Business Development Manager - Defence

Company Description

Wesco Anixter is an international provider of business-to-business distribution, logistics services, and supply chain solutions, with locations in Central America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific region.

We aim to increase profitability, improve productivity, and mitigate risk for approximately 150,000 customers worldwide.

As a division of Wesco (NYSE: WCC), a FORTUNE 500® company, we bring 100 years of ingenuity and expertise to create a world you can depend on.

• Business Development Manager – Defence
• Region: Europe
• Position Summary

The Business Development Manager – Defence will be responsible for developing significant sales growth across Europe for Wesco Anixter.

We currently have a well-established team within the Defence vertical in the UK, and have seen a number of successes and new contract wins during recent years.

Due to this, Wesco Anixter are committed to further developing and growing this key vertical market with a focus across the UK and Europe, so it’s an extremely exciting time to join the team in order to scale and maximize our growth opportunity within the Defence arena.

The individual will be responsible for supporting with the execution of the development strategy within the Defence vertical, ultimately becoming a Subject Matter Expert in Electrical and MRO products used within the Defence & Federal business segment, as well as driving forward the implementation of innovative supply chain service solutions, in order to deliver best in class service.

Furthermore, this role is expected to maintain & develop relationships both internally and within customer contracts, establish trusted relationships with key supplier partners and be instrumental in establishing a service play to focus on Total Cost of Ownership improvement to all stakeholders.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Expert ability to identify project opportunities, lead contract negotiation, and work closely with an execution team to meet expected contractual financial performance.
• Work closely with the UK Defence team, as well as future hires in other regions, to contribute to our plan for exponential growth within this key vertical market.
• Strong ability to develop and execute strategies in order to attract, grow, and maintain customer relationships, including executive relationships, customer mapping, and supply chain service selling.
• Demonstrated ability to excel at providing tactical and strategic leadership in opportunity identification & issue resolution occurring within assigned account base and target vertical.
• Ability to clearly articulate the benefits of partnering with Wesco Anixter in order to improve efficiencies within their supply chain, delivering tangible savings across their business throughout the life of the contract.
• Focused development of accountable & effective supplier relationships to include contract specific pricing, terms, and product requests in opportunity identification.
• Experience in preparing effective sales proposals, presenting detailed execution plans, and monitoring progress of on-going RFP’s and Tenders through self-managed progress reporting and collaboration with key business functions.
• Strong capability to identify opportunities for related services offered by the company, ability to facilitate introductions, and engage in a multi-person/function sales cycle while retaining overall customer control and a cohesive approach.
• Maintains pipeline report of $1M+ contract pursuits, with the hunger and drive to get these successfully over the line.
• Commitment to consistently seek opportunities to provide proposals that create a compelling reason for customers to partner with Wesco Anixter.

Education & Experience

• Has the ability to develop strong relationships with prospective customers and stakeholders.
• Confidence to stand behind and present comprehensive proposals in order to win new business opportunities.
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience of Business Development – ideally within the MRO/Industrial arena or Defence marketplace.
• High energy, self-starter with excellent communication skills.
• Experienced and comfortable with working under pressure and to deadlines.

There will be a high requirement for travel for this role, so the successful candidate needs to be comfortable in spending 50/75% of their time in the field.

• Solutions driven and takes ownership of tasks and responsibilities – a complete finisher.
• Experience of working within a fast‑paced, ever changing environment.
• Demonstrates the ability to track performance and look at the bigger picture – ensuring self‑generated pipeline remains fluid.
• Experience of working with corporate clients and varying levels of customer stakeholders.
• Financially and commercially astute and has good overall understanding of company commercial model/finances.
• Consultative and strategic selling experience with a proven record of exceeding sales targets.
• Strong negotiation, communication and presentation skills.
• Results driven, responsive, passionate and persistent.
• Confident, ambitious and willing to take initiative.
• Strong IT literacy, particularly in Microsoft Excel and Power Point.

The role is listed as hybrid, but there is an expectation that if you are not out visiting customers, you spend regular time in the Wesco Anixter Stuttgart office in order to develop a strong partnership with the Inside Sales team.

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