Manager Technical Sales EMEA
In this role you will lead the regional Technical Sales & Application in the EMEA region. You will oversee the daily operations of the team, ensuring smooth coordination with global R&D, regional sales teams, and the customer network in this strategic region. This “primus interpares” position combines line management and TSS tasks. Focuses on facilitating sales of existing and new ingredients in the region. You will partner with local commercial team to ensure ingredients are sold with added value through Value Based Selling. You and your team will provide technical know-how and develop regionally suitable applications to showcase ingredient performance and support customer's NPD. You will facilitate growth and continuous improvement of the team, support team members, fostering a collaborative and productive work environment. You will connect with global R&D, marketing, and other global functions.
What we ask
- Academic/Master level, preferably food technology or comparable education.
- Solid technical background with expertise in Adult or Early Life Nutrition and ingredients such as dairy proteins, nutritional lipids, hydrolysates, GOS, etc.
- Minimum of 7 years of working experience.
- Proven track record in technical sales.
- Familiar with Value Based Selling techniques.
- Good knowledge of the regional B2B market and B2B innovation dynamics.
- Resilience
- Enjoys a fast-paced, unpredictable commercial environment.
- Experience in multidisciplinary customer centric teams.
- Strong commercial sense.
- Relevant internal and external network.
What we offer
- A unique company culture rooted in Dutch heritage with a strong international presence.
- Excellent work-life balance supported by a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package.
- A 38-hour workweek, competitive pension scheme, 8% holiday allowance, 3% year-end bonus, performance-based bonus scheme, flexible working hours, and opportunities to work from home.
- Access to diverse training and mentoring programs to support your professional development.
- Exceptional opportunities for cross-disciplinary growth, enabling you to expand your knowledge and career horizons within the company.
- A friendly, informal, yet professional working environment with supportive team members as sparring partners.
- Autonomy and trust to create long-term impact, contributing to our mission of bringing better nutrition to the world.
Vacancy description
Your accountabilities:
1. Influence and execute the regional roll out of Innovation roadmaps:
- With technical know-how, facilitates market introduction of new innovations and existing ingredients in the region.
- Adheres to and guards Technical, Regulatory, and Commercial Frameworks.
- Approves and facilitates execution of regional Application Requests in line with Regional Commercial Strategy.
- Establishes and maintains WoW between TSS and commercial teams in the region in collaboration with the Commercial counterparts.
- Transfers regional customers’ requirements to global R&D and marketing.
- Trains regional sales on new and existing ingredients and applications.
- Together with the team, develops regional application roadmaps and provides input for application development strategy by the Expert Team.
2. Contribution to lead generation and opportunity pipeline:
- Provides technical support to regional sales teams for selected customers in ELN or AN market.
- Applies value-based selling tactics to validate customer needs and translate them to RFC solutions.
- Supports generating and converting new leads into opportunities.
- Establish a feedback loop with customers to gather insights and improve product offerings and services
- Together with Sales & Marketing, formulates and executes strategies to enhance market penetration and achieve sales targets in the APAC region
3. Customer relation management:
- Through the team provides support to all regional customers according to customer segmentation
- Directly supports key regional customers (Platinum and Gold) with global team involvement as needed.
- Creates a network with relevant functions on customers’ side
- Organizes training sessions and workshops for customers to educate them on the optimal use of ingredients and new product applications
4. People Management:
- Enables and supports the growth and development of our regional team in alignment with FrieslandCampina Ingredients' goals.
- Manages group of regional TSS and Application developers (in combination with TSS work)
- Develops team capabilities in line with the regional and global TSS strategy.
- Provides situational feedback to team members.
- Serves as an example to the Team by spending part of the time on TSS customer support (primus interpares role)
- Encourages continuous improvement and professional development within the team, ensuring they stay updated with industry trends and advancements.
5. Stakeholder Management:
- Responsible for close collaboration with the RSO’s commercial team, where they represent the whole team for strategic discussions.
- Guards the link between regional TSS and Global R&D (via regular transfer of knowledge, trainings, regular exchanges etc.)
- Secures collaboration with R&D, Marketing (including product group management), QA, Sales, Customer Connectivity, etc to support APAC market.
- Makes sure that regional technical sales are aware of the new global projects (NPD, regulatory, marketing etc.) through collaboration with Expert Team Manager and NPD managers.
- Builds and leverages regional external networks. (e.g. customers, industry network, etc.)
6. Knowledge Management:
- Manages regional knowledge to ensure up-to-date information on competitor products, our recipes, and market applications.
- Makes insights available and actionable to the broader organization in collaboration with the Expert Team Manager.
Team Details
See all colleagues on LinkedInFor thousands of people every day, we are more than just a dairy company. To our farmers, employees, the communities we serve, the businesses we work with, and the people to whom we bring happiness, FrieslandCampina means something more. It’s not just about what we do, but who we are.
We value talented people from any background who want to contribute to something bigger than themselves. We encourage all our employees to make decisions that benefit our entire company. At FrieslandCampina, we own our careers and act accordingly. We trust you to make a difference in your job and influence the bigger picture.
Working at FrieslandCampina means you are contributing to a better world. You will be part of a professional team of about 80 R&D colleagues. Within this larger team, you will work in an international team of 30 Technical Sales Specialists and Application Developers around the globe, with HQ in the Netherlands.
Your position is in the Netherlands (Wageningen) in our R&D. However, you will maintain strong links with the commercial colleagues in Amersfoort also supporting EMEA business. Additionally, you will be required to visit customers within the region whenever necessary.