standards