Job Description
As an Account Manager, you are the primary commercial driver for midtolarge accounts within your assigned Segment Thermal and Region DACH/CEE You own the full customer lifecycle from opportunity identification to deal closure and longterm account development. Operating primarily in a field-based, customer-facing capacity, you build strong relationships, understand customer processes and needs, and ensure that our solutions deliver clear commercial and operational value.
You work closely with Technical Support, Customer Service, Sales Acceleration (SAT), and Key Account Managers to provide a seamless customer experience. While collaboration with marketing, product management, and operations is essential, your core mandate is commercial execution, customer development, and revenue growth — not product strategy, marketing campaigns, or deep technical solution design.
Responsibilities:
1. Commercial Strategy & Pipeline Development
- Build, manage, and prioritize a structured pipeline of opportunities across assigned accounts.
- Drive both new business acquisition and existing account development, based on market maturity and account potential.
- Conduct field-based prospecting, customer visits, opportunity qualification, and early scoping discussions.
- Share insights on customer needs, competitor activities, and market dynamics to inform commercial strategy.
- Ensure internal alignment with Technical Support, Customer Service, Product Management, and Sales Leadership.
2. Customer Relationship Management
- Develop deep, trust-based relationships with customers at multiple levels (operations, engineering, procurement, management).
- Serve as the primary commercial point of contact, ensuring responsiveness and strong communication.
- Understand customer pain points, performance expectations, and value drivers to position our solutions credibly.
- Conduct regular site visits to ensure satisfaction, identify risks, and uncover upsell/cross-sell potential.
- Support customer retention by managing expectations, solving commercial issues, and maintaining continuity.
3. Opportunity Execution & Offer Management
- Lead the commercial preparation of offers, proposals, and pricing — supported by Technical Support for technical scoping.
- Coordinate product trials, demos, and evaluations alongside Technical Specialists when needed.
- Prepare value-based commercial arguments and negotiate contracts, terms, and pricing within defined frameworks.
- Track RFQ progress, win rates, share of wallet developments, and execution timelines.
4. Pre‑Sales & Solution Introduction
- Support introduction of new solutions by identifying customer needs and gathering actionable feedback.
- Conduct first-line introductions of new products, services, or optimizations — supported by Product Management and Technical Support.
- Ensure new solution pilots, value demonstrations, and early adoption workflows run smoothly.
5. Account Administration & Data Quality
- Maintain accurate CRM data on opportunities, site visits, forecasts, and customer activity.
- Ensure visibility of commercial performance, pipeline health, pricing adherence, and account progress.
- Prepare inputs for forecasting, budgeting, sales planning, and account reviews.
6. Cross-Functional Coordination
- Collaborate with Technical Support for complex scoping, trials, troubleshooting, and specifications.
- Align closely with Customer Service on orders, delivery issues, invoicing, and fulfillment topics.
- Coordinate with Sales Acceleration Team on small-account handovers, follow-ups, and inbound request filtering.
- Work with Marketing to support region-specific campaigns and provide customer insights.
- Provide structured field feedback to Product Management — without owning portfolio or lifecycle decisions.
Requirement:
- 3–7 years of experience in field sales, technical sales, commercial account management, or a similar B2B industrial selling environment.
- Demonstrated experience handling medium to large accounts with a mix of acquisition and retention responsibilities.
- Experience in industries such as refractories, thermal processes, foundry, industrial materials, chemicals, or related technical fields preferred.
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical/commercial field.
- Equivalent vocational/technical background with strong commercial track record also considered.
- Strong sales capability: prospecting, opportunity qualification, negotiation, and closing.
- Solid technical understanding of products, applications, and customer processes — enough to translate needs and spot opportunities.
- Ability to work jointly with Technical Support on complex cases, trials, and solution design.
- Skilled in using CRM systems, digital sales tools, and structured pipelines.
- Able to interpret basic data, KPIs, and customer analytics to inform action plans.
- Relationship builder with strong active listening skills.
- High level of ownership, resilience, and structured follow-through.
- Problem‑solving mindset with calm escalation practices.
- Strong communicator — clear, credible, and persuasive.
- Self-driven, disciplined, and able to manage multiple accounts concurrently.
As a global organisation operating across multiple countries, compensation for this role may vary depending on location, local market benchmarks, and experience.
In line with our commitment to pay transparency, a salary range relevant to your location will be shared with you during the early stages of the recruitment process, before any interview is scheduled.
Calderys Group
Calderys is a leading global solution provider for industries operating in high temperature conditions The Group specializes in thermal protection for industrial equipment with a wide range of refractory products, and advanced solutions to enhance steel casting, metallurgical fluxes and molding processes.
As an international business with a presence in more than 30 countries and a strong footprint in the Americas through the brand HWI, a member of Calderys, we offer our employees a world of opportunity.
With a legacy of over 150 years, and an unwavering commitment to excellence, we continue to shape our future through teamwork, customer-centricity and a proactive mindset. We are the vital partner of all high temperature industries and our purpose places sustainability and innovation at the heart of our business. It reflects our reason for existing: to support our customers building a better world through sustainable solutions.
Our values are a driving force in this purpose: We are tenacious, accountable, multicultural and authentic..
In our company, performance is recognized and learning is promoted. Our services and solutions depend upon the expertise and commitment of our employees. So we ensure that they have the scope and opportunities to develop their potential within a diverse, inclusive and collaborative setting. It is an environment for people to grow, where every day is a new day and more exciting than the last.
Calderys - Forged in legacy. Fueled by excellence.
For more information, please visit Calderys.com
