Area Manager: North at Trouw Nutrition

The above vacancy exists at Trouw Nutrition South Africa in the Sales Department and reports to the Sales Manager. The purpose of the position is work with our biggest (potential) customers in order to build long-term strategic partnerships. The Area Manager is responsible for attracting and maintaining customers for the long term, to achieve this the Area Manager works with a variety of internal departments such as product development, technical sales advisors, marketing, customer services, pricing and others. The Area Manager is the commercial driver (opening doors, closing deals etc.) and relationship keeper, typically managing a small number of bigger accounts.

Nutreco is a global leader in animal nutrition and fish feed. Our advanced feed solutions are at the origin of food for millions of consumers worldwide. Quality, innovation and sustainability are guiding principles, embedded in the Nutreco culture from research and raw material procurement to products and services for agriculture and aquaculture. Experience across 100 years brings Nutreco a rich heritage of knowledge and experience for building its future

Job Description:

What are you going to do?

Strategy Execution

• Plans how to establish and maintain major account relationships. Participates with the sales team in developing sales strategies for regional accounts and helps to identify target accounts and opportunities within the framework of the organization-wide strategy and (organic) growth plans.

Sales planning and execution

• (Co-develops and) executes the sales plan for the assigned area in accordance with the set objectives and targets.
• Making sure in the sales plans are realized and sales targets are achieved.

Customer acquisition

• Based on his/her knowledge of the market and the market intelligence performed by the OpCo approaches and acquires new customers in a proactive manner through various means that may include direct visits, phone, references, etc. within delegated authority (within the sales team), in order to retain and grow the customer base according to expectations and to achieve the sales targets.

Customer Management

• Establishes and builds strong client relationships over time that allow for continuity and ongoing representation and profitability reinforced by sales support/delivery programs.
• Monitors competitive activity in each account and ensures that appropriate response strategies are formulated and communicated.
• Can assess progress within a particular account and make a commercial decision about committing future resources to developing the opportunity.
• Organises customized customer seminars and coordinate applicable targeted marketing activities

Value Selling

• Builds value for the customer by investigation to uncover explicit needs and develop those needs.
• Demonstrates company’s capability by explaining how company’s products and services match a customer’s explicit needs (Benefit Statement

Networking

• Responsible to coordinate the internal expertise for accounts by collaborating with the General Manager, Sales manager, Technical Sales Team, Product Development, Pricing and others.
• Based on input from Marketing and Pricing measures, prepares and quotes customers, in order to advise customers appropriately and to conclude the sale of product.
• Proactively aligns (demands and expectations) the internal organization and all relevant stakeholders in order to achieve maximum customer satisfaction. Responsible to maintain and build own product and technical knowledge in relevant product categories by taking local & global
• technical trainings.

Issue resolution

• Receives, follows up and resolves or ensures resolution of customer complaints / queries in a timely and efficient manner, in close cooperation with colleagues in Sales and Customer Services,
• in order to satisfy customer expectations and ensure customer retention.

Administration

• Coordinates, executes, maintains and / or improves various administrative sales processes and systems, in line with the applicable procedures to ensure an efficient and effective sales administration compliant with policies and regulations.
• Records the outcome of a sales call and plan future actions which moves the sale towards a successful conclusion – including additional investigation (needs identification) where necessary.

Management information

• Provides insights to management on request, or own initiative, regarding quantitative and qualitative developments within his / her area of sales/expertise, based on reporting guidelines, and ensures all information is appropriately stored and updated, so that management and / orrelevant stakeholders can make (timely) decisions and determine or adjust sales decisions and strategy.

Projects
May participate in various sales and customer service-related projects in his / her area and contributes to project results
What we offer
As a Nutreco company, our mission is Feeding the Future. In a world with limited natural resources, our ambition is to meet the rising food needs of a growing world population in a sustainable manner. Working
for Nutreco means a fantastic position in an international working environment with plenty of development opportunities, also within the Operations department.
What else is in it for you?

• We will offer you a fulltime position
• Your position is classified in a Nutreco Hay scale.
• you will get competitive amount of annual leave days,
• You will receive an attractive salary based on skills and experience - paid in 12/13 monthly.
• payments
• You will get a Sales Incentive
• Responsibility for your own specialisms and development opportunities within the company.

What we ask

• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication and collaboration skills
• Action oriented with a strong Customer Focus
• Motivated with can do attitude
• Ability to grasp new concepts quickly, generate fresh and innovative ideas
• Attention to detail
• Action Orientated

What you bring

• One of the following or related Qualification would be preferred: Bachelor’s in animal nutrition, Agricultural or Commercial
• 5 years’ experience in a sales environment within the Animal Feed industry
• Knowledge in/of the workings of an animal feed plant would be an advantage
• Intermediate PC and keyboard skills with strong knowledge of spreadsheet and word processing packages