Sales Director - Japanese, Stellantis & Other Customers

Summary: The Sales Director is responsible for leading the organization's efforts & executing the strategy to identify & secure business for assigned accounts, mainly supporting Japanese, Stellantis and Other customers. This role involves managing the P&L on key metrics & performance indications strategic planning, market analysis & collaboration with internal & external stakeholders to drive profitable business growth & innovation.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

SALES:

Single point accountable for the identification of strategically aligned business opportunities, action plans and acquisition of profitable business for assigned accounts.
• Develops & implements strategic sales & marketing plans to achieve corporate objectives.
• Creates & delivers compelling "value based" sales presentations to communicate the company's capabilities & vision.
• Responsible for business results to meet annual financial commitments (, pricing, warranty, & SG&A).
• Leads the sales process & develops the 5 Year Strategy with a focus on growth of assigned customer & responsible to execute strategy (volume, pricing, margin).
• Establishes sales forecasts & performance targets to align customer demand with internal capacity requirements.
• Responsible for driving corporate objectives & priorities including increasing the focus on customer needs & market intelligence, industry trends, competitive dynamics & delivering value added solutions.
• Leads execution of commercial negotiations, terms & customer issue resolution, acts as a single point of commercial contact & engages other functions as required.
• Responsible to ensure that raw material indexes, pricing, quotes & price changes are implemented on-time.
• Ensures that Account Receivables are timely tracked & resolved with customer.
• Build & maintain strong relationships with key customer contacts, including purchasing, engineering & quality teams to gain insights & influence sourcing selections.
• Engages cross functional team members to focus on the achievement of customer objectives, including but not limited to engineering, product line strategy, quality, finance & supply chain, to ensure all customer-facing activities have a plan to meet/exceed customer requirements.
• Once system integration is complete, will utilize customer relationship management (CRM) tool to actively manage account, including 1) Opportunity pipeline in support of the 5 Year Plan, 2) Map to manage a "zippered" relationship structure between STRATTEC team & customer organization & 3) Volume & Revenue mapping of all customer vehicle programs.
• Responsible for customer satisfaction in the development of new customer products.
• Maintains / builds the STRATTEC's leading reputation & image.
• Identifies & develops strategic opportunities with assigned customers & product lines.
• Collaborates internally with technical teams to align product development with assigned customer needs & trends.

GENERAL:

• Directs the staffing, training & performance management of assigned team, where applicable.
• Supports advanced engineering initiatives & collaborates with R&D teams.
• Ensures adherence to company policies, industry standards & regulatory requirements.
• Monitors & reports on key performance indicators (KPIs) to senior management.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:

• Manages team commensurate with business awards, as deemed appropriate.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty with professionalism and discipline to process.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

EDUCATION & WORK EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or a related field (MBA preferred) with 10+ years related experience; or equivalent combination of education & experience.
• Proven experience in sales or marketing within manufacturing industries.
• Strong understanding of market trends, technologies & customer needs.
• Superior analytical & critical thinking skills with the ability to quickly grasp & interpret information pertinent to the growth of the organization.
• Excellent negotiation, communication & presentation skills.
• Demonstrated track record of strong leadership with ability to achieve results through others & influence without authority.
• Ability to identify opportunities/threats & develop & execute appropriate strategic & tactical business solutions.
• Strong business, financial, analytical & problem-solving abilities.
• Previous experience as a director of Sales or equivalent is required.
• Requires ~25% travel.

LANGUAGE SKILLS:

• Ability to read, analyze & interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
• Ability to write reports, business correspondence & customer proposals.
• Ability to effectively present information & respond to questions from groups of managers, clients, customers & the general public.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS:

• Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios & proportions to practical situations. Understanding of general financial principles.

REASONING ABILITIES:

• Ability to solve practical problems & deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENVIRONMENT:

Associates are committed to our Environmental Management System, which provides for continuous improvement of our organization's efforts toward the following: Preventing pollution, complying with relevant environmental legislation & regulations & complying with customer-based environmental requirements.