Sales & Product Manager

Azelis is a leading global innovation service provider in the speciality chemical and food ingredients industry present in 64 countries across the globe with 4,100 employees. Our knowledgeable teams of industry, market and technical experts are dedicated to a specific market within Life Sciences and Industrial Chemicals. Azelis Group NV is listed on Euronext Brussels under ticker AZE.  Across our extensive network of more than 70 application laboratories, our award-winning staff help develop formulations and provide technical guidance throughout the customers’ product development process.

We are looking for a Sales & Product Manager for our Turkey Lubricant Team.

Mission

• To maintain and develop sales of a portfolio of products and services to the lubricant industry area in the country to achieve agreed business targets and meet customer needs. 
• To manage a specific product portfolio within a specific market segment in order to meet principal targets, product gross margin and working capital targets, by contributing to and implementing the Business Strategy.
   

Main Accountabilities
 

•    To manage, develop and understand the needs of a growing customer base, making regular visits to these accounts and building, maintaining and managing relationships with key contacts at all levels
•    Negotiate prices and volumes with customers in order to maximize returns to the business
•    Seek out, analyze and develop new accounts, promoting sales of the product portfolio in line with business growth strategies.
•    Agree on and achieve annual sales budgets with the Commercial Manager and Business Manager
•    Ensure best-in-class customer engagement through optimal usage of the CRM system (Dynamics 365) and the integration of the different IT systems (Outlook, CRM, Team. Advocate the use of the Customer Portal and the e-Lab (if applicable)
•    Gather, analyze, interpret and present market, product, competitor and industry data to enable development of the forward strategy of the business
•    To visit and represent the company at trade fairs, exhibitions and conferences, networking with representatives from a broad range of companies 
•    Pro-actively monitor and review payment terms against customer portfolio, ensuring that payment terms and methods are adhered to, keeping business risk to a minimum. Ensure that payment terms and cash flow implications are considered at time of negotiation for all new and existing business
•    Implement the business strategies to ensure long term interests of the businesses are protected
•    Set direction for Sales prices ranges 
•    Optimize purchase prices by negotiation with principals
•    Analyze and understand the strategy of principals in your portfolio in order to elaborate a marketing plan (market/product – client/market – client/product segments)
•    Maintain and develop relationships with Principals in order to retain existing business and gain new business
•    Act as technical support for the commercial teams (synthesize the information  obtained from principals in order to cascade it to the commercial teams)
•    Prepare the necessary arguments for the commercialization of the products to improve the impact on the sales force on the field and generate more projects
•    For Principals not covered by group contracts, negotiate and secure contracts in order to ensure long term security of supply
•    Monitor, report and act on market and competitor activities in order to ensure that product strategies reflect current market activity
•    Monitor principal targets and define corrective actions
•    Responsible for reporting to principals

•    Demonstrate strong understanding of base oils, lubricant additives, finished lubricants and their applications across automotive and industrial segments 
•    Manage supplier and customer relationships within the lubricants value chain, including OEMs, blenders, distributors and industrial end users 
•    Identify market opportunities in Group II / III base oils, synthetic base oils and additive technologies, translating technical needs into commercial opportunities 
•    Translate the Group’s Sustainability Strategy into concrete job-related action items and contribute actively and timely to the implementation of the sustainability KPIs

Experience, Skills & Education 
 

•    Bachelor's degree in relevant field

•    +5 years of commercial experience in lubricants, base oils, additives, specialty chemicals or closely related industries

•    Proven market knowledge of the Turkish lubricants and base oils industry, including customer landscape and supply dynamics 

•    IT/digital savviness (CRM Dynamics 365, customer portal, usage of integrated Microsoft tools, …)
•    Excellent communication skills 
•    Proven analytical skills 
•    Fluent in English 
•    Negotiation skills 
•    Good presentation skills 
•    Ability to work under pressure 
•    Ability to liaise with people at all levels  
•    Knowledge and networks within country area industry 

•    Strong technical understanding of lubricant formulations, raw materials and industrial applications 
•    Able to work as a team player
•    Financial / Commercial Awareness