Senior Country Sales Manager, SSA at Danfoss

Job Description

Applications are invited from suitably qualified and experienced candidates for a Senior Country Sales Manager opportunity based in Johannesburg, South Africa. You will be responsible for and leading a team in managing & developing Danfoss Drives Segment in alignment with the overall country/regional sales strategy, enhancing and spreading the knowledge of the Danfoss brand and Drives Products over the Southern Africa market.

Job Responsibilities

Responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to, the following.

• Sales, after sales and marketing activities for Danfoss Drives product portfolio of frequency converters, inverters, soft starters, software, and services in South Africa.
• Full P&L responsibility following order intake and revenue targets, forecasting, Fixed Expense management, customer loyalty, pipeline size & quality, periodic project coaching.
• Leading a team of sales and technical support experts located in multiple locations in RSA.
• People management, ensuring development of the team members, building teamwork and synergy for ongoing success.
• Partner management including pricing strategy and development of partners.
• Developing, leading, and executing the go-to-market strategy, account, and country strategies in line with a value-selling approach.
• Building and maintaining a strong pipeline of sales opportunities.
• Developing and managing sales in focus industry verticals including mining, food & beverage, water & wastewater, HVAC-R, cement, material handling, marine and others.
• Business development activities for focus industries/applications and new market/channel development activities.
• Product management activities including pricing, product positioning and stock strategy.
• Positioning Danfoss Drives brand and products in line with the defined strategy, coordinating communication activities with the regional marketing team.
• Proactively managing and developing the portfolio of end-users, system integrators, panel builders, engineering & design firms, consultants, and contractors in sales territory.
• Work with internal order handling, logistics, accounting teams as well as factory project management and product management teams to coordinate all order to cash activities.

Background & Skills

The ideal candidate possesses these skills.

• A Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Electrical engineering.
• A minimum of 5+ years leadership experience of sales teams in an industrial product sales business, in the South Africa market industry, is desired.
• Ideally the successful candidate will have proven experience in the drives business.
• Adaptation to and leading the change in a dynamic matrix organization. Comfortable to use a combination of virtual and f2f communication, also with multiple digital tools and social media.
• Identified potential and ability to lead a team.
• Strong personal resilience and self-organization capabilities.
• Willing to travel intensively throughout South Africa and other African markets is a must.