Sales Engineer

Sales Engineer at KI Industries Inc. - Berkeley, IL

About KI Industries Inc. 

KI Industries, founded in 1964, specializes in designing and manufacturing decorative plastic and die-cast components for the automotive and appliance industry. Our attention to aesthetics and technical expertise creates components that our customers know will provide their end consumers with a high-quality interface experience. Those elements, combined with our outstanding customer service and passion for delivering high-quality products, make KI a trusted leader in the decorative parts industry. KI Industries is headquartered in Berkeley, Illinois, USA; we also have a regional office and production facilities in Asia and two manufacturing facilities in Querétaro, Mexico. Our wide global footprint provides extensive opportunities for growth and expansion. Across all our locations KI strives to find talented individuals who are highly motivated to work in a fast-paced yet rewarding work environment. We seek creative, hard-working, and innovative personnel who will believe in the KI brand and the service & products we provide. For further information, please visit our website at www.kiindustries.com.

About the Job  

As a Sales Engineer at KI Industries Inc., you'll be instrumental in delivering top-tier technical sales support and adeptly resolving challenges for our valued clients. Your pivotal role will involve partnering closely with Strategic Account Managers to drive commercial success, ensuring sustained, profitable growth across assigned accounts.

Responsibilities 

• Service assigned customer accounts through regular and frequent visits to assigned customers’ engineering/development facilities and production plants to gain involvement in all new projects.
• Establish, strengthen, and grow relationships at all levels, departments, and disciplines within the customer's organization.
• Coordinate involvement of KI advanced design services and engineering resources with customer's engineering and product development groups early in new projects to maximize KI opportunity for design input.
• Utilize sales excellence tools for assigned accounts to expand share of wallet and identify steps required to achieve profitable growth.
• Achieve assigned sales quota at designated accounts while meeting expectations for profitability.
• Maintain high customer satisfaction ratings with the goal of achieving supplier partner status.
• Identify target pricing to establish quoting guidelines and negotiate pricing as necessary and within pricing guidelines on new projects to result in award of business.
• Provide customer forecast sales data for development of annual corporate budget and quarterly rolling twelve-month (RTM) forecast.
• Assist KI operations and quality groups in communicating and resolving potential delivery and quality issues and resolve disputes regarding premium charges, obsolete material, and inadequate lead times.
• Create proposals for new projects and provide all necessary information to assist sales manager or strategic account manager in negotiating long-term contracts.
• Perform recordkeeping, as well as preparing sales forecasts and reports, within CRM system.
• Establish efficient communication channels and liaise between key clients and internal departments.
• Proactively assess, clarify, and validate customer needs on an ongoing basis.
• Lead solution development efforts that best address customer needs, while coordinating the involvement of all necessary company personnel.
• Participate in product launch meetings as the representative of the sales team for assigned accounts and assist the customer support specialists for new version launches.
• Continuously gather knowledge and understanding of the competitive environment at assigned accounts and feedback information to the marketing executive for use in the creation and updates of the strategic business and marketing plan.
• 50% travel both domestic and internationally for on-site customer visits and KI factories.

Qualifications 

• A minimum of 2+ years of experience in selling B2B and managing OEM Accounts with multiple product lines.
• Experience in sales planning and managing an assigned customer base.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Great problem-solving and analytical abilities.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Proficiency in CRM software, such as Salesforce.
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills.
• Ability to read part drawings, grasp design concepts, and input design ideas.
• Familiarity with OEM quality standards, processes, and procedures.
• Knowledge of injection molding, die casting, and/or decorative manufacturing processes and aesthetic quality expectations. (Plastics preferred)
• Proven capability to network within a large organization to make contacts at all levels, specifically the C-Suite.

Education 

• Bachelor’s in Engineering or Business with technical aptitude.

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