Company:

INEOS Oxide

Interested in joining a winning team? A team whose employees share in the ownership of the business and are empowered to make a difference?

Job Title

Regional Sales Manager - Houston, TX Area

Department/Service

Business / Commercial

Organizational context and job purpose

Business Context:

INEOS is a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, producing the raw materials that are essential in the manufacturing of a wide range of goods. The chemicals manufactured by INEOS enhance almost every aspect of modern life. INEOS is the 3rd largest petrochemical company in the world with 194 manufacturing sites across 29 countries and employing more than 26,000 people globally.

INEOS Oxide is one of the most diverse, dynamic and successful businesses within INEOS, operating 4 manufacturing sites in Europe and North America. These are located in Antwerp, Belgium; Koln, Germany; Lavera, France; Plaquemine, US. INEOS Oxide is one of the world’s leading producers of Ethylene Oxide (EO) and Ethylene Oxide Derivatives (EODs), producing a broad range of 200+ products spread across 4 key value chains – Ethylene Oxide; Propylene Oxide; Oxo-alcohols & Esters; ENB. The total EO production capacity is currently > 1 million mt and the total production capacity for the overall business is ~3.4 million mt.

Ethylene oxide (EO) is an important building block for the preparation of a wide variety of EO derivatives (EODs), including various surfactants, as well as many other chemical intermediates including Ethylene Glycols, Glycol Ethers, Polyethylene Glycols and Ethanolamines.

INEOS Oxide is in the process of acquiring a new site in Bayport (TX), US which will increase the total production capacity of the business to ~4.4 million mt. This acquisition will give the INEOS Oxide business a true global footprint, in particular for the Ethylene Oxide value chain.

Role Description:

The Regional Sales Managers are a key member of the INEOS Oxide US Business Team. For the defined geographical and/or application area, the post holder is responsible for delivering the budgeted sales volumes of EO, Ethanolamines, Ethylene Glycols and Glycol Ethers, based on the Business Managers guidance and overall strategy. The post holder must also develop account plans and implement the defined action plans to deliver the business strategies. In addition to US produced volumes, the US sales team will be responsible for marketing of INEOS Oxide products from the European asset base.

The Regional Sales Managers will represent customers within the region, including distributors and direct accounts in that region. Support to/from colleagues as appropriate for national and international accounts.

As single face to the customer, the Regional Sales Manager represents all internal functions to the customer, solving internal issues to ensure a perfect and smooth operation to the external world. As the main face to the markets, Regional Sales Managers are also the key source of market information to the wider INEOS Oxide business.

INEOS Oxide – Internal Interfaces & Factors:

Development of regional sales strategy by product – volumes and contract strategy. Aligned with Business Managers.
Forward demand planning; monthly and annual forecasting.
Coordination of supply chain activities.
Leading the set up for annual Petrochemical conferences.

Environmental Context:

Most Important Internal Factors

Board – reporting performance and market information.
Business Managers – alignment on sales strategy, contract strategy, pricing & volume targets.
Product Managers – ensuring product availability and supporting understanding of margins.

Most Important External Factors:

Changing market environments for the products; supply and demand driven.
Volatile feedstocks pricing and changing macroeconomic environment.
Customer relationships are critical to the success in the role.
Understanding the competitive landscape; gaining strong market connections to understand market changes.
Logistics scheduling / disruptions
Consultants/Market info – to monitor market trends, prices and dynamics.
Other INEOS businesses & sales teams – to network and share industry knowledge.

Role Dimensions:

Annual turnover: 100 – 200 m$
Number of customers: 20 - 50
Number of products: 20 - 40
Annual sales volumes: 100 – 200 ktes

Responsibilities AND Accountabilities

Primary measures for a Regional Sales Manager include customer profitability, customer relationship and retention, market development, volume, pricing, debtor performance, forecasting, prospecting for new customers and applications.
Propose and implement account strategies to create and deliver the budget and establish the proper customer value for the company. This includes existing customers as well as active exploration of new customers for our current or future product portfolio.
Responsible for all aspects of the customers including:
- Establishing monthly and annual volume forecasts
- Negotiation of contracts and price within business manager guidelines
- Maintain price list up to date for Customer Service order processing
- Evaluate the service to customers to ensure customer satisfaction
- Lead the customer complaint resolution process, ensuring customer complaints are closed appropriately in a timely fashion
- Work with credit team, customer rebates/accruals and monthly sales forecasts in order to minimize bad debts, ensure on time payments and correct product availability
- Reduce demurrage and unnecessary logistics expense and charge out to customers as appropriate
- Compile customer visit reports, record actions and events and make recommendations to keep the organization informed of progress and requirements
- Compile and maintain customer profiles to enable analysis and overview of account activity
- Anticipate and prevent late payment of debts, actively obtain overdue payments and resolve customer disputes, in order to deliver a reduction of Working Capital to target level
- Full understanding of the customer, their consuming application, and customer’s competitor’s and market needs. Develop customer intimacy and loyalty
Maintain and create relationships with traders, end users and distributors. Position requires extensive travel (up to 50%), especially when first developing customer/distributor relationships.
Conduct where appropriate market studies and develop regional sales strategies for existing or new product lines together with the wider Business organization.
This position – and all positions – with the INEOS Oxide US organization requires that the incumbent commit to learning, following, and practicing INEOS 20 Principles of Process & Behavioral Safety as applicable to the position. These Principles are posted throughout each Oxide facility and each employee must commit to following INEOS’ Life-Saving rules on a daily basis. These are posted within each Oxide facility.

Skills/Competencies

Level of Education & Experience in general

Degree or commercial/business qualifications acquired through experience
5+ years in the Chemical industry; direct Sales or customer facing experience in that period
Ideally, an understanding of Oxide products and chemistry
Contract negotiation experience a plus
Fluency in English essential

Technical Skills

Strong personal and communication skills are required
Proven influencing and negotiation skills
Commercial acumen; deep understanding of sales contracts
Strong analytical and economic analysis skills
Understanding of market interactions and dynamics
Basic understanding of chemical manufacturing processes, logistics and technical standards and regulations
Knowledge of contract law and ABC regulations
Knowledge of business accounting principles and practice

Behavioural Skills

Decisive and tenacious in pursuit of objectives, demonstrating a proactive mentality and bias for action
Ability to think innovatively and strategically
Strong influencer
Highly numerate with an analytical mind-set, and attentive to detail
Calm under pressure, able to make quick, clear and reasoned decisions in a dynamic environment
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, natural relationship builder
Proactively and positively manages conflict
Adheres to INEOS commitment to Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) policies; maintains personal integrity and ethical behaviours.

ADA Physical requirements, visual acuity requirements and environmental conditions

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and perform tasks requiring repetitive use of hands. The employee must occasionally walk, stand and travel by car, airplane or other means. Exert up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently, and/or a negligible amount of force constantly to move objects.

Employee must have the ability to see written documents, computer screens, and to adjust focus.

Hearing: Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction. Ability to receive detailed information through oral communication and to make discriminations in sound.

Work Environment: This job is performed mainly in a temperature controlled office environment.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

SHE performance – zero incidents and 100% compliance with INEOS safety standards
Sales volumes and prices as per business targets
Meet further sales KPIs such as payment term reduction targets, late payment targets, sales volume forecasting accuracy, customer claim resolutions.
Success in delivering market share growth rates and market development targets for the sales region
Meet yearly travel budget
100% ISO compliance
Meet annual training and progression goals

Our culture is one of honesty and integrity with an emphasis on safety, health and environmental performance.On our team, people are acknowledged for embracing new practices that help create real value for customers.

Regional Sales Manager - Houston TX Area