Sales Manager

**Company Description**
John Crane, a business of Smiths Group, is a global leader in mission-critical flow control solutions for energy and process industries that enable efficient and sustainable operations. Our products include mechanical seals and systems, couplings, bearings, filtration systems, and predictive digital monitoring technologies.

We have a global network of more than 200 sites in over 50 countries and employ more than 6,000 people worldwide. We partner with our customers to help them keep their operations safe, reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and meet the latest environmental standards.

John Crane is part of Smiths Group. For over 170 years, Smiths has been pioneering progress by engineering for a better future. We serve millions of people every year, helping to create a safer, more efficient, productive, and better-connected world across four global markets: energy, security & defence, space & aerospace, and general industrial. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs approximately 16,000 colleagues in over 50 countries.
- Responsible for the strategic development, growth and management of John Crane Sub-Saharan Africa end-users, EPC’s and OEM sales and service.
- Produce and successfully manage a “paradigm-shift” in John Crane Sub-Saharan sales team’s attitude and performance across the end-users, EPC’s and OEM channels.
- Devise, establish and implement the most appropriate sales organization.
- Manage and develop a team of Branch Managers, including service centres, distributors and agents.
- Develop and maintain a world-class knowledge database of Sub-Saharan Africa’s markets and trends to drive current and future business, sales and marketing strategies.
- Plan and carry out sales activities, so as to maintain and develop sales of products to customers in Sub-Saharan Africa, in accordance with agreed business plans.
- Develop and maintain a customer relationship management (CRM) database that accurately tracks projects, opportunities, orders and sales.
- Deliver accurate sales and orders forecast together with detailed opportunity management.
- Develop a detailed customer action plan focused on growing existing business and entering strategic markets with new products and services.
- Create a strategic marketing and communication plan including events, workshops, advertising and communication with a calendar of events for the year.
- Maintain a detailed competitive matrix file. Carry out market research on competitors. Develop a competitive analysis tracker, complete with competitor movements and market share.
- Able to influence and establish new relationships as well as strengthen existing relationships.
- Strong understanding and experience of dealing with complex commercial agreements and contracts. NEC3 contract negotiation advantageous.
- Management of P&L with a staff compliment of minimum 50 employees.
- Able to research new markets, create strategies and review market trends and prepare marketing plans based on this.
- Develop annual business plans in-line with company objectives.

**Qualifications**
- MBA Degree or equivalent
- Mechanical Engineering Degree.
- 10 years’ Sales industry experience.
- Organizational development experience, including succession planning and employee development.

**Additional Information**

Across our company, we recognize excellence, culminating in the Smiths Excellence Awards, our annual celebration of the most extraordinary activities, people, and projects that best showcase our strengths and help drive our business forward. We announce these on our annual Smiths Day, a global celebration of Smiths around our network.

Join us for a great career with competitive compensation and benefits, while helping engineer a better future.

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.