Director of Sales, Asia-Pacific - APC

Lauridsen Group•Ankeny, IA

About The Position

APC is the world’s largest producer of functional proteins, producing safe and effective products that create value through its values of Performance, Entrepreneurship, and Leadership. The Director of Sales, Asia-Pacific shapes and leads commercial strategy across the region, leading and developing a regional sales team, strengthening customer and distributor partnerships, identifying markets and applications, and converting growth opportunities into sustainable business results. The role influences regional focus, growth, and customer service, connecting market insights and customer needs with teams across APC. It directly influences regional revenue, volume, margin, customer retention, and market expansion. The role is accountable for sales strategy, performance, and profitable growth across multiple Asia-Pacific countries. It leads regional sales professionals and/or country sales representatives, including their performance, development, succession planning, talent acquisition, and engagement. It sets sales-resource, territory, account, and market priorities and provides forecasts and market information that inform supply planning, operational priorities, budgeting, and resource decisions. It coordinates with functional leaders, who retain responsibility for Technical Services, Regulatory, Customer Service, and Logistics; the role does not manage technical support staff or own technical support delivery. The position operates across varied market conditions, business practices, regulatory environments, languages, and distribution structures, exercising independent judgment within established company direction.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness or a related field, and/or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
At least 3 years of relevant experience.
Demonstrated sales leadership across multiple markets, including responsibility for sales growth, strategic customer relationships, distributor management, forecasting, and pricing negotiations.
Experience leading and developing sales teams.
Relevant experience may include feed or ingredient manufacturing, commodity trading, international trading or ingredient sales, or live animal production management in swine or poultry.

Nice To Haves

Five or more years of relevant experience.
Sales experience in Asia-Pacific markets.

Responsibilities

Lead annual and longer-term Asia-Pacific sales planning in alignment with APC’s sales strategy and growth objectives; establish regional priorities, account strategies, market-development activities, and action plans.
Achieve regional sales, volume, margin, and customer-development goals; identify opportunities to grow existing markets, enter new markets, expand product applications, and develop customer relationships.
Translate commercial objectives into country-, distributor-, and account-level plans, and adjust strategies in response to performance, market, customer, or competitive changes.
Develop relationships with customers, prospects, distributors, and commercial partners; create and execute plans for key accounts and strategic prospects, understand customer needs and satisfaction, support retention, and coordinate resolution of customer concerns.
Lead, coach, and develop regional sales team members; set expectations and accountability measures, conduct development discussions and performance reviews, and support succession planning, recruitment, selection, onboarding, and retention.
Foster collaboration, accountability, customer focus, continuous improvement, engagement, inclusion, and professional growth; equip team members with tools, training, product knowledge, and market insights, and align geographically dispersed team members and internal stakeholders.
Develop and manage distributor and channel-partner relationships; set performance expectations, work with distributors on country sales plans and growth strategies, monitor performance and market coverage, and recommend changes to sales structure, representation, and resource allocation.
Identify and evaluate new customers, markets, product applications, and commercial partnerships; build a qualified opportunity pipeline and assess commercial potential, value, resources, and risks.
Support introductions of existing products into new markets and applications; partner with Marketing and other functions on regional customer-development and promotional approaches; represent APC at relevant trade shows, conferences, customer events, and industry meetings.
Lead regional sales and expense forecasts and provide assumptions for budgets and longer-term plans; report customer demand, projected volume, risks, and market changes.
Monitor regional sales, volume, margin, and expense performance; lead pricing and sales-contract negotiations within company strategy and approval limits, obtaining approval for commitments outside delegated authority.
Provide market and customer information for budgeting, demand and inventory planning, and business decisions; manage travel, promotional, and other assigned expenses within approved budgets.
Monitor industries, customer segments, economic conditions, customer trends, competition, pricing, regulatory developments, opportunities, and risks; share intelligence and recommend changes to priorities, product positioning, and customer strategies.
Serve as the primary commercial link between Asia-Pacific customers and APC teams; connect customers and distributors with Technical Services for advice, application support, trials, and research needs, while retaining sales follow-through responsibility rather than technical-support delivery.
Coordinate with Customer Service, Export, Logistics, Regulatory, Quality, and Operations to support order fulfillment and customer service; work with Marketing on sales materials, market development, product positioning, and trade-show participation.
Communicate customer forecasts, priorities, and concerns internally and help align customer commitments with product availability, regulatory requirements, operational capabilities, and company priorities.
Maintain accurate customer, prospect, opportunity, and activity information in the designated CRM system; prepare business reviews, sales updates, forecasts, account plans, and requested reports.
Document customer commitments, distributor arrangements, pricing discussions, and significant commercial activities; protect confidential information and conduct business in accordance with company policies, applicable laws, and ethical standards.