Sales Director in Kettering

We are excited to be representing a German, family owned, prestigious window and door hardware manufacturer, Winkhaus. They are looking for an experienced forward-thinking Sales Director to lead and drive sales performance across all market areas, ensuring a culture of accountability, innovation, customer-centricity, and growth. You will bring strategic thinking, operational sales discipline, and commercial leadership to an established sales team. This role requires a hands‑on leader who combines data‑driven insight with people management excellence, capable of setting long‑term direction while delivering short‑term results.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and inspire a multi-generational national sales team, fostering a performance culture with clear KPIs and development plans.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with key customer partners, acting as a senior point of contact and trusted advisor.
• Collaborate closely with the CX Manager to enhance the customer journey, ensuring a strong service experience.
• Work cross‑functionally to ensure that service excellence and commercial relevance are core to our customer proposition.
• Collaborate with the Managing Director, Business Analytics, Product, Marketing, and Technical teams to shape go‑to‑market plans, factoring in the impact of stock levels, lead times, and distribution processes on commercial strategy.
• Establish best‑in‑class sales operations, including CRM usage, customer segmentation, territory planning, and reporting.
• Bring strategic insight to sales data and analytics to identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
• Set and manage departmental KPIs, sales targets, and individual objectives to ensure accountability at all levels.
• Contribute to senior leadership thinking, offering commercial ideas and innovation beyond sales execution.
• Assess and evaluate the future leadership structure of the sales function over the first 12 months, with flexibility to introduce new roles as needed.
• Represent the sales function on the Executive Leadership Team, supporting wider business decision‑making.

Candidate Profile:

• 5+ years in sales leadership roles, with clear evidence of adaptability, team development, and commercial success, ideally in B2B technical distribution businesses (e.g., door hardware, fenestration, or similar sectors).
• Familiarity with stock and logistics operations is beneficial but not essential.
• Demonstrated experience in developing and executing sales growth strategies — ideally with measurable outcomes and examples of overcoming commercial challenges.
• Proven ability to lead through change, including restructuring, cultural shifts, or introducing new systems (e.g., CRM, territory planning).
• Strong data literacy and ability to use CRM and analytics tools to inform decisions, spot trends, and drive performance.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel for forecasting, data analysis, and reporting.
• Experience in key account development and building senior customer relationships that deliver long‑term value.
• A record of cross‑functional collaboration with marketing, product, operations, and CX to shape propositions and improve service.
• Comfortable leading a mature and experienced sales team, with evidence of coaching, succession planning, and team uplift.
• Degree‑level education or equivalent experience in business, marketing, sales, or related fields.