Business Development Manager

Auxitrol Weston; Farnborough; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading aerospace and defense company in Farnborough seeks a Business Development Manager to drive international sales growth and develop commercial strategies. The ideal candidate will possess a strong background in sales within the aerospace sector and demonstrate excellent negotiation and relationship management skills. The role requires travel within the UK and overseas, with a focus on identifying and securing new business opportunities.

Qualifications

• Strong track record in International Business Development within Aerospace & Defence.
• Ability to identify, develop, negotiate, capture and close business opportunities.
• Experience managing overseas agents and understanding complex procurement processes.

Responsibilities

• Develop winning strategies for new international sales.
• Manage relationships with customers to secure growth opportunities.
• Drive added value to customer offerings by identifying new services.

Skills

Business Development

International Sales

Customer Relationship Management

Cultural Sensitivity

Negotiation

Commercial Skills

Education

Degree in Business, Marketing, or Engineering

Tools

MS Office

Job description

Who are we

Auxitrol Weston Operating Unit (OU) consists of 3 manufacturing plants, Auxitrol SAS (France), Weston Aerospace Ltd (UK), Auxitrol Weston (Mexico), with 3 R&D departments in France, UK and Norwich Aero Products Inc (US) along with 4 repair capabilities in France, UK, US & Singapore.

Weston Aerospace Ltd has approximately 175 employees at Farnborough whose responsibilities are to design and manufacture temperature, speed and pressure sensors for gas turbine and airframe applications.

We have extensive environmental test facilities to verify our products’ performance, replicating and exceeding hostile operating conditions.

We have another smaller manufacturing site dedicated to analogue indicators, based in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire with 16 employees.

Job Overview/Purpose

Responsible for delivering sales growth across the portfolio of the business highly engineered sensor products.

Develop commercial strategies that support the company’s planned strategic re-alignment objectives for re-positioning the business to be less reliant on historical contracts by developing new strategies and routes to market that will enhance margin and profitability whilst still proving exceptional value to the user community and the customer base.

This will require the undertaking of wide ranging “pro-active” business development activities with a core emphasis on establishing, developing, promoting and positioning the activities of the business in order to achieve new international sales for the business unit.

Key Responsibilities

The successful candidate will be responsible for:

• Developing a “winning strategy” for achieving new international sales across the portfolio by identifying, developing, negotiating and closing new business opportunities in order to generate profitable new business.
• Playing a leading “outward facing” role in developing new routes to market, including the collaborative opportunities that could be available with many of the leading Aerospace & Defence primes.
• Managing existing and new business relationships with customers, users and partners; in order to secure growth opportunities.
• Travelling regularly across core international markets, assisting customers to shape their requirements in order to develop a strong position for winning new and lasting business.
• Being involved in all steps of new business capture including identification of user needs, opportunity assessment, product positioning and closing negotiation.
• Driving added value to the customer offering, including the identification of new opportunities for the provision of a wide range of services and through life support.
• Working closely with an established network of agents to increase visibility, “grass roots” market intelligence, support commercial activities and validated opportunities.
• Building on the company’s competencies, brand and expertise in the Aerospace and Defense market to continue to seek new opportunities that generate profitable new business (from the existing and new customer base).
• Reviewing the market and competition, gathering intelligence to facilitate the development of new products, services and solutions.
• Keeping updated with customer procurement and replenishment cycles; liaising with the user community, drawing upon the vast technical expertise and resources available within the business to evolve the product offering, but without losing sight of the need to win new business.
• Supporting the engineering team with the development of new ideas and concepts to meet current and future customer needs.
• Providing support to the Business Unit Manager, taking pro-active ownership of the sales business development of the portfolio including identifying key milestones and capture plans to involve, drive and communicate with the supporting team.
• Producing and maintaining an accurate list of prospects and opportunities; regularly contributing to the updating of sales forecasts and booking plans.
• Attending trials, trade shows, conferences & PR events as required.

Intrinsic Skills Required

The ideal candidate will have:

• A strong track record of success in International Business Development gained from within an Aerospace & Defence related environment.
• The ability to identify, develop, negotiate, capture and close opportunities in order to generate profitable new business.
• A degree qualification in a business, marketing or engineering discipline.
• An understanding of the complex procurement process that nations adopt within an aerospace environment.
• Experience of managing overseas agents/representatives and displaying an appreciation of cultural sensitivity.
• Strong presentation, financial & commercial skills and a natural flair for developing strong customer relationships.
• The ability to generate the respect of others, challenge when required and display an uncompromising approach towards business success.
• A strong commercial understanding of customer budget plans, procurement process, bid management, contractual terms, pricing and gross margin analysis.
• Familiarity with a formal sales operating process which also captures and develops emerging opportunities into defined and qualified prospects.
• A strong influencer who can demonstrate attention to detail and display a logical and disciplined determination to capture new business.
• Proficiency in the use of MS Office tools.
• A willingness and ability to travel within the UK and overseas at short notice.
• The ability to hold or obtain UK Security Clearance.

Competencies

The ideal candidate will possess:

• Customer Focus: knowing how and understanding the needs of internal and external customers, being result oriented and working hard to consistently provide exceptional service.
• Ethics and Values: adhering to an effective set of core values and beliefs and acting in accordance.
• Integrity and Trust: being widely trusted and seen as direct and truthful.
• Values Diversity: supporting fair and equal treatment of all.
• Problem Solving: looking beyond the obvious to find effective solutions.
• Functional technical skills: possessing the skills to be effective in the job and having the skills to perform the job at a high level of accomplishment.
• Listening: practicing active and attentive listening, being able to hear others.
• Action orientated: having full on energy, being willing to take action.
• Composure: being cool under pressure, not being knocked off balance by the unexpected and being a settling influence.