Heads & Hunters is looking for an ambitious Area Sales Manager ready to travel in Italy and southern Europe.

Galactic is one of the world’s leading producers of lactic acid and its derivatives. Through a fermentation process of sugars and non-GMO microorganisms, we pride ourselves on developing a technology that helps to lower the carbon footprint of your products.

We think global and act local. We help our customers around the world to deliver safe and sustainable products to their local communities.

Galactic headquarters is located in Brussels (Belgium), where the company was founded in 1992. Our products and services are available in over 70 countries around the world, all produced by production facilities and high-performance labs located in Europe, North America and Asia.

Mission:

The ASM is responsible for maximizing the potential of the markets in the assigned geographic area in alignment with the company’s business strategy. He/She defines the local sales strategy and develops the action plans and budgets for the countries under his/her responsibility. After validation with management, the ASM works to apply his/her action plan & strategic approach. 

• The ASM qualifies, selects, and manages distributors. 
• He/She implements commercial actions with the objective to maximize the CCC (Corporate Commercial Contribution) following the price guidance from management and volume targets set in the budget. 
• He/She follows and facilitates the activities of the distributors. 
• He/She prospects end users and blenders in his/her area directly for direct sales. 
• He/She manages the division of the business in the region between direct & distribution business by making good agreements with the distributors and where needed by using positive and negative lists making sure that Galactic keeps or regains the driving seat in the relationships with its distributors. He/She signs partnership contracts in agreement with the management.

The ASM files and follows up Technical Support Requests for customer application support with the Galactic application departments. He/She constantly reports his/her activities in CRM and prepares monthly statistics to inform about the sales progress. He/She reports competition activities and market trends into CRM.

Main Activities:

• Enlist and select distributors and agents: active prospecting, field visits, trade shows
• Focus on developing the market by doing pro-active prospection, customer visits, attending trade shows and seminars
• Negotiate and conclude commercial contracts: pricing structure, contract, budget, and manage credit committees
• Manage the network of distributors: training, seminars, sales actions, etc. evaluated by KPI’s on distributor performance
• Manage turnover and control budgets, maximizing CCC.
• Give continuous input for the development of marketing tools and marketing activities needed to grow the assigned region
• Participation in the commercial policy of the company: strategic watch, commercial action plans, development of the offer of goods and services
• Collaborate with the internal customer service and possibly other requested departments to enable the management of orders

Who is our ideal candidate?

Min 2 years of experience in a commercial function, ideally in the food industry. The ASM is a go-getter hunting for new business and gets satisfaction out of the growth of the assigned region.

Excel in commercial techniques (canvassing, negotiation, sales, quotes, clever pricing). He/She is a skilled negotiator, relationship builder and can focus his/her efforts to achieve the company strategy.

Experience in development of sales strategies and execution of sales action plans.

Professional use of Italian and English is a must. French and Spanish are additional assets.

Use of digital sales tools (ERP Navision, CRM, LinkedIn, Teams, etc.) and excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office (Outlook, excel (pivot tables).

Notions of management (administrative and accounting)

He/She has excellent interpersonal skills, is a very good listener, has a great capacity to adapt and a competitive spirit.

He/She is autonomous and organized, problem-solver, and puts Teamwork in his/her priorities.