Sales Manager - JP

American Furukawa•Plymouth, MI

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Sales Manager is responsible for marketing and creating new opportunities with new and existing customers, as well as providing account maintenance and increasing profitability with existing customers. This position is responsible for the analysis of the budget and mid-term plan, planning the strategy to achieve the mid-term plan, and coordination with FAS/AFI/Furmex/other Furukawa facilities to support sales (Japanese & US Sales team) activities such as JKK.

Requirements

Highly proficient using MS Office applications.
Knowledge of Japanese business culture.
Experience preparing customer quotes and contracts.
Excellent oral and written communication skills.
Excellent time management skills.
Motivated & detail oriented.
Ability to work effectively in a team environment.
Availability for occasional travel both domestic and international.
Must have valid driver’s license.
Must have flexibility to work non-standard work week when required.
Strict adherence to company policies, procedures and standards is required.
Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience in sales/account management.
Bilingual (English/Japanese) strongly preferred.
Minimum of 3 years’ experience calling on automotive OEM, Tier 1, & 2 customers.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary customer contact and respond to customer inquiries.
Coordinate activities for customer’s plants, prototype and technical centers, with focus on customer satisfaction and profit optimization.
Analyze profitability and Furukawa’s return on investment for existing customer business projects to propose ideas for improvement.
Proactively seek opportunities for improvement in business profitability and coordinate implementation.
Assess customer’s needs for manufacturing and supply and communicate regularly to supervisor/management.
Maintain and assist the Company’s ability to meet its annual budget targets and sales targets by incorporating emerging and developing customer needs to meet the overall business plan.
Provide the mid-term plan for internal reporting and communicate with FAS to finalize the budget and department planning.
Analyze the status of annual sales and progress of the mid-term plan, and plan the strategy to achieve the mid-term plan, coordinating with Furukawa facilities as necessary.
Integrate engineering support from Michigan, plants in Mexico, FAS/FEC, customer service, logistics, product design function within the North American subsidiary and act as a liaison/facilitator between sales (Japanese & US Sales team), procurement, production management, production control departments and Sales and R&D of the parent company.
Manage various functions of the Customer’s Portal, including quote and tooling summary submissions, and update all supplier information in the Customer’s Portal.
Receive and respond to customer requests for quotation via the quotation process business standard.
Conduct periodic contract review upon receipt of customer purchase orders and follow all AFI Sales Procedures and expectations for prices, maintenance, tool tracking, contract, quotation and filing.
Communicate the award of new business contracts with off shore counterparts in Japan via the new business notification department standard.
Maintain in-depth knowledge of customer’s current personnel, policies, procedures and systems, including all PN’s timing and milestones for each program.
Visit customers regularly to demonstrate and present product(s) and company capabilities.
Develop and update customer’s knowledge of the product(s).
Execute successful launch of new product line of new business.
Address customer inquiries/concerns regarding shipping and/or quality issues.
Interface with accounting, HR and conduct and secure lateral support for better analysis from other account managers of Detroit 3 makers when necessary.
Procure and supply market data to support costing and pricing activities to improve profitability.
Negotiate pricing, cost reductions, payment terms and trade terms with customers, with expectation of optimal profit outcome for AFI.
Target specific programs and products based on our capabilities and the customer’s business plan.
Proactively engage in activities necessary to meet annual company and department goals and objectives and be an example to others.
Compile and provide reports of activities, as needed, to sales.
Ensure winning profitable business cases by getting quotation approval from FEC/FAS through required process such as JKK, and also help and support other sales representatives (Japanese & US Sales team) to do the same (getting quote approval thru JKK) as necessary.
Coordinate activities and communicate effectively with the parent company in Japan and other subsidiaries on various tasks, duties, and requests.
Prepare documents for sales meetings with FAS and attend the meetings.
Communicate & effectively manage cross-functional teams to meet customer and corporate goals.
Act as a liaison between subsidiaries of the parent company in China, Thailand, Philippines, UK, etc.
Effectively handle quality issues and concerns by integrating the communication between engineers in Mexico/US and engineers located in Japan.
Support all potential business avenues with Japanese OEMs.
Other duties as assigned.