Sales Manager Hotels & Hospitality in London

The Villeroy & Boch Group with its Ideal Standard brand is one of the world's leading manufacturers in the ceramics and lifestyle sector. With our innovative and stylish products from the Dining & Lifestyle and Bath & Wellness segments, we have been creating moments and rooms to feel good in since 1748. Our success is based on the passion, design expertise and innovative strength of our more than 13,000 employees in 42 countries.

Following integration and the implementation of our strategy to focus on our global brands of Villeroy & Boch and Ideal Standard, we have a focus to develop our hotel & hospitality business in key markets. This is an opportunity to utilise your extensive knowledge of our products and processes to become an ambassador and advocate in this sector and to lead a channel with a substantial growth ambition. The growth ambition on hospitality is cross channel focused, our global accounts team will focus on the A&D community and relationships at head office level with global hotel chains but there is a requirement to manage our growth locally, this role will be a strategic role with a spotlight to demonstrate accelerated growth in the market. You will develop existing clients and cultivate new relationships for the business to expand into. The role will be focused on the whole of the UK & Ireland but the expectation is that this role takes personal responsibility for larger developers and franchisees in the south whilst utilising other account managers to drive the business in the rest of the UK & Ireland geography.

Your Tasks:

• Work with colleagues in the Global Accounts, A&D and Non residential team to deliver hotel sector objectives and channel sales plan.
• Supporting global hotel initiatives.
• Leading Hotels & Hospitality for the UK, responsibility for delivering the channel target, and building and owning the pipeline.
• Raising Villeroy & Boch and Ideal Standard's brand presence by building and maintaining a network of relationships with key influencers in the sector, in particular hotel owners and operators but also including main contractors, installers, pod manufacturers & distribution partners.
• Maintain and manage a portfolio of top 100 project opportunities from design stage through to completion, engaging effectively with key stakeholders internally & externally to gain and protect specification and increase share of wallet, recording all activity on Salesforce and delivering regular updates to line manager.
• Build sales plans and objectives for your key accounts, reporting regular progress updates to line manager.
• Use Salesforce to maintain accurate pipeline data by ensuring all critical fields are accurately completed.
• Ensure all customer engagement is planned and recorded clearly using Salesforce and Outlook.
• Liaise with internal support specialist to ensure correct alignment of priorities and goals.
• Building and presenting specification proposals for customers.
• Responsible for bid pricing decisions for all hotel opportunities, within scope of business procedure and DOA policy.
• Delivering CPD's, corporate messaging and specification proposals.
• Collaborate with and support colleagues within wider functions of the business including finance, marketing, product development, supply chain and order fulfilment.
• Attend sector specific networking events to build relationships and raise brand awareness.
• Support events and activities hosted by our team in the London Design and Specification Centre.

Your Profile:

• Broad based technical and business knowledge of the bathroom products industry, including experience working with Franchisees, developer, M & E Commercial Contractors, Specifiers, Architects and Designers.
• Track record in identifying and building channel opportunities.
• Advanced, pro-active networking and relationship building capability.
• Working collaboratively to develop and negotiate agreements / quotations, proposals and contracts.
• Sales experience and track record of business development, winning business.
• Self-motivated and entrepreneurial, hands-on attitude to 'getting the job done'.
• Collaborative skills, possessing the capacity for analytical thinking and an attention to detail.
• Strong understanding of the hospitality sector from a design and construction perspective.
• Ability to engage well with designers.
• Strong knowledge of product trends and requirements within hotel sector.