Commercial Growth Manager

Commercial Growth Manager – Americas | £55k (c) + Bonus, benefits | Full time | Permanent | UK-based, with travel to the Americas once every 8-10 weeks

A quick note before you read on: This is a UK-based role with an American patch. You'll work remotely with occasional visits to the impressive Head office here in Wiltshire. Your partners, your targets and a fair bit of your diary will be on the other side of the Atlantic. If you've already grown distributor sales in the US from a UK base, you'll know exactly what that involves, and you're the person my client would most like to talk to.

The

business:

My client is a long-established, family-owned British manufacturer. They design and make thousands of products, supplying an array of sectors. Their products reach customers in many countries through a loyal network of distribution partners, many of whom have been with them for years. They already have an established presence globally, so this is about building on something that works, not starting from scratch.

The role:

Reporting to the Head of Sales, you'll grow the business across North and South America, with the USA, Canada and Mexico as the main focus. The model is partner-led. You'll grow sales with existing distributors, bring on new ones in priority markets, and help their sales teams win more. When you meet end users, the aim is to understand their needs, influence what gets specified and pass qualified leads to the right local partner.

You won't be looking after those end-user accounts yourself.

You'll need some flexibility on hours to work with customers in American time zones. There's also planned travel to the Americas, for distributor visits, partner training and exhibitions.

Day to day, that looks like:

• Managing and growing a portfolio of distributor and channel partners across the Americas
• Building joint growth plans with each partner and running regular business reviews, face to face where you can
• Identifying, approaching and appointing new distributors in agreed priority countries and sectors
• Generating qualified end-user leads and working with partners to turn them into lasting sales
• Training distributor sales teams, both in person and over Teams, so they can sell the full range with confidence
• Preparing commercial proposals within agreed pricing and margin parameters
• Attending two or three trade exhibitions a year, then following up every good lead
• Working closely with the UK teams in sales, customer service, marketing, product and operations. They handle routine order administration, so your time goes on growth
• Keeping Salesforce up to date and producing forecasts and pipeline reports that people can rely on
• Sharing what you’re seeing in the market, from competitor activity to new product or range opportunities

You'll need some flexibility on hours to work with customers in American time zones. There's also planned travel to the Americas, for distributor visits, partner training and exhibitions.

Who we think will thrive here:

If you already sell technical products through distributors, we'd love to hear from you. That background would be a real advantage, but it isn't essential.

What really matters is this

you’ve been based in the UK and grown sales through distributors in the US (and ideally Canada, Mexico or South America too), so you understand how distribution works over there. That means how distributors buy, what motivates them, how margin flows through the channel, and what it takes to get a busy distributor's sales team to put your products first. You might currently be an export sales manager, international account manager, channel manager or business development manager in a B2B manufacturing business.

Beyond

that, you ideally have:

• Developed and supported distributors or…