Regional Account Manager

REGIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER

Seeking to be part of an innovative growth-oriented company with ownership of current accounts and aggressively pursuing new sales within assigned territory.  The ideal position will direct and monitor activities with the ability to work at all levels within the customer organization including but not limited to executive director, purchasing manager, plant manager, superintendent and plant operation.

The position will enable success at selling and matching customer needs by using in-depth technical proposals, customer knowledge, and strategic partner relationships. These key concepts will drive negotiations and overcome objection.   The objective is to be part of an effective goal oriented team.

CAREER PROGRESSION

SIDEL Inc - Atlanta, GA    

02/1997 – Present

SIDEL is a subsidiary of Tetra Pak industry, supplying turnkey solutions for high-speed lightweight packaging covering the entire liquid beverage spectrum. From simple solutions like carbonated soft drinks or water to ultra-sensitive low or high acid as well as pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized. We deliver a solution for all manner of PET beverage production needs.

Key Account Service Manager (3 years)  

As lead of our operations team, my responsibility covers but is not limited to the promotion of the service portfolio sales including OEM, service intervention, training, maintenance contracts, line improvements, line conversion and R&D on bottle development. By interacting at all levels inside the customer organization, our team can penetrate and react quickly to customer needs. This allows me to capture customer insights at all levels and use them to align and execute our annual business plan. Being present at the front line requires excellent communication skills and a customer first attitude toward service. Work paperless for most tasks utilizing the available tools from Microsoft360 and specifically OneNote.  Avid advocate of BATNA negotiation and GTD methodology.  CRM and SAP are our major interface for POS and technical support.

Key Responsibilities

• Directly responsible for 2015 service financial goals for the account
• Targeting $15M in 2015 with 50% margin
• Increase budget by 15% from 2014
• Communicate on a daily basis with key account manager
• Led the assigned parts administrators, associated project managers, and field service engineers within the account by providing the appropriate level of guidance and support
• Contribute to the KAM team development and execution of the strategies to secure new turnkey line negotiations
• Oversee the R&D for bottle development within the account
• Collaborate and support our accounts payable department to collect past-due invoices

Specific Accomplishments

• Collected $2M past-due invoices in early 2015 -Two high-speed production lines were underperforming. Led the initiative to link SIDEL team with other suppliers and worked on long-term solutions with customer. We were able to achieve contractual OEE requirement in March and collected last payment.
• In 2014, negotiated and voided a $600K warranty claim due to improper use of our equipment.
• Introduced the rebuild kit method to a customer for his line of blow molders and reclaimed over 30% of market share previously lost to the competition.
• In 2012, turned around oven chain rebuild program for an account. By 2014, regained 99% of the business. This provided an additional $1.5M for our 2014 order intake. By setting up a recurring program, we have secured revenues for 2015 and few more years to come.

Previous career progression inside the company include:

Tooling Project Manager and Inside Sales(9 years)

Assigned duties included drafting project estimates, implementing sales process for line change-over and blow-molder tooling. My areas of expertise led me to oversee competition intelligence and pricing, qualify opportunities with true potential, and develop strategies to optimized profit and market share.  Project follow-up required daily interaction with customer or mold shop production and engineering team. Managed engineering review or changes, customer acceptance process, including on or off site qualification.  As part of our PMP, facilitated tooling R&D projects associated with my accounts including new bottle, preform, and lead mold design and testing.  Some additional responsibilities included expertise on tooling repair or improvement.

Specific Accomplishments

• Part of the team that started the SIDEL USA mold shop in 2001
• Budget grew from under $2M the first year to over $18M the year I left my post, XX years later. Directly responsible for 33% of the income. We also maintained healthy margin in a very competitive market.
• Created first tooling pricing portfolio as well as automated reporting system to improve project communication with customer
• Established standard to compare completion pricing within tooling that helped regain some market share with specific customer.
• Initiated tooling reward program for specific customer that is still in place now
• 6 Sigma - Worked on a 12-month project to acquire green belt in 2003. Unfortunately, company dropped the program and did not get opportunity to progress and develop additional skills.

Service Representative(4 years)

Supported specific manufacturing plants 24/7, providing technical assistance, trouble-shooting and acted as site manager for new equipment installation, repair or upgrade. Was accountable to validate warranty parts and service claims, report and document issues to our industrial operation.

Specific Accomplishments

• Drove corrective action on specific production line between      customer and engineering group. The success brought additional equipment      sales.
• Worked with our engineering group to expand product line      application. Helped customer produce a neck finish that was outside of our      standard specifications.
• Proud to have built up solid partnership with customer

SIDEL SA – Le Havre, France                                                                                                                

08/1993 – 01/1997

Worldwide leader in lightweight packaging manufacturing blow molding equipment.

Field Service Engineer (5 years)                

While travelling word-wide, installed and started up P.E.T. blow-molders. Other duties included troubleshooting of mechanical or electrical breakdown and warranty repair or installation of new upgrades. Daily interaction with local customer also involved processing blow molders as well as training local operators and mechanics.  As a representative of SIDEL abroad, was pushed to quickly understand the diverse cultures from other countries and to keep solid communication between SIDEL headquarters and the customer. With the distance and time differences, learned to keep close relationships with entire support group. Maintained effective communication with the technical department to ensure timely assistance.

Specific accomplishments

• Spent 8 weeks at manufacturing plant building a complete blow molder.      This helped me understand the ins and outs and set me up for a great start      with company.
• Contributed to finalizing the development of the first preferential      blow molder prototype working with one of the best SIDEL engineers in      France. In turn, this led to being in charge of the installation and      follow up in Australia for several months.
• Managed small team of 10 FSE for two years to start up the largest and      fastest blow molder in the USA at that time.

EDUCATION

Bachelor degree in Mechanical and Automation Engineering -University of Le Havre / France

(Equivalent to Bachelor of Science)

HOBBIES and INTERESTS

• Certified Scuba Diver
• 3-Time Ironman finisher
• Cross-country and trail marathoner
• Approved foster parent
• Involved with home shelter -Lead a group of people to prepare and      serve meals once a month
• Lead married couples group
• Love woodworking and boating
• Speak French and English fluently