Key Account Manager Industrial Solutions & Engineering (f/m/d)

You don’t just want to manage a sales territory – you want to win industrial customers and develop them into genuine partnerships?

• At TTL Network, we develop customised connectivity solutions for demanding industrial applications. We don’t simply sell cables. We work together with our customers on solutions that fit their application and series production technically, commercially and in terms of quality.
• To further expand our Industrial Solutions & Engineering business unit, we are looking for a Key Account Manager who enjoys exactly that: winning new industrial customers, understanding potential and turning it into long-term, profitable customer relationships.
• At the start, your focus is deliberately on acquiring new customers and building your own customer portfolio. As you develop, you will gradually also take over long-standing existing customers from an experienced colleague who will be retiring in the medium term.

So you build something new – and at the same time develop what has already proven itself.

Your mission

• With your customers, you develop TTL from a supplier into a trusted advisor for customised connectivity solutions.
• To do so, you don’t just understand what a customer is asking for. You want to understand: What does the customer build? Where does their challenge lie? What really matters to them? And where can we develop a better solution together?
• Your goal is not the quick one-off order. Your goal is customers with whom we can grow over many years.

Win customers → understand potential → develop solutions → build series business → expand the partnership

What you will drive with us

• You win new customers. Especially at the beginning, this is an essential part of your role. You identify interesting target customers, find the right contacts, open doors and turn first contacts into concrete business opportunities. That’s why we are not looking for a Key Account Manager who waits to be handed ready-made leads or existing major customers. You can develop business yourself. Marketing and demand generation will increasingly support you – but they do not replace your own sales drive.
• You develop customers, not just orders. For us, a good customer is not one with a single order. You want to understand which products, applications and future projects lie behind an account. You build relationships with the relevant contacts, recognise further potential and develop your customers systematically. A first project should grow into a long-term partnership.
• You sell solutions – not the product catalogue. The focus is on customised solutions for industrial applications and series products. Our customers come to us with technical and commercial requirements. Together with our team, you develop the right solution from them. The path can lead from the initial needs analysis through concept and prototyping to approval and later series production. You don’t have to be able to answer every technical detail yourself. But you need enough technical understanding to ask the right questions, capture customer requirements and bring the right experts together internally. You can also use our own product lines wherever they make sense for the customer and their application.
• You work closely with our engineering team. You are the commercial and personal interface to the customer. Our technical specialists support you wherever things get highly technical. Together you develop solutions that work technically and are commercially attractive. This also means: you don’t simply promise the customer what they want to hear. You bring customer requirements, technical feasibility and commercial viability together.
• You gradually take over existing key accounts. The role is part of a long-term succession plan. An experienced sales colleague will retire in the medium term after many years at TTL. We don’t want to simply “hand over” his customer relationships and knowledge at short notice, but to transfer them responsibly. That’s why you will get to know our customers, solutions and way of working in depth and gradually take over further existing accounts.

What matters to us: before we hand over a large customer base to you, we want to see that you can win and develop customers yourself.

Which customers we find particularly exciting

• Our focus is clearly on series manufacturers – that is, companies that develop their own products, devices or components and produce them in recurring series.
• Why? Because that is exactly where our strength is especially relevant: a customised connectivity solution is developed and qualified together and is then needed in series over a longer period.
• That’s why series manufacturers from industry and medical technology are particularly interesting for us. Beyond that, other companies with suitable applications and attractive series potential can also be interesting.
• What matters is not a particular industry name. What matters is the question:

Is there a technically demanding application for which we can develop a solution together with the customer – and can long-term series business grow out of it?

Your sales territory

• Your focus is on southern and south-western Germany as well as neighbouring European markets.
• You can either live and work in your sales territory or have your home near our site.
• If you live in the sales territory, you visit your customers regularly and otherwise work flexibly. You come to our office once a quarter for the joint quarterly meeting.
• Especially during your onboarding we will meet in person more often – at first roughly once a month – so that you really get to know our team, our solutions, our processes and our technical capabilities.

How we measure your success

• We don’t want a field sales force whose success consists mainly of kilometres driven and the number of customer visits. What matters is the commercial development of your territory and your customers. This includes, for example:
• new customers won
• qualified opportunities
• development of your sales pipeline
• series projects won
• revenue development
• development of existing accounts
• tapping additional customer potential
• sustainable and profitable customer relationships

Activity is necessary. Impact is what counts.

Who will be successful with us

• You are a hunter – but not a short-term seller. You enjoy approaching new customers and opening doors. A “no” doesn’t throw you off track. At the same time, you’re not interested in closing just any order as quickly as possible. You want to win customers who are a good long-term fit for TTL.
• You understand technical B2B sales. You already have experience selling technical products or solutions to business customers. Experience in cable technology, connectivity or electrical engineering would be a strong plus – but is not a must. Experience from areas such as components, automation, mechanical engineering, sensor technology or comparable technical B2B markets can also be a very good fit. What matters is: you can understand technical relationships and sell solutions that need explaining.
• You are curious about your customers’ business. You want to know what lies behind an enquiry. Which application? Which quantities? Which technical requirements? Which commercial conditions? Which future projects? Which further potential? You ask questions, listen and develop opportunities from the answers.
• You build relationships. For us, key account management doesn’t mean calling once a quarter to ask about the next order. You build trust. You know the relevant people at the customer, understand their challenges and become a contact they involve early in new projects. Our goal is to become our customers’ trusted advisor.
• You take responsibility for your territory. You don’t wait for someone to tell you every week which customers to visit or call. You structure your territory, prioritise target customers, develop account plans and manage your pipeline. You know: your sales territory is your area of entrepreneurial responsibility.
• You enjoy working in a team. Even though you spend a lot of time out in the market on your own, you don’t win complex projects alone. You work closely with engineering, project management, purchasing, supply chain and other specialists at TTL. You know when you need to take the lead yourself – and when to bring the right experts to the table.

What you won’t find with us

• You won’t be given a large existing customer base on your first day to then simply manage.
• You won’t get a list of ready-made opportunities that you only need to close.
• And we don’t expect acquiring new customers to be solely the job of our marketing team.
• Especially at the beginning, we want to see that you can identify, approach and develop customers yourself.
• In return, you get something valuable: an established technical organisation. Experienced colleagues. Long-standing customer relationships. A broad production network. And the opportunity to build your own customer portfolio and then gradually take over an established customer base.
• If you mainly want to manage an existing customer base, this role will probably not be the right fit for you.

If, on the other hand, you think: “I want to show what I can build myself first – and develop my customers from there in the long term.” … we should talk.

Why TTL?

• Because technical sales with us means more than selling products. We support our customers from the first requirement through development and validation into series production.
• We don’t want to be just one of many suppliers. Our aim is to be industry’s sparring partner for demanding connectivity solutions.
• And that is exactly where you play a central role. You win the customers. You understand their business. You recognise potential. You bring our technical capabilities together with their requirements. And from this you build relationships that last for years.

From first contact to trusted advisor.

Sound like sales the way you see it?

Then we’d like to get to know you.