Reporting to: Head of External Sales & Key Accounts
Job Purpose
To manage, protect and strategically grow a defined portfolio of Morplan's largest and highest- potential customers within a geographic area or industry, whilst proactively developing new business from agreed strategic prospects and qualifying new customers.
This is a field-led commercial role, responsible for developing strong multi-level customer relationships, identifying and converting profitable growth opportunities and ensuring Morplan understands and responds to the changing needs of its customers and market.
The role will combine purposeful face-to-face customer engagement with remote account management, planning and administration, with activity focused on where it can deliver the greatest customer and commercial value.
Key Responsibilities
Account Management & Growth
- Manage and develop an agreed portfolio of strategic customers.
- Build strong relationships across multiple levels within customer organisations, including key decision-makers and influencers.
- Develop clear account plans identifying customer objectives, opportunities, risks and agreed actions.
- Protect existing business whilst identifying opportunities to increase sales, margin, product penetration and share of customer spend.
- Identify and develop opportunities across Morplan's wider products, services and solutions.
- Lead strategic account reviews, presentations, tenders, major projects and commercial negotiations as appropriate.
- Maintain ownership and momentum of opportunities from identification through to successful conclusion.
New Business Development
- Proactively develop an agreed portfolio of high-potential strategic prospects.
- Identify and pursue qualifying new customers within agreed industries and markets.
- Build relationships with relevant decision-makers and understand their current and future requirements.
- Develop and maintain a meaningful new-business pipeline.
- Convert new opportunities into profitable and sustainable customer relationships.
- Maintain regular and purposeful engagement with customers through face-to-face, video, telephone and other appropriate channels.
- Prioritise face-to-face engagement where it provides clear commercial or relationship value, including account reviews, opportunity development, senior relationships, product/solution presentations, projects, tenders and new business.
- Ensure customer meetings have clear objectives, actions and appropriate follow-up.
- Use available customer and sales information to plan and prioritise activity effectively.
- Act as the "expert in the customer", maintaining strong knowledge of assigned customers, the Retail sector and relevant market developments.
- Maintain awareness of competitor activity, customer trends and emerging commercial opportunities.
- Provide relevant customer, competitor, product and pricing feedback to the wider business.
- Actively contribute customer and market expertise to product development, range reviews and strategic commercial initiatives.
- Work collaboratively with Purchasing, Product, Marketing, Internal Sales and other departments to deliver the best overall solution for the customer.
- Share relevant customer and market knowledge across the business.
- Support wider customer opportunities or projects where mutually agreed and where Field Sales expertise can add value.
- Promote a customer-first approach whilst respecting agreed customer ownership across the wider Sales team.
Planning & Performance
- Maintain accurate and timely CRM records, customer plans, pipeline and sales forecasts.
- Prioritise activity against agreed strategic customers, prospects and commercial opportunities.
- Agree and deliver key monthly commercial objectives with the Head of External Sales & Key Accounts.
- Monitor performance against agreed sales, margin, retention, pipeline, new-business and customer-development objectives.
- Prepare and communicate relevant sales, customer and market information as required.
Customer & Prospect Ownership
The role will directly manage a defined portfolio of strategic existing customers and agreed new-business prospects. The role will also identify and pursue qualifying new organisations within agreed markets where these are not established accounts managed elsewhere within Morplan.
Existing customer ownership across other Morplan sales teams remains unchanged. Collaboration between teams is encouraged where this provides benefit to the customer or business, but the objectives will be structured around their own customers, prospects and available new-business opportunities.
Key Measures of Success
- Sales and gross margin performance
- Customer retention and profitable account growth
- New customers and opportunities won
- Pipeline value, quality and conversion
- Development of key customer contacts and relationships
- Increased product/category penetration
- Quality and effectiveness of customer engagement
- Progress against agreed account plans and monthly priorities
- Accurate CRM, pipeline and forecasting
Person Specification
Experience
- Proven experience within an external role is imperative (Field Sales, Key Account Management or Business Development).
- Demonstrable experience of managing and developing significant customer relationships.
- Experience of identifying, developing and converting new-business opportunities.
- Strong experience of consultative selling, commercial negotiation and opportunity management.
- Experience of working autonomously across an assigned customer base or geographical area.
- Retail, fashion, shopfitting, consumables or related industry experience would be advantageous.
Skills & Knowledge
- Strong sales and commercial capability.
- Excellent relationship-building, communication and influencing skills.
- Strong negotiation and presentation skills.
- Effective planning, prioritisation and organisational ability.
- Ability to identify customer needs and translate them into commercial opportunities.
- Strong customer, market and commercial awareness.
- Competent use of CRM systems and Microsoft Office.
Personal Attributes
- Commercially curious
- Proactive and results orientated
- Self-motivated and able to work autonomously
- Confident and credible
- Adaptable and resilient
- Strong sense of ownership and accountability
Qualifications
- GCSE (or equivalent) English and Maths.
- Full UK driving licence.
The above responsibilities are not exhaustive and reasonable additional duties relevant to the role may be required as the needs of the business develop.
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