The Sales Director (SD) plays a pivotal role in leading sales efforts across Japan, developing long-term business strategies, and driving sustainable revenue growth. This individual will adopt and apply VES principles, including daily visual management, problem-solving, standard work, value stream mapping, and transactional process improvements, among others. The SD will be recognized as a key leader within the Japan team for utilizing these methodologies, focusing on their application across all activities.
Key Responsibilities:
Business Development & Market Coverage
- Drive business growth by establishing a multi-tier go-to-market channel for all products and services. Strengthen the market leadership position and ensure the brand becomes the top-of-mind choice in key target segments.
- Create and implement a Sales and Marketing growth strategy aligned with the company’s Corporate Strategic Plan and business objectives for Japan.
- Continuously enhance market coverage within the region, executing a robust multi-tier distribution model that includes Dealers, Key Accounts, and VARs, designed to support current operations and foster significant growth.
- Assume responsibility for managing selected large accounts, as designated by the General Manager.
- Support the General Manager in planning, coordinating, and setting sales objectives for the assigned territory to meet regional business growth targets.
Field Marketing & New Product Launch
- Contribute to Go-To-Market and Post-Launch/Gate Reviews for new products in the region, ensuring alignment with business goals, brand expansion, and market education in key segments.
- Collaborate closely with the Field Marketing Team to develop comprehensive market launch plans for new products in Japan.
- Provide valuable insights on industry trends and specific needs in core market segments to the Marketing and R&D teams.
- Develop and monitor an effective market education program for the mid-range market, tracking its impact on market share growth in this segment.
Leadership & Team Development
- Cultivate a high-performance, results-driven team culture focused on growth, profitability, and a sense of trust and safety.
- Serve as an integral member of the Asia Pacific Leadership Team, promoting collaboration with regional leaders to achieve corporate goals.
- Partner with the General Manager to build a strong team in Japan, focusing on talent assessment, development, coaching, and attracting new key employees to strengthen the team.
- Foster a proactive mindset within the team, emphasizing measurable improvements in performance.
- Provide guidance and counsel to the General Manager on business practices, optimizing the relationship to drive value and revenue from the customer base.
Sales Management & Administration
- Take ownership of business results, including meeting annual and quarterly revenue and bookings targets, market share objectives, and sales expense budgets.
- Regularly monitor and assess performance against plans, identifying successful strategies to be applied across all market channels.
- Ensure accurate forecasting through the company’s pipeline management system, providing regular updates to the General Manager and OpCo President.
- Stay informed of industry trends, market changes, and regulatory updates, offering strategic insights to the General Manager to address evolving business challenges.
- Ensure efficient and high-quality pre-sales application support for Japan's sales teams and customers.
- Manage the sales funnel to build both short-term and long-term strategies for business growth.
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATION
- Bachelor Degree with major in business, engineering or science. Master degree or above in Business
related is a plus
- A demonstrable track record of multi-tier channel management and business growth in a related
industry sector. A progression of a successful sales experience in increasingly responsible roles across
multiple vertical and market segments
- A strong and progressive leader with excellent communication skills. A demonstrable self-starter and
highly motivated professional with experience in developing high performance teams
- Culturally sensitive leader with strong coaching and mentoring skills. A skilled team player who will
enhance the performance of the regional leadership team and will complement the capabilities
already in place. Strong work ethic and stamina essential for this role
- Success in working in a global, multi–cultural organization and is comfortable with ambiguity and
thrives on new challenges
- Fluent English speaker
- Integrity, Energetic, positive thinker and team player
- Likes a challenge and strives to win in a competitive environment
- Strong learning agility and feel comfortable with global communication/team cooperation
- Capacity to work under pressure and results and solution-oriented