Customer Relations Manager – Automotive Parts Manufacturing

Our client a specialised fastener supplier to the automotive and large security industries is seeking to employ a skilled mechanical engineer with experience as a Customer Relationship Manager to manage a portfolio of existing customer accounts.

Minimum Requirements:

• Matric (Grade 12) with mathematics
• Automotive Part Manufacturing Experience – important
• Understanding of fasteners and metallurgy – important
• Strong experience in fastener sales function – management of key accounts
• Qualification in engineering and sales – highly preferential
• Knowledge on customer forecasting and forecasting tools like Turbocash or Pastel and or SAP
• Advanced MS Excel (pivot tables and V-lookup) and Pastel Evolution
• Good communication skills both written and verbal
• Understanding of exchange rates, freight costs, etc
• Strong understanding of PPAP.
• Own Vehicle

Key Focus:

The key focus areas of this role include:

• Driving weekly customer invoicing against budgets
• Customer liaison on all queries, disputes, and quality matters
• Analysing customer usage patterns and industry trends and advising customer of his/her production consumption forecasts
• Seeking new customer opportunities
• Analysing current inventory holding and safety stock levels and determining future buying needs
• Setting up new customer meetings for the sales executive

 Job Specification:

• To communicate regularly with customers with the aim to successfully service and manage all aspects relating to those customers.
• Ensure that the customer forecast process is captured together with the relevant sales manager and meets the Company process compliance levels.
• Manage the product pricing and account gross profit margins of customers.
• Manage the volumes and inventory requirements of the customers and thereby ensure continued supply.
• Manage the customers inventory item categories ensuring that purchasing and warehousing are well informed to accurately control inventory and remove risk of redundant inventory.
• Ensure that all relevant stockholding agreements with customers are in place and up to date. EG supply agreements or credit applications.
• Assist with any developments required by the customer. This includes aspiring to increase the product range supplied to every customer through new products or supplying products that may have been procured from other companies.
• Develop and maintain a relationship with key individuals at a customer. This includes paying attention to personal details of these people.
• To ensure that the customers quality requirements are properly documented. Further to this to promptly deal with any quality complaints from the customer and together with all relevant parties to implement permanent corrective action to ensure no further repeats of the same quality problem.
• Manage all customer sales orders and ensure that they are captured accurately and effectively’
• To manage all customer credit notes requests and see that the correct procedure is followed in passing any credit notes.