NOW HIRING- INTERNATIONAL KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER

 

International Key Account Manager (KAM) - Food Industry

KREA Swiss manufactures and develops high-quality equipment that make the lives of professionals in the food industry easier. Our innovative products are “Made in Switzerland" using quality components and each one is thoroughly tested before being shipped.

 

Our customers include bakers, top chefs, chocolatiers and food production companies. It’s quite probable that something that you have eaten recently has been produced with the help of one of our products. As the KREA Swiss strategy is to produce products that provide niche solutions in a way that they cannot easily be imitated, we generally have no comparable competition. Customers value the benefits products- we just need to increase their visibility- especially in larger companies. The Key Account Manager position will improve market awareness in targeted larger organizations.

ROLE OVERVIEW:

To date our products are mainly sold via a comprehensive reseller network in more than 50 countries. These resellers might utilize a mix of exhibitions, websites, catalogue and salespersons to sell the products of their many different suppliers.

The sprayers provide enormous time savings for the employee (rather than brushing on egg wash, glazes, oils and chocolate by hand), and a far more superior and hygienic finish than a pastry brush. These benefits and low price tag make it it’s an easy decision for food preparation food businesses to purchase the sprayers. They quickly become one of their most important tools and often buy a second.

In every country there are large chains / organizations / franchises that use a headquarter (HQ) decision making approach- i.e. influences or promotes the processes, ingredients and equipment used at their locations. For the bakery industry, most developed Western markets and many Asia countries might each have several chains of hundreds of locations totaling thousands of bakeries.
The issue is that the HQ influencer is often unaware of our products or their benefits, but the individual store that is, is not permitted to buy on their own. Sometimes such stores may have already bought our product, so in this case, they make an excellent test example for the HQ team.

Our sprayers are an established product with no direct competitor, low cost with high value perception and dozens of target HQ organizations with potential demand in the tens of thousands of units per year. The “Key Accounts” opportunities are significant and Key Accounts Manager’s (KAM) role is to develop relationships and sales with such organizations

The KAM will know how to identify the key influencers within such HQ organizations and initiate a dialogue using platforms such as Linked-In, XING or via direct phone. Once the interest can be converted into qualified lead, the company will receive test equipment and detailed support about the product to enable them to evaluate it. Next, a meeting between KREA and the company would be set up to discuss a roll out and support. The KAM will manage all steps of the relationship, supported by the Swiss Operations team.

An additional element of the KAM role is to be aware of opportunities within the Key Account for product development potential. Chains often complain about one of their existing pieces of equipment or wish they could semi automate a manual process. This provides the KAM with a unique position to introduce our Product Development team.

In the initial phase, the KAM will target the French, British, German and American Bakery markets where our products have been selling well for as long as 20 years. English, German and preferably French language skills are important. Our R&D team is in the later stages of developing innovative solutions to solve headaches in the Pizza and Chocolate industries- so additional opportunities will be open to the KAM in the future.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILTIES:

  • Research potential Key Accounts in target territories and build a summary of their organization and the opportunity.
  • Develop short and long-term territory and product based strategic Attack plans & reports and work persistently towards their completion.
  • Create a set of sales tools and best practices that enable us to map the success strategy and replicate it. This includes setting up country success stories, referrals and creating short film clips etc.
  • In multinational key accounts, coordinate a a cross-functional customer team with their marketing, purchasing and sales teams to enable multi country roll outs.
  • Align ongoing key account efforts with KREA Swiss strategic goals and priorities.
  • Must be able to travel occasionally.

PREFERENCES:

  • BA / MBA or equivalent degree, but what you can do is more important than degrees.
  • Languages- English, German and French.
  • Ideally you have already worked in B2B Food equipment or ingredient distribution, however we know the industry very well and have a lot of case studies- so again, prove to us you are the right person- and the lack of industry knowledge might not be a deal breaker.
  • Experience in onsite commercial food preparation an advantage- i.e. what goes on at the step just before the customer.

This role suits someone with drive and persistence and who enjoys sales and negotiation psychology. The successful candidate will combine enthusiasm and control. However, the KAM is not selling products- rather the role is to change the perceptions and processes, especially at the HQ influencer. Whilst the unique value proposition of the products is so obvious for the food preparation manager, the  the HQ influencer already has an existing solution and other priorities than us. The KAM must be able to understand, communicate and evangelize the different benefits to each of the positions in the decision making process- from the person using the product, to the store manager, HQ influencer and up to the C level. The KAM needs to be successful in communicating strong financial, quality and “consistency in their products recipe” benefits for the influencer to change their mind set.

As such, the role requires the hard work and creativity to get to the right person, but this is followed by a focus on promoting the benefits of process changes rather than hard selling.  Experience in areas such as commercial project management, change management, consultative sales or solution selling is also important.


WHY KREA SWISS?

We are an old company classical manufacturer that over the last three years has transformed into a small product development company. We cultivate the energy of a startup, but can lean on a history stretching back 70 years and a solid existing customer base that self-funds our R&D. Through 2023/24, we are bringing to market several industry changing products– it will be quite a ride.
Our philosophy is to keep fresh, innovative, small, and nimble and live a culture of respect, flexibility, and innovation. To enable this, we successfully outsource non-core activities to specialist partners, and are growing our team slowly with specialists that fit our DNA.
 
Rather than being a cog in a wheel at a large company where influence is capped, here you are actively encouraged to make changes happen. We recognize and reward over performance and provide ongoing coaching to support your performance and career development.

This position includes a competitive base and an uncapped commission element.

 

START DATE

Immediate  

LOCATION:

Riehen, Switzerland
We are close to the Lörrach, Germany border and Basel.

Applicants must be permitted to work in Switzerland and already located in Europe.
Applicants not within commuting distance will be considered if able to relocate quickly.


APPLICATION PROCESS

 

Due to the masses of spam applications, we can only consider applications that provide all of the below information:

·      Resume in English or German (including language levels)

·      Motivation Letter- why KREA? Why You?  

·      Earliest Starting Date

·      Current Salary

With this information we will be able to review your application respectfully and efficient and provide you with timely feedback. 

We regret that we will not be able to process applications that do not include the required information.