Permanent - National Sales Manager - Ekurhuleni (East Rand) - South Africa

Key Responsibilities

Sales Leadership & Performance 

• Lead, motivate and develop a national team of Technical Sales Engineers. 
• Establish clear sales objectives and ensure achievement of monthly, quarterly and annual sales targets. 
• Conduct regular performance reviews, coaching sessions and development discussions. 
• Create a high-performance culture focused on customer value, accountability and continuous improvement. 
• Reward strong performance and effectively manage underperformance. 
• Maintain sufficient engineering and industrial technical credibility to lead, coach and be respected by a team of qualified Technical Sales Engineers.

Coaching & Development 

• Conduct regular field visits with sales engineers to coach selling skills, customer engagement and opportunity management. 
• Develop individual growth plans for each sales engineer. 
• Support recruitment and onboarding of new sales personnel. 
• Foster a collaborative team environment where best practices are shared. 
• Partner closely with the Technical Applications Manager to continuously strengthen the team’s technical, product and application knowledge.

Sales Strategy & Execution 

• Develop and implement sales strategies aligned with the company's growth objectives. 
• Identify market opportunities, competitive threats and emerging industry trends. 
• Drive territory planning and customer development initiatives. 
• Ensure disciplined execution of sales activities and customer engagement plans.

Forecasting & Commercial Management 

• Develop accurate sales forecasts and budgets. 
• Monitor sales performance, gross profit, market share and other key performance indicators. 
• Analyse sales data and provide actionable insights to management.  Manage pricing approvals, discount structures and commercial decision-making within approved authority levels.

Sales Process Excellence 

• Champion and continuously improve the company's sales processes and systems. 
• Ensure consistent use of CRM, reporting tools and sales management disciplines. 
• Drive effective opportunity management and sales pipeline reviews.  Ensure adherence to company policies, procedures and standards.

Key Customer Engagement 

• Support sales engineers in developing strategic customer relationships. 
• Participate in key customer visits and executive-level engagements. 
• Assist with the resolution of significant customer concerns and commercial matters. 
• Promote a customer-centric culture throughout the sales team. 
• Engage credibly with engineering, production and tech

Requirements & Experience

Essential 

• Relevant engineering, technical, sales or business qualification — an engineering/ technical qualification, or equivalent hands-on industrial manufacturing experience, is strongly preferred given the technical nature of our products and customers. 
• Minimum 5 years' experience leading a B2B sales team. 
• Demonstrated track record of growing revenue through team leadership. 
• Strong commercial and financial understanding. 
• Solid working knowledge of metal-cutting tools, machining processes or industrial manufacturing operations, sufficient to hold a credible tooling application conversations with customers and Technical Sales Engineers. 
• Valid driver's licence and willingness to travel nationally.

Preferred 

• Sales Management qualification or equivalent management training. 
• Experience managing a geographically dispersed sales team. 
• Experience using CRM and sales management systems. 
• Formal engineering or technical trade background (e.g. mechanical/production engineering, tool-making, or a related technical qualification).