General co-operation
• Which contact persons are involved in this application process + contact details + who will be the line manager?
• Both
• Who will make the final decision on filling the vacancy?
• Committee both + one other and blessing of the boss
• Who do I send the CVs to and when can I expect to hear back (ideally within 2 days)?
• 48 hours
• What does your interview process generally look like?
• 1. interview get to know each other (phone/teams), 2. couple product managers (teams call with jim) 3. face to face with both (panel with product managers)
maybe 1 additional (asap)
• Will the person receive a draft contract in advance? Will the contract be sent by post &/or email?
• Last step, happy to answer all the questions
General information about the company
• Turnover?
• 65mio (37 mio 4 years ago)
• Number of employees
• 200 more or less
• Number of employees from the specialised department
• 30 people
• How many locations/countries do you have?
• 2 facilities in the US, offices in China, India, Thailand, small in England (Now expansion europe)
• Large number of ind. Distributors (more than 25 in EU)
4
General information about the company
• Who are your customers/industry?
• biopharma
• Which companies are your competitors? Prefer or exclude candidates
• No exclude, emerson, samson, adca
• What makes your company particularly attractive as an employer? What is the feedback culture like?
• Good culture, growing, investing in business, eq+employees, takes good care of the team, flat orga, quick decision, nimble
• Give examples of great achievements or innovations the company has made in recent years?
• Growth (last slide), intro of new products, investment in business in last 4 years (eq, building, people, acq)
• What is your company's vision or mission for the next few years?
• More of the same, aggressive growth, robust new products in dev, position themselves as an acq (new businesses)
5
Application process
• What have you done so far to fill the position? (searches, job offers + time frame)
• Job description written, found us
• Current status of the application?
• Currently at 0
• Why is the position vacant?
• Expansion into Europe, adding one more
Application process + 1. Day
• What does the onboarding process look like for new employees in this position?
• Expect them to spend some time in the factory (Ohio + some time in North Carolina), understand more about company, team and products + training
heavy product training, various meetings in EU to bring the partners together
• Sales gets tied to a buddy for questions (and jim as well)
• What development opportunities does the candidate have in your company (2-5 years)?
• Record year in EU, adding more people because of growth and success, lead the EU Team over time, ACQ targets are for someone who has a foodprint in EU
• Which departments will work closely with this position and how will the collaboration be organised?
• Broad Sales Team, alignment with Product M Team, variety of meetings for Sales and PM, broad commercial approach + collab
The ideal candidate - hard skills • Which product/service areas will the candidate be responsible for?
• Germany, Denmark, Austria + Nr 1 steriflow EU for Biopharma, other Jordan Valves
• What expectations do you have of the position and the candidate?
• See Job Description, present a tech product, negotiation, distributor connection
• What is a typical working day like?
• Driving sales activities that change daily depending on the focus
• Developing strategies (USP) “against” competition, manage the underperforming partners,
• Is there any special training or software experience that the person should have?
• Outside of product training nothing super unique, data is excel based, being a great sales person is more important than the tech aspects
• What are the minimum requirements that the candidate must fulfil? (Education, professional experience, foreign language)
• Bsc in Business, 7-10 years EXP, anyone based in central EU, Germanic language + eng
• Which aspects of a candidate do you reject from the get-go?
• Worked for phone, washing machines, not many product application skills needed, commodity seller
• Name 3-5 points that are particularly important to you (perfect match)?
• High sales in tech process flow environment, knows German, international environment, open to travel
The ideal candidate - soft skills
• Are there examples of employees in this position with specific behaviours or qualities?
• Communication, driven, ethical, organized, adaptable
• If so, how have they been overcome in the past?
• Imagination and different way of finding solutions
• Are there certain soft skills or personality traits that are particularly valued in this position?
• Ambition delivered in a structured calm prof way
9
What do you offer?
• What annual target salary is envisaged, divided between fixed and bonuses?
• 100-120K all together, split between based and variable 80/20 (20 can be 40 overperforming possible)
• What additional services/benefits will the candidate receive?
• Car, one time monthly fee to cover the cost of the car, not looked at it yet,
• How are the core working hours organised in your company or do you have flexible working hours?
• You do what is necessary to meet expectations, they try not to call people after 5/6 (EU), also no meetings super early, normal working day regarding the
time difference, when they travel = answer mails at least, do the job still
10
Specific Questions
• Sales
• travel?
• 50% they are somewhere (not full week but roughly)
• One guy visits once a week because he likes it (whats needed has to be done)
• More in the beginning to establish the role and person
• New customers/existing customers?
• More existing but we want to break that and get more into new customers
• Work with channel partners, help identifiy new customers though
• Position Name:, Regional Manager Europe / Area Sales Manager Europe