The posting
Company Description
Anton Paar Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Austrian company Anton Paar GmbH. Anton Paar develops and produces state-of-the-art laboratory and process instrumentation for research and industry. It is the world leader in the measurement of density, concentration and CO2 and in the field of Rheology.
Job Description
Key Responsibilities
Service Acquisition & Business Development
- Proactively contact new and existing customers across South Africa and Africa to identify and develop service opportunities.
- Actively prospect within the installed base to identify instruments not currently covered by preventative maintenance, service agreements or warranty extensions.
- Identify and re-engage dormant or lapsed service customers and develop opportunities to win back service business.
- Promote preventative maintenance, warranty extensions, maintenance visits, service agreements and other applicable service solutions.
- Create new service opportunities through outbound calling, email campaigns, customer follow-ups and targeted account activity.
- Understand customer service requirements and position the appropriate Anton Paar service offering.
- Maintain consistent prospecting activity and follow-up until opportunities are won, lost or formally closed.
Service Revenue Growth & Conversion
- Drive growth in service maintenance revenue in line with agreed targets and KPIs.
- Achieve a high maintenance renewal rate across the existing customer base.
- Drive a high end-of-warranty to paid maintenance or service agreement conversion rate.
- Increase the conversion of uncovered installed-base instruments into active service customers.
- Drive quotation success through proactive follow-up, objection handling and clear communication of service value.
- Identify opportunities to increase customer service spend through appropriate cross-selling of service solutions.
- Take ownership of assigned service acquisition opportunities from identification through to commercial closure.
Installed Base & Opportunity Management
- Use installed-base information, warranty expiry data, service history and CRM records to identify acquisition opportunities.
- Manage Auto-Tasks and other system-generated activities to ensure customers are approached at the appropriate time.
- Prioritize high-potential customers and opportunities based on revenue potential, service history, instrument age and customer need.
- Identify gaps or inaccuracies in installed-base information and coordinate corrections with the relevant teams.
- Maintain visibility of upcoming warranty expiries, maintenance due dates and renewal opportunities.
- Develop structured customer contact plans for assigned accounts, territories or campaigns.
Quotations & Commercial Follow-up
- Create, manage and check service quotations accurately and timeously.
- Ensure quotations reflect the correct service scope, pricing and commercial information.
- Follow up outstanding quotations proactively and within agreed timeframes.
- Engage customers to understand reasons for delayed or unsuccessful quotations and address commercial objections where appropriate.
- Coordinate with Service Administration, Service Management and other stakeholders where technical or operational input is required.
- Maintain accurate quotation status and next actions in CRM.
CRM & Pipeline Management
- Maintain a complete, accurate and current service acquisition pipeline in CRM.
- Record customer interactions, opportunities, quotations, follow-up activities and outcomes consistently.
- Ensure opportunities have clear values, stages, expected close dates and next actions.
- Maintain accurate Customer Relationship Management and installed-base data relevant to service acquisition.
- Use CRM as the primary tool for planning, tracking and reporting acquisition activity.
- Maintain sufficient pipeline coverage to support achievement of service revenue targets.
Customer Relationship Management
- Build professional, trusted relationships with customers and act as a commercial point of contact for service offerings.
- Communicate the value of planned maintenance and proactive instrument care in a customer-focused manner.
- Understand customer budget cycles, operational requirements and service expectations to improve conversion opportunities.
- Provide responsive and professional communication throughout the quotation and acquisition process.
- Escalate technical service questions to the appropriate Service Engineer or technical specialist rather than providing technical diagnosis.
- Capture customer feedback, concerns and lost-business reasons and communicate relevant insights internally.
Reporting & Forecasting
- Monitor and forecast service maintenance revenue monthly, quarterly and annually as required.
- Report on acquisition activity, pipeline value, quotation conversion, renewals, warranty conversion and revenue performance.
- Monitor progress against agreed KPIs and take corrective action where performance is below target.
- Provide visibility of risks, delayed opportunities and expected revenue to Service Management.
- Analyze customer and opportunity trends to identify areas for further service growth.
Service Marketing & Campaign Support
- Support service marketing activities promoting preventative maintenance, warranty extensions and service solutions.
- Work with Marketing and Service Management to develop targeted campaigns based on installed base and customer data.
- Follow up leads generated through service campaigns and convert qualified interest into opportunities.
- Provide customer and market feedback to improve service campaigns, messaging and commercial offerings.
Cross-functional Collaboration
Work closely with:
- Service Manager
- Service Team Leaders
- Service Engineers
- Customer Support Administration
- Sales Representatives
- Business Unit Managers and Product Managers
- Marketing
- Finance and Materials Management, where required
- To ensure service opportunities are progressed efficiently, customers receive appropriate support, and commercial commitments can be delivered.
Qualifications
- Relevant Diploma or Degree in Business, Sales, Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Administration or a related field is preferred.
- Equivalent relevant commercial experience may be considered.
Additional Information
Experience
- Minimum three years’ relevant experience in customer-facing sales, business development, service sales, tele sales, account development or a comparable commercial role.
- Demonstrated experience in proactive customer acquisition, lead generation and quotation follow-up.
- Experience working to revenue, conversion, activity or pipeline KPIs.
- Experience using ERP and CRM systems.
- Experience within scientific instrumentation, laboratory equipment, technical services or B2B industrial environments is advantageous.
Competencies
- Hunter mentality and strong drive to create opportunities.
- Commercial awareness and results orientation.
- Initiative, persistence and resilience.
- Confident verbal and written communication.
- Strong customer focus and relationship-building ability.
- Persuasion and influencing skills.
- Planning, prioritisation and time management.
- Attention to detail and disciplined follow-through.
- Analytical thinking and ability to use customer and pipeline data.
- Self-management and accountability.
- Adaptability and teamwork.
- Professionalism and integrity.
