About the job

Sales Manager | Packaging Machinery & Automation

North East England & Scotland | Home Based

Food Manufacturing | c. £70,000 + Package

The best salespeople in this industry aren’t usually sitting behind a laptop.

They’re sitting in front of customers.

On site during the day.

Walking the factory, talking to engineering, understanding production, seeing what’s changing and finding out where the next opportunity might come from.

And sometimes the more useful conversation happens later.

Dinner. A drink. A less formal conversation when you actually get to know the person behind the job title.

Because this role is about relationships.

Real ones.

We’re looking for someone who knows how to get close to customers, stay close to them and turn that trust into business over time.

There’s plenty to go after

You’ll be joining a global packaging machinery manufacturer with established technology, a significant installed base and some major names within food manufacturing.

Particularly bakery.

• You’ll take responsibility for the North East of England and Scotland.
• There are good existing customers to develop further.
• There are customers where we’re not getting our fair share of the business.
• There are relationships that have gone quiet.
• And there are accounts where competitors have got through the door and we need to find our way back in.
• Not by turning up with a brochure.
• By rebuilding the relationship.
• Understanding what changed.
• Getting to know the right people.
• Being useful.
• And earning the opportunity to do business again.

This needs someone who likes being with customers

• You’ll probably already have a strong network within food manufacturing.
• You’ll know the engineering managers, production people and decision makers across your territory — and they’ll know you.
• More importantly, you’ll enjoy spending time with them.
• You’ll be comfortable talking machinery and production on the factory floor, but you’ll also understand the value of the conversations away from it.
• Because customers don’t always tell you everything in a formal meeting.
• You’ll know how to develop an account beyond the immediate enquiry.
• Who else should we know?
• What else is happening on site?
• Where are they investing?
• What’s frustrating them about their existing equipment?
• What did a competitor do better than us?
• And what would it take to win the next project?
• That’s where the value in this role sits.

The machinery is significant

These are significant machinery investments, often involving engineering, production, procurement and senior management.

Sometimes it’s one machine. Sometimes the conversation becomes considerably bigger.

Either way, you need to be in the room long before someone sends out an RFQ.

You’ll have the technology, applications expertise and engineering support of a global manufacturer behind you.

But the machinery isn’t going to build the relationships.

You are.

We’re looking for someone who has sold packaging machinery, food processing equipment, automation or significant capital equipment into food manufacturing.

Someone commercially sharp, credible and comfortable with people.

Someone who knows that occasionally the route to a £1m project starts with a coffee and absolutely nothing to sell.

Circa £70,000 basic + package

If you’d rather be sat with a customer than writing another email to one, we should probably talk.

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