Sales Director

Sales Director

Bekaert Group

Hamme, Belgium

About the role

The Commercial Director is responsible for driving order intake, revenue growth, and customer satisfaction across the business while ensuring strong execution of sales strategies. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on commercial engagement, overseeing global sales operations and fostering high-performing teams to achieve ambitious business objectives in dynamic markets such as offshore energy, maritime, and industrial B2B sectors.

Key Activities and Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and implement global and regional commercial and sales strategies aligned with overall business objectives;
• Identify growth opportunities in evolving and emerging markets and define clear, differentiated value propositions per segment;
• Translate strategy into actionable plans with clear targets for revenue, margin, and customer satisfaction.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead, coach, and develop Regional Sales Managers and Segment Leaders, ensuring strong alignment between regional and segment strategies;
• Set clear performance expectations and foster a culture of accountability and high performance;
• Inspire collaboration, ownership, and continuous improvement across the global sales organization.

Customer & Market Engagement

• Build and maintain senior-level relationships with key customers, distributors, and strategic partners;
• Actively participate in key account management, including executive meetings and complex commercial negotiations;
• Conduct ongoing market and competitor analysis to identify trends, risks, and opportunities.

Sales Operations & Performance Management

• Own global sales forecasting, budgeting, and performance reporting;
• Monitor and analyze KPIs, dashboards, and sales metrics; define and implement corrective actions where required;
• Ensure full compliance with company policies, governance standards, and relevant industry regulations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with marketing, product development, operations, and finance to ensure full alignment of commercial and business strategies;
• Facilitate cross-region and cross-segment sharing of best practices, customer insights, and market intelligence.

Training & Capability Building

• Define and drive training and development initiatives to continuously strengthen sales capabilities, leadership skills, and market knowledge.

About you

Essential skills & competencies

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in business, Engineering, or related field;
• Minimum 10+ years in commercial leadership roles, preferably in industrial or technical B2B markets;
• Demonstrated leadership and people management skills, with the ability to lead, motivate, and develop high-performing, diverse teams;
• Strong commercial acumen with a proven ability to drive business growth in complex B2B environments, preferably within industrial or technical markets;
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills, with experience engaging senior internal and external stakeholders;
• High proficiency in CRM systems, sales analytics, and data-driven decision-making to support strategic and operational objectives;
• Strong project management and organizational capabilities, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment;
• Proven track record of delivering sustainable growth through effective strategy execution and team leadership;
• Fluency in English is required; additional languages are considered an advantage;
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally up to 40% of the time;
• Experience in offshore energy or related markets is considered a strong advantage.