Sales Director - Hydrogen Applications (Solenoid Valves)

Shanghai Permanent RMB600,000 - RMB700,000 per year View Job Description
This role combines sales strategy and people management with hands-on direct selling responsibility.
  • European family-owned company with niche segment with high technical barriers
  • A role with real influence on business direction

About Our Client

This organisation is a well-established company in the industrial and manufacturing industry, known for its innovative approach and commitment to excellence. It operates on a significant scale, with a strong presence in Shanghai and a focus on delivering high-quality products and services to its clients. You will be accountable for building and evolving the company's sales system and organization, while personally owning key strategic customers in selected industry sectors (e.g. Engine, Hydrogen, New Energy). The role requires strong execution capability on the front line, alongside the ability to establish structured, repeatable sales processes that support sustainable growth.

Job Description

1. Sales System & Business Development
Design, optimize, and govern end-to-end sales processes (lead-to-cash), including CRM usage, pipeline structure, and forecasting discipline.
Define sales targets, KPIs, and incentive schemes by business line and segment.
Coach and manage the sales team through regular field engagement, joint customer visits, deal reviews, and structured performance feedback.
Develop and execute business expansion plans aligned with clearly defined industry focus areas.
Build and implement sales capability programs, covering product/application knowledge, solution selling, customer development, and negotiation skills.
Actively identify customer application needs and operational pain points through deep, ongoing engagement.
Convert market and customer insights into actionable product or service opportunities, working closely with product management and R&D teams.
Drive cross-functional collaboration to transform customer-specific requirements into scalable offerings, supporting differentiation and incremental revenue.
Manage and resolve territory, segment, or interest conflicts across business lines where needed.
Work closely with marketing, product, application engineering, and operations teams to ensure consistent and effective customer solutions.

2. Direct Sales & Key Account Responsibility
Personally manage strategic key accounts in assigned focus sectors (e.g. marine engines, hydrogen production & refueling, new energy).
Own and deliver individual annual sales targets, including new customer development, major project negotiation, and contract closure.
Capture field experience and transform it into structured playbooks, good practices, and repeatable sales approaches for the team.
Build 1-2 lighthouse reference cases in target sectors, creating reusable sales tools such as proposal frameworks, value messaging, and competitive analysis templates.

The Successful Applicant

  • Experience:
    • Minimum 8+ years in B2B industrial, equipment, or solution sales.
    • At least 3 years in a formal sales management role.
    • Recent hands-on direct selling experience (within the recent 2 years) is required.
  • Industry Background:
    • DMUST HAVE experience and customer exposure in relevant sectors (e.g. engine-related industries, hydrogen, industrial energy).
    • Concrete and demonstrable sales cases required.
  • Education:
    • Bachelor's degree or above; engineering or technical background preferred.
  • Working Style:
    • Comfortable combining personal deal execution with team development and system building.
  • Commercial Capability:
    • Strong customer discovery skills, able to translate latent customer needs into structured solution or business opportunities.
  • People & Organization:
    • Experience developing sales talent and supporting team growth in a structured environment.
  • Execution & Discipline:
    • Results-oriented, resilient, comfortable with frequent customer interaction and travel.
  • Process Mindset:
    • Strong analytical ability; skilled in post-deal reviews, knowledge capture, and process standardization.

What's on Offer

  • Healthy and pragmatic company culture: low internal politics, direct communication, and strong respect for professional expertise.
  • Opportunity to work with high-quality European products with strong positioning in selected segments.
  • Clear mid- to long-term localization roadmap, including plans for local manufacturing and operational capability building in China.
  • A role with real influence on business direction, not just execution within a fixed structure.



Contact
Olivia Lu
Quote job ref
JN-042026-6999669
Phone number
+86 21 6035 3530

Job summary

Function
Sales
Specialisation
Sales Manager/Director/VP
What is your area of specialisation?
Industrial / Manufacturing
Location
Shanghai
Contract type
Permanent
Consultant name
Olivia Lu
Consultant phone
+86 21 6035 3530
Job Reference
JN-042026-6999669

Diversity & Inclusion at Michael Page

We don't just accept difference - we celebrate it. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for this role and are committed to building inclusive, diverse workplaces where everyone can thrive. If you require any support or reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.