Regional Sales Director

Description:

Position Summary:

The Regional Sales Director (RSD) is responsible for representing and building the RECARO brand in the market place. The RSD coordinates the internal and external activities necessary for the strategic sale of approved seating products, growth of market share, customer base and profitability. The RSD ensures RECARO meets approved profit margins, contributes to first-to-market solutions, and works as a trusted consultant and partner to our airline and OEMs. The RSD works with customers to gather VOC in terms of fleet, financial and end-customer demand goals. Ultimately, the RECARO Regional Sales Director collaborates internally, with the OEM, with the airline and any other relevant parties to ensure RECARO is the market leader in airline seating products.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following, other duties may be assigned:

• Responsible for representing RECARO in a professional manner via all customer interactions: sales calls, product and company presentations, trade shows, conference calls and meetings
• Collect needs and VOC from airlines and OEMs and provide to the product development teams to ensure ongoing innovation in the marketplace
• Understands market conditions to determine assigned customer seating needs for both OEM and retrofit programs, product attributes and features, competition, other potential programs
• Provides a “Situation Analysis” of each assigned customer for the development of a unique sales strategy to position RECARO as the company and product of choice for future offers at each specific airline:
• All strategic activity at the customer will require close coordination with the Manager-Customer Relations for a unified approach internally and with customer
• With the Manager-Customer Relations, create a team approach to insure customer satisfaction and meeting RAU goals and objectives
• With the Manager-Customer Relations, become the customer advocate internally for recommendations to solve problems and resolve conflicts with customer
• Leads preparation of RFP responses in accordance with defined procedures for internal approvals and preparation of proposals
• Responsible for strategic content of proposals, i.e., Executive Summary that highlights RECARO brand attributes of proposal to insure meeting customer RFP requirements for firm proposals, budgetary quotes - to be approved by V.P. Sales & Marketing on a case-by-case basis
• Maintains an update and status of programs for the scheduled Offer Status and Sales Staff Meetings in all internal systems (including CRM)
• Prospecting, relationship building and networking to penetrate current or stagnant “non-RECARO” customers
• Understands new product development and knowledge of competition products and market trends to contribute to sales requirements in the marketplace for all classes of seats
• Significantly contribute to the development, documentation, implementation and continual improvement of Sales processes.
• Devise and implement corrective action measures to correct issues as they arise as reflected by KPIs, OEM ratings and/or customer feedback.
• Support Senior Management in the implementation of departmental strategic customer, market and brand initiatives.
• Initiate and participate in Lean activities with other departments within RECARO.
• Coordinate with V.P. Sales & Marketing on group and individual “Cockpit Goals” to be agreed upon for the upcoming fiscal year
• Has technical aptitude and understanding of product line specifications, industry regulations, configuration drawings, certification process with a relative understanding of seating materials and manufacturing to effectively communicate engineering issues
• Maintain proper documentation and supporting negotiations of all pre-award activity to insure the accuracy and completeness of an awarded program; in the event a program is lost, all efforts must be made to obtain a debrief on “why lost”, or a summary report based on best intelligence to document reasons in consideration of next proposal
• Work closely with model shop and RAU to define sample seat requirements for scheduled customer seat shows and what is anticipated for the upcoming year
• Other responsibilities as required.

Requirements:

Education/Experience:

• This position requires a bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering or other relevant/equivalent learnings, and
• This position requires at least 5 years of experience in the aerospace industry; with focus on sales of or purchasing of airline cabin features. (Note, 2 years of highly relevant work experience can substitute for each year of education)
• Ability to work with and effectively and professionally communicate with multiple different cultures
• Ability to travel up to 50%; occasionally with minimal notice
• The position requires an intermediate understanding of aircraft seating products
• Demonstrate strong collaborative teamwork and leadership skill sets.
• Ability to speak effectively before customers or employees of RAU
• Excellent presentation skills are required.
• Excellent verbal and communication skills.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills; ability to conceptualize new ideas, strategies, etc.
• The candidate must be results oriented; a self-starter and fast learner with proper training, both formal and on-the-job
• Work within the company organization recognizing reporting authority and responsibilities
• Ability to analyze and integrate information from various sources and provide recommendations toward continuous improvement and innovation