National Sales Manager

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins laboratories work with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic, and labelling is accurate.

The Eurofins network is dedicated to delivering testing services that contribute to the health and safety of society and the planet, and to its corporate responsibility to protect the environment and ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion across its companies around the world.

We’re proud to be an armed forces-friendly place to work and welcome applications from reservists, armed forces veterans (including the wounded, injured and sick), as well as cadet instructors, and military spouses and partners.

If you want to continue to help make our world a safer and healthier place, then apply for the role below and become a part of the extraordinary Eurofins network

The purpose of this role is to lead the national Sales Executive team in delivering profitable new Food Testing business across defined UK territories, while personally owning and converting larger new business opportunities across relevant Food Microbiology and Food Chemistry services.

This is a hands-on player-manager role. The National Sales Manager is accountable for the performance, activity, development and pipeline quality of the Sales Executive team and carries an individual new business target. The role works closely with Eurofins laboratories to align national sales activity to service capability, available capacity and commercial priorities, ensuring opportunities are targeted and converted sustainably and profitably.

This is a full time role working 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday 09:00 till 17:00. 

Must be based near to a Eurofins Food Testing site with an expectation to work in the offices up to two days a week, three days homebased, or on territory in the field. 

• Lead, coach and manage a small national team of Sales Executives, each responsible for a defined geographical territory and primarily targeting prospective customers with expected annual spend of £5,000–£50,000.
• Translate the national New Business strategy into clear territory objectives, activity expectations, pipeline requirements and individual priorities for the Sales Executive team.
• Set a strong performance culture through regular one-to-ones, field coaching, pipeline reviews, call planning and structured performance conversations.
• Monitor individual and team performance against agreed revenue, pipeline, activity, conversion and commercial quality measures, taking timely action where performance is below expectation.
• Develop capability across prospecting, discovery, value-based selling, negotiation, commercial discipline and effective use of CRM and prospecting tools.
• Ensure effective territory coverage nationally, identifying gaps, overlaps and opportunities to deploy resource where it will generate the strongest commercial return.
• Carry and deliver an individual new business target alongside responsibility for the Sales Executive team target.
• Personally research, prospect and secure Food Testing opportunities across relevant Food Microbiology and Food Chemistry services.
• Create and execute focused account and opportunity plans for priority prospects, identifying decision-makers, incumbent arrangements, testing requirements, buying processes and commercial drivers.
• Lead opportunities from initial engagement and discovery through proposal, commercial negotiation, agreement and successful onboarding.
• Build senior customer relationships and use relevant networks, industry events, referrals, digital prospecting and Marketing activity to create new opportunities.
• Refer opportunities above the agreed individual segment to the appropriate Strategic BDM under the agreed ownership rules, while supporting progression where required.
• Own the consolidated national Sales Executive pipeline, ensuring sufficient coverage, appropriate stage progression and clear next actions across all territories.
• Challenge pipeline quality and forecast assumptions, ensuring opportunities are genuinely qualified and expected values and close dates are realistic.
• Use territory, customer, market and laboratory insight to identify areas of under-penetration and establish targeted plans to address them.
• Provide accurate team and individual forecasts, performance updates and commercial insight at regular New Business and laboratory alignment reviews.
• Ensure clear ownership when opportunities move between Sales Executive, National Sales Manager, BDM, Strategic BDM and Account Management segments.
• Build strong working relationships with laboratory managers, operational teams and technical specialists across the UK Food Testing network.
• Understand laboratory testing capabilities, available capacity, sample suitability, turnaround requirements and agreed growth priorities, and translate these into clear sales priorities for the team.
• Direct Sales Executive activity towards prospects whose testing requirements align with available capacity and can be delivered to the required quality, service and profitability standards.
• Validate operational feasibility, expected volumes, sample logistics and service requirements with laboratory colleagues before significant customer commitments are made.
• Share consolidated pipeline insight and anticipated testing volumes to support laboratory capacity planning and commercial decision-making.
• Balance utilisation objectives with customer fit, commercial value and sustainable profitability; ensure the team does not commit unapproved capacity or turnaround times.
• Spend regular time in the field with Sales Executives, observing customer meetings, prospecting activity and territory execution and providing practical coaching and feedback.
• Support new Sales Executives through induction, early customer activity and development of territory plans, working with the Technical Support Manager and other colleagues where appropriate.
• Create a consistent approach to qualification, opportunity management, customer engagement and commercial discipline across the national team.
• Identify individual development needs and agree practical development plans that improve confidence, capability and results.
• Recognise and share successful approaches, customer insight and best practice across the team to raise overall performance.
• Work with Marketing and the wider New Business leadership team to translate quarterly business priorities into targeted national and territory-level campaigns.
• Ensure Sales Executives consistently progress qualified leads from agreed lead-generation activity through to a commercial outcome.
• Use CRM, LinkedIn and other approved prospecting tools to identify priority accounts, decision-makers and relevant customer triggers for both team and individual opportunities.
• Support the team with complex proposals, pricing discussions and commercial negotiations where management involvement will improve the likelihood or quality of conversion.
• Ensure quotations and proposals are accurate and developed with appropriate technical and operational input.

