Senior Vice President Sales
Provides commercial leadership for the company to ensure customer satisfaction and planned product profitability. The role champions the customer-centric view of the organization to ensure focus on developing long-term relations.
The SVP reports to the CEO and has accountability for customer satisfaction, market research, sales and product profit forecasts, sales, product management, and proposal management.
The SVP is a critical advisor/business partner to the CEO and is a member of the executive leadership team (ELT). The SVP must proactively partner with the other functional business leaders, and drive continuous improvement, accountability and ever higher standards of excellence/results across the business.
With the CEO, CFO and SVP of Operations, the role defines the Business Plan, the Sales & Operations Plan, and generates regular updates to the forecast. The SVP Sales role defines and ensures attainment of the booking goals and target customer strategy for the commercial organization. With the SVP of Operations, the role oversees the proposal development process, ensuring that the most profitable and cost-effective solutions are provided to our customers allowing Titan to win and grow its share of the market. With the Human Resources Leader, the role defines the staffing plan, recruiting, skill set, and personnel development plans. .
Manage sub-leaders who supervise employees in all departments. Responsible for the overall direction, coordination, and evaluation of these units. Carry out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the company's policies and applicable laws.
Responsibilities – Products
External Facing
- Perform market research and voice of the customer analysis to define threats and opportunities.
- Define core customer requirements and buying criteria.
- Build a marketing plan including website, events, and press releases plus a variety of customer reach and retention initiatives.
- Develop sales/marketing technical collateral: whitepapers, data sheets, tech talks, etc.
- Communicate who we are, why we are a leader, and the value we deliver.
- Attend trade events that complement our customers, products and services.
- Monitor/report on competitors, their market impact, and report on market conditions.
- Determine unserved, or under-served, market segments and offerings that would be attractive to them.
- Manage the commercial aspects of the warranty resolution process.
Internal
- Build/manage an annual budget for staffing, resources, and capital purchases.
- Direct the competitive strategy evolution.
- Develop annual marketing roadmap/strategic plan that aligns to our corporate roadmap and delivers on our annual growth objectives.
- Ensure product teams work seamlessly with HR, operations, sales & finance.
- Develop personnel at all levels to provide for capable technical succession and eliminate dependence on any one individual (single points of failure).
- Collaborate in creating long-range product road maps to ensure product quality and manufacturing readiness.
- Work with Operations to engineer, design, develop, and modify our products and facilities.
- Define product problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
- Define/understand our client’s collected data/measurements and translate this data into our technical solutions.
- Undertake project risk analysis and mitigation; continuously review problems.
- Direct activities to ensure our products are cost competitive in the market.
Responsibilities – Sales
External
- Own the customer experience. Think/act in ways - put our customers first & give them seamless contact - make them promoters of our products and services.
- Participate in key sales, business development and investor meetings with the CEO.
- Apply consultative and strategic selling skills, as well as technical expertise, to develop and manage the assigned customer base.
- Develop/maintain key customer relationships - ensure customers are retained.
- Set direction for and facilitate the team performing the customer reporting and performance review process.
- Resolve escalated customer issues.
Internal
- Oversee all phases of sales through sub-leaders.
- Effect price changes due to market dynamics to maximize profitability.
- Construct Demand and Revenue plan within the Sales & Operations Planning process.
- Lead all sales channels to drive quantity/quality of sales and achieve goals.
- Identify new potential customers/locations - establish contacts, coordinate bid preparations with SVP Ops and CFO - guide final submissions.
- Guide/mentor the assigned sales representative to meet their set targets on time so the overall sales objectives are met on schedule. Deliver timely sales reports.
- Create, implement and monitor the success of our approved annual business plan.
- Monitor the forecast accuracy and define processes to improve.
- Manage to our operating P&L, capital budget, performance targets and ROI goals.
- Provide leadership within cross functional teams to drive account results including: understanding, managing, and helping to resolve customer service issues regarding execution of shipping, pricing, and service levels.
- Conduct formal business reviews - update the ELT on success, and recommend actions to exceed our goals. Provide weekly customer sales update/status reports.
- Work with sales people to define quarterly objectives around lead generation, which includes identifying relevant content, creating lead generation workflows, and creating reports to present to the ELT.
- Continually build/develop sales professionals. Address any single point of failure.
Common Competencies and Behaviors Expected of All Titan Leaders
Titan expects all leaders (and other employees), regardless of their role, to embrace and display specific competencies/behaviors that are viewed critical to our desired culture and the future success of our business. We believe these competencies/behaviors can and must be continuously worked on, and are thus an important element of every feedback, performance development and performance evaluation conversation.
- Business Acumen - Contributes to the company’s strategy/business plan and aligns their own role/functional priorities with the company’s direction and strategic priorities.
- Strategic Purpose – Able to craft a role purpose, communicate it clearly, and translate it into business objectives/tasks with measurable accountability. Has the ability to assimilate various information or opinions into a well-considered decision. Understands the implication of any decision on the broader company systems, markets, processes and functions. Uses strategy to influence priorities.
- Unquestionable integrity/honesty - Maintains compliance with corporate policies and standards. Consistently plays by the rules.
- Does not put self, others or the business at risk through undisciplined behaviors.
- Does what's right for each other, our customers, investors and our communities.
- Builds trust, respect and gains the confidence of others in and outside of company.
