Key Account Manager

at  Macfarlane Group

Territory: East Midlands Region (Nottingham, Leicester & Derby)
Basic Annual Salary up to £50,000 (dependent on experience) plus bonus/commission (scope within scheme to double your earnings), company car (or allowance) & flexible benefits package including hybrid working, up to 27 days holiday (Plus additional annual leave purchasing scheme)
Sector: Packaging distribution & solutions
Protecting what matters, together
We’re dedicated to protecting what matters most – our people, our customers, our communities and the environment. At Macfarlane Packaging, our commitment to customer satisfaction, sustainability and continual improvement creates a highly collaborative, supportive and friendly workplace where you can unpack a career that grows.
With history stretching back over 75 years, we offer stability whilst always striving for continual growth. Our fast-paced, results-driven approach will challenge and often stretch you, but it will also give you opportunities for personal and professional development. Every colleague has the chance to directly influence our success, leading to real job satisfaction and achievement, at all stages of your career.
We provide competitive pay and personalised incentives, alongside adaptable benefits to make your rewards package go further. And additionally, the way we work prioritises work-life balance and flexibility, empowering our colleagues to manage what is most important to them. Our business values commitment, diligence, teamwork, adaptability and a thirst for learning… so if this sounds like you, come and join us to help drive change that enables businesses to plan for a better future.
The Key Account Manager role
As a Key Account Manager, you will take charge of a multimillion sales, blue-chip client portfolio, enjoying lots of autonomy in decision making and influencing desirable outcomes. Our extensive customer base boasts several high-profile, well-known brands within the wider industrial & e-commerce sectors. You will act as the main contact for your assigned customers responsible for successfully delivering solutions to meet their needs. Your success shall also be measured against account growth and gross profit targets which will require you to identify & capitalise on all opportunities to increase sales/profitability by utilising a solution-led sales approach, part of which will be focussed on generating new business sales via customer acquisition.
One of our key features that helps us to differentiate from competitors is our ‘Innovation Labs’. Your role will be supported by our on-site packaging engineers and extended team of design specialists based at these state-of-the-art facilities. You are able to invite customers along to our locations and work in a collaborative environment with industry experts on hand to help devise & deliver tailored solutions.

Key Account Manager Key Duties

• Develop, agree upon, and implement a sales plan for the allocated territory.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the region’s key customer accounts.
• Play a leading role in managing and continuously developing key regional & designated national accounts within the assigned area.
• Negotiate competitive commercial terms aligned with company expectations.
• Develop and implement best practices for acquiring, retaining, and nurturing strong accounts.
• Proactively expand the customer base by identifying and targeting new prospect accounts in line with agreed-upon new business sales targets, leveraging customer referrals whenever possible.
• Responsibly maximise sales and profit while considering the profit implications of selling stock versus non-stock products.
• Adopt a consultative approach with clients to ensure recommended solutions meet their requirements.
• Ensure excellent standards of customer service by addressing any matters related to the regional customer portfolio promptly.
• Maintain high standards of sales administration at all times.

What you will bring…
You will thrive in building relationships with key decision-makers and stakeholders across a range of customer accounts, continually reviewing needs and acting on opportunities to present fresh solutions. We welcome your application if you have at least 12 months demonstrable experience operating at a key account or national account level. You will ideally have enjoyed exposure to managing & developing a similar size customer portfolio (upwards of £4-5M annual turnover). Some experience of selling to users within the wider ‘industrial’ or ‘e-commerce’ sectors would be preferable. You will be accustomed to using a solution sales approach whereby customer needs are central to the whole process. Presentable, polished, intelligent and articulate, you will be commercially aware, goal orientated and self-driven. Applicants must reside ‘on patch’ within the East Midlands region and ideally within a comfortable commute of our Nottingham site and hold a valid UK driving licence. A background in packaging whilst certainly advantageous is not essential, as full product training shall be provided.
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds irrespective of your age, gender, disability, race, nationality, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, or sexual orientation. Should you require any specific support or adjustments during the recruitment process, please email our recruitment team directly.
What you will get in return…

We provide a competitive basic starting salary and operate a range of rewarding bonus/incentive schemes. Our flexible employee benefits can include: –

• 25 days annual leave (rising to 27 days with service) plus all public/bank holidays
• Contributory pension scheme
• Geographical salary weighting available at specific locations
• Range of company cars or cash allowance (including electric) for qualifying roles
• Employee assistance program to support & advise with well-being & any issues
• Extensive range of training/development & potential progression opportunities
• Employee discount scheme (discounts on several major retail/leisure brands)
• Annual paid Volunteering Day
• Simply Health/Dental Cover option or BUPA cover for qualifying roles
• Enhanced HR policies relating to various employee rights & entitlements
• Long service awards (5-40 years)
• Charitable giving options
• Financial support with eye-tests/purchasing glasses (DSE users only)
• O2 Mobile discount scheme (up to 25% off)

Your future with us
Here at Macfarlane Group, you truly have the potential to shape your own future and set your own ambitions. We are a large group company where internal promotion and mobility is a key feature of our success. Through tailored career plans, we provide a wide range of structure training & development pathways, utilizing both inhouse expertise to share knowledge and the best-in-class external training partners. There is potential access to management & leadership development, and we work closely with recognised, accredited bodies including the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) & the Institute of Sales Professionals ISP). So there really are no limits to where your journey within Macfarlane Group may take you.
How to apply/next steps
This is an urgent appointment whereby we will be working to identify and review the very best of appli

• Develop, agree upon, and implement a sales plan for the allocated territory.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the region’s key customer accounts.
• Play a leading role in managing and continuously developing key regional & designated national accounts within the assigned area.
• Negotiate competitive commercial terms aligned with company expectations.
• Develop and implement best practices for acquiring, retaining, and nurturing strong accounts.
• Proactively expand the customer base by identifying and targeting new prospect accounts in line with agreed-upon new business sales targets, leveraging customer referrals whenever possible.
• Responsibly maximise sales and profit while considering the profit implications of selling stock versus non-stock products.
• Adopt a consultative approach with clients to ensure recommended solutions meet their requirements.
• Ensure excellent standards of customer service by addressing any matters related to the regional customer portfolio promptly.
• Maintain high standards of sales administration at all times