Distributor Development Manager

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Distributor Development Manager  

Company: Hitachi Industrial Equipment & Solutions America, LLC. (HIESA)

Division: Marking & Coding

Location: Remote/Madison-Milwaukee Wisconsin

Status: Regular, full-Time

Summary:

Following many years of successful double-digit growth, Hitachi distributors face a challenging and changing market. The DDM’s role will be to strengthen distributor sales performance and image by representing Hitachi on behalf of and together with distributors. Devise and implement processes that create improved market visibility for Hitachi, improved product and service delivery to distributors and together result in outstanding levels of customer satisfaction. Support the distributor directly in their geography to develop new business by engaging directly with key customers and creating “Pull” from end user accounts & market verticals.   

By successfully engaging with independent distributors in a geographic region and using credible business and selling skills, he/she will win ongoing trust and support for the implementation of Hitachi growth initiatives. They will provide coaching, sales and product training to ensure that Hitachi wins a greater share and brand recognition within the coding market sector. They will implement joint business plans in conjunction with the distributor that link measured actions to incentives. These will include lead generation activities, forecasting, upskilling customer facing teams and deployment of best practice processes that improve overall efficiency and end user customer satisfaction.

Key tasks/deliverables

• Ability to build strong trusting relationships with distributor principles and their operational team, by understanding their key drivers and motivations
• Enhance the performance of sales through distributors within the country or region of responsibility by proactively supporting the sales efforts.
• Develop new business by creating “Pull” from end user accounts & market verticals
• Support distributor to identify customer stakeholders and assist with introductions and accompanied visits.
• Create joint business plans with Distributor-Partners and work closely with them to deliver initiatives with SMART actions and quarterly reviews to achieve sales growth and performance targets.
• Encourage and support the sharing of information for HIESA CRM system and where possible encourage the use of the HIESA’s SFDC portal to increase business efficiencies in reporting and order processing. Ensure its use for product warranty registration, key projects, key accounts, and OEM customer recording. 
• Travel within the region as required to train and support sales activity, provide sales coaching to Distributor-Partner sales teams to help them sell the result of Hitachi product solutions for end customers (Value).
• Support negotiations with larger accounts
• Provide coaching to distributors to help them sell the value of Hitachi C&M product solutions.
• Where justified, identify requirements to establish new distribution in country / region

• Collect market trends and pricing and communicate these to regional and global development teams to ensure products comply with market needs and requirements.
• Identify any divergence from plan (budget) and create corrective action plans to close or minimize the gap.

Key skills the candidate should demonstrate:

• A track record of implementing successful distributor support processes within a country or region
• Ability to motivate and lead distributors to win sales (with Hitachi coding products) in their defined market, ensuring that a value-add sales approach is adopted.
• Gain respect and acknowledgement from distributor principals and staff, demonstrating the value that you can add and use this to increase transparency and cooperation.
• Provide coaching and skill training and develop programs that will maintain the competitiveness of the distributor within the developing market
• Ability to understand sales and commercial reports and able to derive information from them that will support tactical and strategic decisions to address market or distributor challenges.
• Good organisational skills with the ability to set priorities and effectively manage time.
• Collaborate with marketing to develop campaigns, support new product launches and initiate lead generation plans through exhibitions and Distributor organised events.
• Ensure that the sales and marketing team deploy CRM to record and monitor the sales process, market customer and distributor performance.
• Maintain a deep understanding of customer needs and monitor their preferences against defined satisfaction performance KPIs.

• Support the negotiation and periodic renewals for Distributor and customer contracts.

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 5+ years proven experience as a distributor sales or regional sales manager with who can demonstrate success in winning new business through indirect sales teams, or 5 years of CIJ product and marketplace experience.
• Have experience in organizational change management and has demonstrated experience of introducing new operational and working processes.
• With excellent communication and presentation skills will have the ability to build relationships with independent business entrepreneurs.
• Show empathy and the ability to work well with different cultures and can unite a team under a shared vision.
• Ideally with a background in industrial printing or packaging and experience in supporting selling through direct and indirect sales channels.

                   EOE-Females/Minorities/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities