Regional Sales Manager - India Business Development & Office Lead

Industrial Adhesives | Technical Tapes | Engineered Materials | Electronics & Advanced Manufacturing

Travel: Extensive (60–70%)

Industry: Industrial B2B Manufacturing

Our client is a fast-growing international manufacturer of high-performance adhesive tapes, engineered materials and industrial bonding solutions serving customers across electronics, semiconductor, electrical, automotive and advanced manufacturing sectors, with its own European production and sales offices in Europe and South-East Asia.

Having established its India operations in recent years, the business is entering an exciting growth phase and is seeking an entrepreneurial sales leader to accelerate market expansion, win strategic accounts and develop a high-performing sales organisation.

This is a rare opportunity to join a growth-oriented business with significant autonomy, visibility and leadership potential.

The Role

We are seeking a commercially astute and highly driven Regional Sales Manager to lead business development efforts across India and to lead the India sales office.

This is a hands-on role for a proven hunter who enjoys building markets, opening new doors and converting opportunities into long-term customer relationships. The successful candidate will be responsible for driving new business, growing key accounts, managing distributor relationships and coaching a small but growing sales team: setting clear targets, running the weekly pipeline and KPI review, and holding the team accountable for results.

The role requires a strong field presence, with regular customer engagement and extensive travel across India.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive new customer acquisition and revenue growth across India, with a personal new-business target.
• Develop strategic relationships with OEMs, EMS companies, converters and industrial manufacturers, reaching engineering, R&D and quality as well as purchasing.
• Build and manage a healthy pipeline of qualified opportunities.
• Lead commercial negotiations and close high-value business opportunities.
• Manage and grow strategic key accounts.
• Support and coach a team of sales professionals through joint customer visits and field mentoring.
• Set clear KPIs for each team member, review performance weekly and act early when results are missing.
• Keep CRM, pipeline and forecast accurate and up to date – for yourself and for the team.
• Develop distributor and channel partner relationships where appropriate.
• Work closely with technical and operations teams to deliver customer-focused solutions.
• Monitor market trends, competitor activity and emerging opportunities.
• Ensure strong focus on profitability, gross margins and sustainable business growth, with ownership of your territory / office P&L.

Ideal Candidate Profile

You are likely to be:

• A high-energy sales professional with a strong hunter mentality.
• Comfortable operating within a growing and entrepreneurial environment.
• Results-driven with a track record of opening new accounts and winning business – and able to name them, with values and timelines.
• Commercially savvy with strong negotiation and closing skills.
• Direct and honest: comfortable saying no to a customer, holding price and sharing bad news early rather than keeping the conversation pleasant.
• Confident leading from the front and mentoring less experienced team members, including having difficult performance conversations.
• Used to being measured on personal targets, KPIs and margin – and motivated by it.
• Thriving in a field-based role rather than a corporate office environment.

Experience Required

• 8–15 years of industrial B2B sales experience.
• Demonstrated success in business development and key account management.
• Experience managing a region, territory or small sales team – ideally at least two salespeople against targets for two years or more.
• Proven ability to influence decision-makers within industrial and manufacturing customers.
• Strong commercial acumen, including pricing, margin management and contract negotiation.
• Experience handling medium to long sales cycles involving technical stakeholders (sampling, trials, qualification / PPAP).
• Fluent business English; Hindi. Marathi, Tamil or Kannada is an advantage.
• Comfortable with CRM tools and structured reporting to a remote international management team.

Preferred Industry Background

We are particularly interested in candidates from:

• Industrial Adhesives
• Liquid Adhesives & Sealants
• Technical Adhesive Tapes
• Engineered Materials
• Specialty Chemicals
• Electronic Materials
• Die-Cutting & Converting Solutions
• Industrial Automation Components
• Electrical Insulation Products
• Industrial Manufacturing Solutions

Particularly Attractive Backgrounds

Experience selling into:

• Electronics manufacturing
• Semiconductor and EMS companies
• Automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers
• Electrical equipment manufacturers
• Power electronics, EV and battery manufacturers
• Industrial OEMs
• Advanced manufacturing environments

Exposure to international customers or markets outside India will be advantageous.

What Success Looks Like

In the first year, the successful candidate will open new accounts personally, build a qualified pipeline across the target segments, and make sure every member of the team is delivering orders. Within the first few years, the successful candidate will:

• Become a key commercial leader within the India business.
• Win and develop strategic industrial accounts.
• Grow revenue and profitability across the region.
• Help expand and develop the sales organisation.
• Play a significant role in shaping the company's long-term growth strategy in India.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

• Join a business still in its growth stage in India.
• Significant autonomy and influence.
• Opportunity to build and shape a team.
• Direct impact on company growth and performance.
• A competitive package with a meaningful variable component linked to your results.
• Strong career progression potential into broader leadership responsibilities.

If you are a commercially driven sales leader who enjoys creating opportunities, winning customers and building businesses, we would welcome a confidential conversation