• Proven success in new business sales or business development, including ownership and conversion of larger or more complex B2B opportunities.
• Experience leading, coaching or managing salespeople, with the ability to improve individual performance while maintaining personal sales accountability.
• Strong commercial judgement and the ability to balance revenue growth, customer requirements, operational capability and sustainable profitability.
• Ability to manage a national sales remit, prioritise resources and create clear territory and pipeline plans across multiple geographical areas.
• Confident communicator and coach, comfortable operating with customers, sales colleagues, technical specialists, operational leaders and senior stakeholders.
• Strong pipeline management, forecasting, negotiation and opportunity qualification skills.
• Competent use of CRM systems, Microsoft Office and digital prospecting tools.
• Ability to travel regularly across the UK for customer, team and laboratory visits, with reasonable adjustments where applicable.

Desirable

• Experience in Food Testing, laboratory services, Testing, Inspection and Certification or technical B2B sales.
• Knowledge of UK food manufacturing and Food Microbiology and/or Food Chemistry testing.
• Experience managing a geographically dispersed or territory-based sales team.
• Experience aligning commercial activity to operational capacity, technical capability or service delivery constraints.
• Experience using LinkedIn Sales Navigator or comparable prospecting tools.
• Relevant scientific, commercial, leadership or business qualification, or equivalent professional experience.

At Eurofins we are growing, innovating and always learning. We celebrate the achievements of our employees through annual long service awards, recognise our colleagues special life events, and we are committed to charitable causes through global fundraising activities.

As a Eurofins employee you will benefit from:

• Additional Annual Leave at Employees set service dates   
• Company Pension Plan
• Life Assurance Scheme (4 times annual salary)
• Healthcare Cash Plan (6+ months service)
• Enhanced Maternity, Adoption and Paternity Schemes
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24/7 confidential
• Health and Wellbeing Programmes
• Free parking
• Worldwide career opportunities
• We also have in place rewards recognising the great work our employees deliver, their dedicated service and celebrating special life events.

What Happens Next

Our people are the backbone of what we do, so it's incredibly important we find the right individuals to join us. As a potential new recruit you'll be invited to meet the team in the form of an assessment centre or a staged interview process dependent on the role and it's requirements, this will give you the opportunity to see what working for Eurofins is really like and enable us to get you know your key skills and strengths. 

Your data 
As part of any recruitment process, the company collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. The company is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
 
Closing Date
We reserve the right to close or extend this position depending on application numbers. Therefore we would urge candidates to submit an application as early as possible.
 
Due to the high volume of applications we receive please be aware that if you do not receive a response within 4 weeks of the vacancy expiry date unfortunately, on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful. 

We support your development! Do you feel you don’t match 100% of the requirements? Don’t hesitate to apply anyway! Eurofins companies are committed to supporting your career development.

We embrace diversity! Eurofins network of companies believe in strength and innovation through diversity, being an Equal Opportunity Employer. We prohibit discrimination against employees or applications based on gender identity and/or expression, race, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and everything else that makes employees of Eurofins companies unique.