Key Account Manager - Upper Midwest

WEG Electric Corp•Plymouth, MN

About The Position

WEG is a global manufacturer of electric motors and related industrial products, with more than 30,000 employees worldwide. The Key Account Manager is responsible for identifying and negotiating new business and increasing profitable sales growth within assigned key accounts. The role also supports existing business, identifies customer needs, and promotes service excellence while building trusted relationships with customer stakeholders and WEG teams. The position is based in the Upper Midwest, in the Plymouth, Minnesota area. The manager develops account strategies and growth targets, identifies opportunities across customer segments and locations, and periodically visits manufacturing sites. The role coordinates with internal sales, customer service, engineering, product management, factories, and headquarters to meet customer requirements, develop solutions, prepare proposals, and negotiate contracts. It also manages inventory agreements and forecasts, communicates account progress to management, gathers market intelligence, and coordinates with global account and category managers on matters related to the designated customer’s U.S. locations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Business.
At least five years of experience.
Direct electric motor experience.
Knowledge of customer needs and market trends in the target industry.
Understanding of influence and decision-making processes within large key accounts.
Strong communication skills for working with customers, sales representatives, application engineers, and internal support staff across organizational levels and disciplines.
Ability to identify and map business opportunities and complete short- and long-term projects.
Ability to build relationships with different levels of management.
Demonstrated ability to develop and implement strategic and tactical plans.
Experience identifying and capitalizing on new business opportunities.
Competence managing strategic projects and overseeing the quotation process.
Ability to coordinate action plans to improve customer-support performance.
Ability to collaborate across departments and functions and build internal alliances to mobilize resources without traditional authority.
Ability to adapt to diverse internal and external environments.
Strong negotiation skills to resolve conflicts and reach agreements.
Critical-thinking and data-evaluation skills using MS Excel, including combining and analyzing data from multiple Excel sources.
Experience managing complex negotiations within large organizations and key accounts.
Must be authorized to work in the United States; WEG does not offer visa sponsorship for this role.
Must submit an updated resume and complete the application to be considered.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement sales strategies to increase WEG’s share within managed key accounts.
Establish sales growth targets, resource requirements, and overall growth objectives.
Identify opportunities across key-account segments and locations.
Periodically visit key-account manufacturing locations to assess existing business.
Develop relationships across executive, managerial, purchasing, engineering, and operations levels.
Provide proactive customer service in coordination with Internal Sales and Customer Service teams.
Build trusted relationships with customer stakeholders and serve as a resource for addressing their needs.
Represent the voice of the customer within WEG and advocate for customer needs in decision-making.
Identify strategies for navigating customer cultures and aligning WEG services with customer preferences.
Establish or manage inventory agreements; evaluate customer forecasts against historical usage and forward demand, and validate significant changes in usage volumes.
Lead discussions with key accounts to establish optimal inventory levels and support a resilient supply chain.
Provide timely updates to management on progress toward account-plan execution.
Identify new business opportunities, technology requirements, and customer needs, and engage WEG experts to validate and implement opportunities.
Gather market intelligence to support resource allocation, product pricing, and identification of technology development opportunities.
Work with Engineering and Product Managers, including engineering teams at factories and headquarters, to develop solutions.
Jointly develop commercial proposals across WEG business units and negotiate contracts and projects with customer sites.
Communicate with factory contacts in Brazil and Mexico to escalate issues.
Communicate with WEG’s Global Account Manager and the customer’s Global Category Manager regarding the designated customer’s U.S. locations.