Best Canditate
A leading energy and infrastructure technology company is offering an exciting opportunity for a VP of Fuel Markets to play a pivotal role in shaping and executing the strategic vision of the fuel market department. This role entails creating, overseeing, and implementing strategies to drive profitable growth, facilitate change, and maintain best-in-class service quality, HSE, and profitability. The ideal candidate should possess strong sales, negotiation, and leadership skills.
Job Requirements:
- Bachelor's Degree; an MBA is preferred.
- 11+ years of experience.
- Demonstrated success in industrial/manufacturing sales roles.
- Proven experience managing relationships with large national account-type customers.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong technical aptitude.
- Exceptional problem-solving and time management skills.
- Strong negotiating skills, preferably with some previous formal training.
- Anticipate travel requirements to be approximately 30-50%.
- Understanding of new business sales, with experience in prospecting, qualifying, and commercializing business relationships.
- Ability to engage resources from various parts of the organization.
- Ability to identify potential bottlenecks within both operations and the sales funnel and develop and execute action plans to address them.
- Ability to quantify growth opportunities and build a business case for pursuing identified opportunities.
- Strong leadership skills and the ability to manage and motivate sales, operations, field operations, and manufacturing staff.
- Presentation skills, including the ability to present to external clients and the internal leadership team, shareholders, and board of directors, as required.
About Key Responsibilities:
- Collaborate closely with the VP Global Operations, VP Water Markets, VP Technology and Marketing, and other executive leadership team members to develop and execute the annual business plan.
- Set and monitor price strategies for various customer levels, particularly national accounts, relative to their strategic significance.
- Negotiate favorable supply contract terms and conditions in collaboration with internal legal departments and customers.
- Oversee customer unit allocation processes to balance customer needs with profitability and market share goals.
- Participate in yearly budget planning and provide monthly forecasts, including a 12-36-month demand outlook.
- Manage expense spending in the accountable area and ensure adherence to the annual budget.
- Monitor and respond to customer RFPs (Request for Proposals).
- Address outstanding customer disputes and back charges to achieve favorable resolutions.
- Oversee accounts receivable (AR) accounts that are overdue by more than 90 days, working with sales managers and reps to develop strategies for collection.
- Ensure that Sales Managers, Reps, and the Sales Support team have timely access to essential data to support their roles.
- Analyze key data related to financial and operational objectives, such as inventory levels, sales revenue, margins, future forecasting, and customer data accuracy.
- Collaborate with Supply Chain to monitor, set, and adjust freight rates charged to customers and ensure carrier performance aligns with customer expectations.
- Maintain daily communication with customers, sales reps, and sales managers.
- Directly manage Sales Managers and indirectly oversee other Sales Managers.
- Set annual goals and objectives for all department personnel.
- Conduct bi-weekly department meetings to ensure alignment with critical business steps.
- Lead and facilitate two annual in-person sales meetings with Sales Managers and/or the Sales Support team.
- Oversee the activities and processes of the Sales Support team, ensuring appropriate staffing, customer satisfaction, and participation in their monthly team meetings.
- Maintain customer contact and stay informed about proposed customer activity and needs.
- Collaborate with the water team to sell Hydrochain products to fuel customers.
- Establish and maintain direct contact with potential end-user decision makers and influencers.
- Identify and drive process enhancements, both internally and externally, based on customer feedback and business requirements.
- Work closely with the Marketing team to maintain brand reputation, provide high-quality marketing collateral, and execute professional events.
- Collaborate with Sales Managers to establish annual sales plans with strategic growth targets.
- Demonstrate a strong understanding of the product and general knowledge of the fuel market and tank competitors' practices.
- Attend and host networking and customer events as required, participating in presentations as opportunities arise.
- Develop and maintain networking relationships with senior management at other petroleum equipment manufacturers.
- Monitor market and customer-specific trends and maintain customer awareness to identify new products and services to add to the portfolio.
- Monitor inventory levels to ensure proper maintenance and address aging inventory with strategies for timely removal.
- Establish working relationships with plant managers and provide support as needed.
- Interact with the field service team and sales managers to monitor responsiveness and find satisfactory solutions to field events with tank problems.
- Monitor the Non-Conformance Report (NCR) process and data for accuracy and identification of customer problems and responses.
- Participate in bi-weekly meetings with the VP of Operations and communicate operational and customer concerns that require VP attention.
- Work with the VP of Technology & Marketing to identify technical and digital enhancements that promote customer loyalty.
- Continuously monitor the business, department, and market for improvement opportunities.
- Focus on employee development through individual training & development plans, performance assessments, and annual talent management assessments.
- Ensure positive employee attitudes through employee surveys and personal contact.
- Assess organizational competencies in Fuel Markets and Sales Support teams and the overall organization, identifying gaps and areas for improvement.
- Be responsible for wage & salary administration.
- Maintain a culture of safety, operational excellence, teamwork, employee engagement, and dedication to customer service. Manage the QHSE risk and promote respect, understanding, and adherence to all safety regulations.
- Conform to the company HSE/IIF program and metrics.
- Act as a functional HSE representative.
