Vice President Of Sales

Overview

The Vice President (VP) of Utility Sales is a key leadership position at GEOTEK, developing and executing the utility sales strategy across two key brands: PUPI composite crossarms and Alliance composite light poles. The VP of Utility Sales will be a key leader on GEOTEK’s Commercial Team, reporting to the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. This role has been established to serve as a key addition to our leadership team, strengthening the bench with a highly skilled, high potential commercial leader capable of assuming additional responsibilities within the organization over time.

Acquired in 2009 by Granite Partners, GEOTEK is a Granite Company and shares the Granite objective of 100-year sustainability. This is an excellent opportunity for a leader who appreciates the support of a clear commitment to long-term planning horizons. The VP of Utility Sales also serves as a member of the collaborative Sales & Marketing Affinity with other sales and marketing leaders across the Granite Companies.

The Position

Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, the successful candidate will be charged with developing and executing GEOTEK’s utility sales strategy across two key brands: PUPI composite crossarms and Alliance composite light poles. This role directly manages the Utility Sales Team consisting of Key Accounts Directors, Business Development Managers, and Regional Sales Managers (as direct reports), as well as Inside Sales Representatives (as indirect reports). These individuals are organized into pods that collaboratively manage agents, distributors, EPCs, and Electrical Utilities within a defined territory, leveraging GEOTEK’s market-leading capabilities to win new business and maintain existing accounts.

The VP of Utility Sales provides vision and leadership to reinforce GEOTEK’s confident and accountable sales culture, increase engagement at key utilities, create strategies to secure new accounts, and accelerate growth in transmission and light pole segments. The individual in this role will develop and maintain key relationships at large end users and large distributors and will manage a small number of existing international customers while developing a longer-term partner strategy for international growth.

The VP of Utility Sales will serve as a key leader on the Commercial Team and will have close contact with directors and executives in Marketing, Engineering, Procurement, Operations, and Finance. It cannot be understated how important cross-department relationships and developing mutual trust will be to the ultimate success of this role.

Major elements of the VP of Utility Sales’ responsibilities include:

Lead the Utility Sales Team supporting PUPI and Alliance products (Collaborative Sales Pod Organization).

• Support Business Development Managers (BDMs) with key target activities, helping to leverage all internal resources needed to convey PUPI value to new key customers and close business.
• Schedule and hold formal quarterly commercial reviews between pods and executives.
• Create, track, and meet KPIs for sales volumes and margins within each sales pod.
• Support Regional Sales Managers (RSMs) in strengthening customer value in their territories.
• Provide regular performance feedback and create annual talent development plans to grow and build future sales leaders.
• Create and execute a focused sales plan to drive growth of transmission and light pole revenues.
• Set clear expectations and lead by example to influence sales approach and team culture.
• In collaboration with brand-focused Business Managers, lead RSMs and BDMs through value pricing analyses, proposal generation, and negotiations.

Establish relationships with representatives of key end users, distributors, and manufacturers.

• Develop and maintain high-level contacts at top 20 end users to support RSM and BDM efforts.
• Maintain regular contact with the principles at manufacturers’ representatives, making sure resources are being appropriately deployed to advance and secure sales objectives.
• Develop and manage corporate relationships at national and multi-regional distributors.

Assist in Utility Market strategy creation, future vision, and international market expansion.

• Support the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, brand-specific Business Managers, the CFO, and the CEO in pricing strategy and business planning by providing customer, competitor, and market insight.
• Assist Marketing in refining value messaging to target key customer needs and value drivers.
• Develop and implement a targeted international growth strategy (export model).
• Manage a small number of established international accounts on an interim basis.
• Assist in strategy creation and execution; provide market feedback and opportunity assessments to aid in scoping future initiatives, product offerings, and resource planning.

Candidate Profile

The VP of Utility Sales must be a proven highly effective leader with well-honed skills and a history of leading sales in a growing business. This position is ideal for a proven sales leader with a growth-oriented and collaborative leadership mindset who embraces a value-driven approach to market and a balanced customer/company decision-making process. An ambitious and high-performing individual in this role will have near-term opportunities to expand leadership impact and responsibilities within Sales and Marketing.

This key position requires a minimum of 12 years of successful industrial sales performance, including direct account management, business development from prospect to close, value-selling, pricing strategy generation, and sales- or market-development team leadership.

Qualified candidates will possess a strong sales background with a broad understanding of customer requirements, product specifications, and market conditions that affect the competitiveness of engineered products. Knowledge of the utility industry is preferred, but not required. An undergraduate degree is required; an advanced degree is desired.

Additional qualifications include:

• Strong analytical skills and knowledge of margin calculation and assessment.
• The ability to ask pertinent questions to understand and communicate the application of an engineering and data-intensive product in a way that clearly conveys its practical value to the customer.
• A demonstrated competency in understanding a customer need, generating a targeted sales approach, building and presenting the pitch, generating a pricing proposal, and negotiating a successful outcome.
• The ability to support the Sales Team as they navigate the complex value chain common to selling to electrical utilities, leveraging manufacturer’s representatives, understanding distributor influence, and engaging with end users across Engineering, Procurement, and Operations to capture target business.
• The ability to assess the value, competitive position, and business security of our product and service model for customers in a way that allows us to make well-considered, pragmatic business decisions.
• Being a team player focused on high-level outcomes and not individual credit who is willing to positively challenge both upward and downward within the organization to achieve collaborative solutions. Must be credible, accountable, and able to instill trust in subordinates, peers, and company executives.
• Successful experience in leading cross-departmental collaboration, understanding organizational strengths and constraints to develop solutions that meet both customer and business needs.
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written; the ability to lead well-run, productive meetings and drive action items to achieve intended outcomes.