Job Summary

IFF is one of the world’s largest producers of food ingredients and is a leading supplier to the Food industry. We combine in-depth knowledge of food and nutrition with current research and expert science to deliver unmatched value to the food processing industry. We are innovative solvers, drawing on deep consumer insights and a broad product portfolio to help our customers turn challenges into high-value business opportunities.

We have an exciting role now open for our Health and Biosciences (H&B) business, we are looking for a results oriented talent to join our Japan team as Sales Manager, Animal Nutrition & Health.

Your Focus

As Sales Manager, you will be responsible for driving sustainable profitable sales and market share growth by identifying the customer needs and opportunities. You will establish solid customer relationship, leading, coordinating and manage reporting of IFF activities and promote relevant solutions aligned with corporate strategy.

For a defined territory, category, coordinated or global account:

Ensure financial targets are met and business performance is constantly monitored and reported.

Develop and maintain sustainable relationships with internal and external customers.

Prepare account plan and report relevant market information.

Collaborate with internal departments to explore innovations and new concepts related to customers’ products and on-going projects.

Monitor market development in terms of competitors, products, and trends.

Partner with Operations team to ensure customer satisfaction in terms of service, quality, and supply.

How you will contribute

Understand specific market and customer ecosystem including activities, strategies, brands, markets, consumers via different sources.

Develop multi-level cross-functional customer relationships with key customer decision makers/influencers.

Contribute/lead commercial negotiation (e.g., core listing, annual pricing, payment terms, rebates/cost savings agreements, supply contracts).

Maximize potential advantage to IFF while delivering optimal solutions to customer (GP improvement, catalogue optimization, complexity reduction, etc.).

Ensure customer supply chain requirements, processes and KPIs are well communicated to IFF Operations to ensure customer needs are met.

Understand customer regulatory requirements/changes and update data to GRA and input to project management system.

Act as the main customer point of contact in all matters. Influencing stakeholders to align on shared objectives.

Manage and/or mentor junior team members/peers, and onboard or coach new team members.

Lead projects through effective communication, and collaboration with key external and internal stakeholders (CI/Marketing/Creative Teams/formulation etc).

Proactively solicit and give feedback to nurture high performing teams.

Demonstrate leadership courage by challenging the status quo and holding self and others accountable to always doing the right things.

Develop commercial strategy for allocated customer portfolio. Build and execute account plans successfully.

Responsible for setting clear commercial targets (Sales/GP/New Win/Grow Market share) with the manager, achieve new wins, grow market and market share aligned with account strategic plan.

Define and suggest the required account resources, investment and relevant service model to support the account. Lead internal and external teams to win projects.

Effectively communicate the account plans with stakeholders including internal and external team members. Review/update the progress of account plans versus KPI targets.

Ensure accurate monthly sales forecast to allow for effective operations planning and financial analysis.

Conduct retrospective reviews on projects wins and losses.

Liaise with Global/Regional/Category stakeholders on overall plan, strategy and deliverables.

Effectively promote the most appropriate IFF product solutions / portfolio aligned with the brief.

Generate proposal/price aligned with category margin guidelines or pricing officer.

Prepare presentation materials and staging submissions with stakeholders that maximizes IFF commercial advantage and resources.

Monitor and ensure cost-to-serve of projects adhere to guidelines.

Communicate project results and conduct retrospective reviews on projects wins and losses.

Update Project management system and issue adoption report in a timely manner.

Manage volumes/timing expectations and liaise with Operations to ensure supply chain readiness.

Defend and grow accounts whilst actively scouting for new customers, transforming leads into profitable business opportunities.

Accurately forecast and update sales forecast tool (SFT) to capture performance vs budget, business risk & opportunities, new wins.

Monitor and provide Account sales performance (monthly / quarterly / annually) and strategic project updates to Manager.

Implement price increase in line with country/region strategy.

What you will need to be successful

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Animal Nutrition, Business, Marketing, Chemistry, Bioscience or any other relevant discipline.

Minimum 5 years of experience in Sales, Sales Service, Product Development or Marketing preferably in Animal Nutrition & Health or Livestock industries.

Strong track record in a similar capacity with a passion to succeed in commercial or sales role.

Customer centric with B2B management and Distributor management experience

Analytical with the ability to deal with financial concepts and processes (pricing/margin/forecasting).

Strong interests in product development, consumers, and market understanding (Marketing/R&D/CI).

Sound Feed Additive knowledge and Biochemistry knowledge.

Creative and innovative thinking.

Project management with effective collaboration and orchestration skills.

Strong communication, presentation, storytelling and negotiation techniques.

Understanding of digital marketing and ecommerce environment.

Effective business English communication with a global mindset and ability to work with different cultures.

Digital savvy with an ability to leverage online resources.

Ability to gather and leverage competitive market intelligence.

We are a global leader in taste, scent, and nutrition, offering our customers a broader range of natural solutions and accelerating our growth strategy. At IFF, we believe that your uniqueness unleashes our potential. We value the diverse mosaic of the ethnicity, national origin, race, age, sex, or veteran status. We strive for an inclusive workplace that allows each of our colleagues to bring their authentic self to work regardless of their religion, gender identity & expression, sexual orientation, or disability.

Visit IFF.com/careers/workplace-diversity-and-inclusion to learn more