- Functional/Industry Technical Excellence – Maintains their competence in their area of expertise and responsibility. Actively works to stay current and informed.
- Leadership Impact – Thinks like a business leader regardless of their role. Accountable - takes ownership for results. Consistently meets commitments on time and within budget. Able to comprehend an issue, develop an action plan, communicate it to all stakeholders and execute it. Maintains consistent focus on the critical few priorities. Is a role model who displays a passion for the work and people.
- Customer Focused – Demonstrates empathy for internal and external customers. Strives to provide an efficient and effective customer experience. Develops deep customer insights and understanding of their needs and expectations. Brings those insights into their business interactions, services/products provided and decisions.
- Results Centered & Profit Motivated DNA – Converts their understanding of customer needs/expectations to growth opportunities. Assertively pursues growth and continuous improvement opportunities. Takes intelligent, informed and measured risks to achieve superior results and returns. Possesses a strong financial acumen.
- A Passion for Our Industry and Products - Adopts new technologies and innovation that improves our products and productivity.
- Displays a Holistic Perspective - Conveys an understanding of our market position, opportunities, capabilities, competitive threats and impediments into account when making plans and decisions.
- Drives for Results - Has a natural drive to improve our results. Takes responsibility/works to hit targets, overcoming obstacles and uncertainty.
- Teamwork & Collaboration - Facilitates collaboration by actively engaging others directly to make a joint decision and share best practices.
- Decision Making - Makes timely, informed decisions. Considers the facts, goals, constraints, & risks. Proactively engages others in decision making.
- Analytical Thinking - Gathers relevant data/information from sources, identifies key issues, draws informed conclusions and makes decisions.
- Problem Solver – Has a continuous improvement mindset. Works productively within a structured business system. Confronts difficult problems face to face. Gets “below the surface” to root causes. Is resourceful and collaborative in seeking facts and input before acting. When ready, is decisive with a bias for action.
- Will constructively challenge long-held assumptions and standards.
- Change Management - Experience in leading teams through change, and challenging the status quo.
- Makes Other People, Teams, & the Whole Organization Better – Encourages continuous improvement in both what you do and how you do it in all others. Focuses time and energy on individual and whole team workforce development. Committed to coaching self and others on skill development. Hires and develops competent and committed people. Continually builds succession bench strength. Drives/supports task delegation and decision making to the most appropriate level in the organization.
- Self-directed - Thrives in lean and dynamic environments. Experience with lean manufacturing and six sigma application.
- Self-Aware/Committed to Continuous Improvement – Recognizes their own behaviors and impact on others. Understands their own strengths & development needs. Open to feedback and takes daily action to improve.
- Develops personnel continually to provide for capable technical succession and eliminate dependence on any one individual (single points of failure).
- Champions Change – Shapes and supports strategic, organizational, process, and culture change in the long-term interest of the business. A source of positive attitude and influence. Adapts to change. Makes difficult decisions. Healthy sense of urgency.
Other Leadership Skills
- Communication Skills - Strong written, visual and verbal communication skills. Has an ability to communicate effectively at all levels within the organization from the shop floor to senior leadership and our shareholders.
- Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and polices and procedure manuals that are understandable to the intended audience.
- Ability to read/interpret financial reports to identify variances. Uses variances to recommend action items to improve our results/financial performance.
- A proactive, open and candid communicator. Goes directly to the known source.
- Mature, self-confident, composed - neither easily frustrated nor overly-sensitive.
- Gets along well with others. Is receptive to other opinions, and can influence.
- Displays respect in all interactions and promotes inclusion and diversity.
- Maintains contact with all functions to insure consistency across the company.
- Directly confronts disagreements openly and professionally with colleagues at all levels. Seeks resolution and moves forward. Does not hold judgmental grudges.
- Possess Strong Computer Skills - competency in all MS Office applications. Uses contemporary software/business tools consistent with our expected methods.
Education and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree and a minimum 15 years industry experience.
- 10 + years of Marketing, and Sales leadership.
- Naturally competitive/drives through goals. A good team-mate and internal leader.
- Proven record of delivering continual growth.
- Passionate about our products, defining and expanding market opportunities and the ability to present that passion and vision to any size audience.
- Skilled at developing a budget, business plan/sales forecast, and metrics for tracking.
- Experience presenting at conferences/seminars and customer engagements.
- Ability to quickly assess and understand the customer/buyer’s goals to improve results, and synthesize that into a meaningful, quantifiable, differentiated messaging.
- Balance between a practical/hands-on mindset with a creative/entrepreneurial spirit.
- Proven ability to drive results by consistently identifying and seizing opportunities.
- Enjoys disrupting the status quo and the challenge of building/scaling new products.
- Curious/knowledge seeker. Knows the right questions to ask.
- Proactively leads change/continuous improvement through any resistance.
- Monitors and adapts quickly to changing market requirements/conditions.
- Diverse experience in product development, engineering, manufacturing, and quality control.
- Experience in deploying and managing ISO-compliant processes and organizations.
- Demonstrated execution of new product launches on tight schedules/limited budget.
- Experience in selection/management & continuous improvement of 3rd party suppliers.
- Information technology professional – continually explores new technology/tools.
- Proven ability to manage diverse, simultaneously complex projects and functions.
- Skilled at relationship building and maintenance, strategy research and development, project management, problem solving and change management.
- Proven track record of bringing quality products to market in a startup environment.
