Nordic Sales Director

The company

Pure Fishing is a global leading provider of fishing tackle, lures, rods, and reels with a portfolio of brands that includes Hardy, Greys, Abu Garcia, Berkley, Savage Gear, ProLogic, DAM, Fenwick, Fin-Nor, Van Staal, Mitchell, Penn, Pflueger, Shakespeare, SpiderWire, Stren, and Ugly Stik. The company has operations in 19 countries and a dedicated workforce conversant in 28 languages. Across Europe Pure Fishing has large office bases in Cramlington in the UK, Svangsta in Sweden, Copenhagen in Denmark, Breda in The Netherlands, and Frankfurt in Germany, as well as other smaller satellite sales offices throughout Europe. Pure Fishing’s mission is to provide the ultimate experience for anglers and customers through leading brands, innovative products, and superior services delivering exceptional financial results by a passionate, high-performance team. 

Pure Fishing is now looking to hire a Nordic Sales Director based at the company’s office in Copenhagen but working across the Nordic countries. 

About the role

As a Nordic Sales Director you will be responsible for developing the sales strategy to achieve growth for Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, leading a team of Sales Managers and field-based sales representatives spread across the 4 countries to achieve set monthly, quarterly and annual revenue and margin targets. You will support the team in achieving their targets, working closely with the marketing team and customer service function to drive growth across the region. You will report to the Managing Director EMEA, and work together with colleagues across the EMEA region in a collaborative way to ensure we thrive as an EMEA region.
 

Main responsibilities:

• Develop a 3–5-year sales strategy plan for the Nordic region, liaising with the EMEA leadership team.
• Designing and planning the sales budget for the year, to include revenue targets, promotional activity, and sales tactics.
• Setting clear targets and action plans for the team, with regularly monitoring and tracking, to include an analysis of risks and new business opportunities.
• Providing the annual forecast for the region including new product forecasts and undertaking regular forecast reviews.
• Creating a standardized and process-orientated sales approach across all countries, whilst maintaining the appropriate localization for our customers where needed.
• Maintaining regular communications and contact with the sales managers in the 4 countries, ensuring all relevant information is shared, particularly in respect of new product information, marketing collateral and ongoing key initiatives/projects.
• Ensuring all team members are on track with their monthly sales targets and proactively anticipating and escalating issues.
• Forging strong relationships and collaboration with all functions across the regions, including sales, marketing, supply chain, customer service and finance.
• Proactively driving performance management process (Pure Success) to ensure stretch goals and development plans are robust and actively managed through the year.
• Working with the team to ensure up to date account plans are developed and regularly reviewed for each key account.
• Providing coaching and development activities for the field team and acting as a mentor where needed.
• Maintaining regular contact with key customers within the territory in conjunction with the field team, both on the telephone and through regular visits which will involve some travel.
• Managing budgets and preparing management information to report on progress/regular updates.
• Working closely with the Marketing Director in creating pricing, promotions and close out sales.
• Dealing with all escalated customer queries and complaints, working closely with the Customer
• Service teams in ensuring an excellent service is provided.
• Challenging the status quo, identifying inefficiencies, and driving synergies and solutions to continuously improve business performance.
• Attending various trade shows, sales meetings, and various other internal and external meetings as required.
• Regularly monitoring the marketplace and making strategic recommendations on growth/ improvement plans.

Required profile:

• A track record of success in a similar sales role in the Nordic region is essential.
• Must be able to demonstrate successful experience in achieving sales targets, account planning and driving sales growth.
• Degree qualified, ideally in Business with a sales and marketing focus.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Proficiency in English is required, together with Swedish/Danish as appropriate.
• Proven experience of managing a team is required, with the ability to coach and mentor other team members.
• Strong IT skills, with high proficiency in Outlook, Excel, and a working knowledge of SAP.
• Strong relationship building skills, with the ability to deal with customers effectively.
• Knowledge of the fishing tackle industry would be an added benefit, but not essential.
• Must be a team player and committed to the customer and the company.
• Must have the ability to demonstrate a positive attitude, flexibility, tenacity, and willingness for continuous improvement and learning.
• Ability to travel across the Nordic region, as well as across EMEA as needed.

An attractive and competitive salary package is available for the successful candidate, based on skills and experience, together with the learning, development, and career opportunities you would expect in a global organization. Pure Fishing has a great flexible team-working environment, a highly dynamic and passionate team to work with, and the opportunity to progress for the right candidate.

This is an excellent opportunity for an accomplished Sales Leader to broaden their experience in an exciting, dynamic, and passionate business.