Sales Director Czech Republic & Slovakia

Location: Czech Republic or Slovakia

About the role:
The Sales Director is Barry Callebaut's ambassador in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He/she ensures the building and growing visibility of the company on the markets including market share growth, volume, and profit delivery in the Czech and Slovakia. He/she plans, organizes, directs, coordinates, and controls all sales activities for GM, FM, and GCA customers to achieve short- and long-term overall objectives within the global business unit strategy. The goal of this role is to ensure BC consolidates and expands a profound relation with our local accounts and grows top and bottom lines with them, thanks to a customer-focused approach, a profound knowledge of our commercial strategy as well as of Barry Callebaut, high customer proximity and a good business sense. The Czech and Slovakia Sales Director establishes, builds, and strengthens relations with MDs, and procurement heads of all global and local accounts in the Czech and Slovakia to identify top-line & efficiency opportunities that can be developed locally while ensuring the smooth execution of regional/cluster strategy. He/she is the local BC representative in the Czech and Slovakia for all accounts. This person ensures internal support which is exemplary for our customers, and strengthens competitive edge in the daily cooperation with accounts, during co-creation sessions, strategizing workshops, and best practice sharing sessions. He/she contributes to the customers, and their local/regional development which should reflect NPS's growing score.

Key responsibilities:

• Build a sustainable business model for BC in the Czech and Slovakia through strengthening cooperation with existing customers, acquisition of new clients, and distributors, and re-structure of the distribution channels in the countries to ensure a smooth and effective operating business model.
• Act as the main link between the organization and the customers for the CE portfolio.
• Initiate contacts with local management of our customers to create opportunities that will increase turnover with the customers, will build trust, and will encourage the customers to increase the share of BC in their business.
• Pursue sales leads: visit existing and new customers, such as Food Manufacturers e.g.: (industrial and semi-industrial customers, regional chains, Ice Cream and Biscuit producers) and Gourmet customers (e.g.: confectioners, pastry shops, bakeries, restaurants and hotels) while respecting a time management schedule.
• Enable further development of BC's position in the Czech and Slovakia including a deep understanding of competitors and customers landscape: deep dive into market intelligence and deeply interact directly with customers in GM, FM, and GCA.
• Develop and implement sales and marketing strategies with the cluster/regional team and execute agreed action plans in the field.
• Assess customer needs and suggest appropriate products and services.
• Obtain a full understanding of the customers’ strategies, brands, and categories to enable the offering of relevant solutions and identify future opportunities with the customers.
• Respond to customer inquiries, negotiate prices, and delivery times within limits of authority, and conclude sales orders to meet volume/revenue targets.
• Identify, research, and contact prospective customers and build positive relationships that will generate future sales and repeat business.
• Manage distributors in how they supply, sell, and promote Barry Callebaut's portfolio and brands.
• Coordinate Trade Marketing, Marketing, and Technical activities between BC customers, and distributors.
• Develop Chef to Chef relationships and engage in Chef Associations to build brand awareness and usage opportunities.
• Follow regular group-related office work, including admin tasks (e.g.: Salesforce platform, weekly reporting, price list management).
• Ensure constant follow-up on commercial goals and achievements to meet/exceed objectives.
• Monitor competitive activity in the Czech and Slovakia, cascade key information to the cluster, and ensure that appropriate response strategies are formulated and communicated.
• Validate the accuracy and appropriateness of the data used and ensure relevance and high quality of data output e.g. reports, and analysis.

About you: 

• Bachelor /Master's Degree in Economics, Business Administration, or Sales & Marketing.
• 10+ years of relevant working experience in Sales, preferably in a multinational FMCG company, experience in B2B is a plus.
• Very good knowledge of the local market.
• Commercial skills (presenting, discussing, negotiating, strategic thinking).
• Entrepreneurship spirit and passion (autonomy will be a key driver).
• Knowledge of chocolate, gourmet industry, semi-industrial customers, and regional chains is a plus.
• In-depth knowledge of the industry’s offering in terms of capabilities, products, and innovation, as well as understanding the key players, customers, and competitors, in the world of chocolate.
• Proficiency with Google applications, Salesforce, and MS Office.
• Being open to and adapting quickly to new sales and marketing approaches.
• Fluent in English, Czech/Slovak both written and oral.
• Open for frequent traveling (~ 30%).
• Analytical skills in sales, marketing, financial, and logistics environments.
• Knowledge of budgetary planning, control, and pricing mechanisms.
• Excellent stakeholder management and indirect leadership skills -> to ensure alignment and prioritization in other departments working for the same customers: Marketing, R&D, OSCO, Pricing, Finance, and Forecasting.
• Being able to manage complexity and end-to-end thinking: to manage the customer throughout the entire organization.
• Working with multi-disciplinary teams and experience working in a multinational business context with a matrix structure.
• Well-developed listening, communication, interpersonal skills, and an analytical mindset.
• Strong Commercial mindset and proven track record in achieving ambitious growth targets paired with strong negotiation ability.
• Creating a culture of collaboration and achieving results together.
• Solution-driven and problem-solving attitude.
• Hands-on mentality and determined to always deliver against objectives,
• Being open to and adapting quickly to new sales and marketing approaches.