Mission
The Commercial Assistant plays a key role in delivering top-tier customer support and assisting the external Sales Team with customer service and administrative tasks. This position is responsible for ensuring excellent follow-up of the customer portfolio, enhancing the digital customer experience, and improving service quality, all while contributing to the department’s profitability. The role involves close collaboration with both external Sales Managers and Sales Administrators.
Main Accountabilities
Provide the best commercial and digital support to the customer portfolio:
- Serve as first and direct point of contact for Customers and ensure timely communication on product specifications (product changes, legal aspects, PBMs ...). Follow-up on customer satisfaction, facilitate response to customer questionnaires.
- Assist customers in accessing and navigating the customer portal to ensure a smooth and user-friendly digital experience.. Encourage the use of the customer portals and the e-Lab (where applicable). Generate best-in-class customer engagement through optimal usage of CRM and other IT systems. Maintain complete and accurate customer data in all IT systems.
- Provide support to the external Sales team. Challenge pricing & margin development on new orders. Raise and discuss price issues with Sales Managers. Communicate pricelist updates to customers and handle customer price claims.
- Process/create sample requests in CRM, liaise with Customers and/or Sales Manager for improved qualification of the sample request (application, project, …).. Detect and share opportunities with Sales Managers to develop commercial relationships.
- Assist Sales Administrators with blockers in MetaMaze and/or help with issues on open orders. Contribute to collecting overdues and handle credit limits together with Credit Control.
- Follow up on the customers’ purchasing behavior, collect forecasts and assist Planners on demand modelling.
- Destocking actions: Identify slow-moving products within customer portfolio (as flagged by the Planner), coordinate with Sales Manager on spot price offers, ensure offer is sent to Customer and follow up on its status, provide regular updates to Business Manager.
- Master the relevant CRM and ERP functionalities to operate efficiently and provide best-in-class service to Customers.
Ensure conformance & contribute to sustainability:
- Ensure compliance with all QA and SHE requirements, procedures and working instructions in order to maintain high service standards and quality of Data Management.
- Review non-conformances on a daily basis, in collaboration with the Sales Administrators, Supply Chain Administrators, Sales Managers and SHEQ team. Provide feedback to Stakeholders to allow closing of non-conformances in CRM.
- Translate the Group’s Sustainability Strategy into concrete job-related actions.
Contribute to continuous process optimization and excellent teamwork:
- Provide regular feedback to business process owners and Key Users to enable operational excellence, efficiency and effectiveness.
- Develop expertise in processes and work instructions related to own scope and support development of best practices.
Act as back-up within the Commercial Assistant team as required.
Skills Required
- Experience using CRM systems and maintaining accurate customer data
- Proficiency with ERP functionalities relevant to order processing
- Familiarity with MetaMaze (or ability to troubleshoot MetaMaze issues)
- Ability to support customers in using customer portals and e-Lab
- Strong customer service and communication skills for direct customer contact
- Knowledge of pricing and margin processes and handling pricelist updates/claims
- Experience processing sample requests, orders, and liaising with Sales Managers
- Ability to follow QA and SHEQ procedures and manage non-conformance follow-up
- Support credit control tasks and handling credit limits/overdue follow-up
- Support forecasting and demand modelling and coordinate with Planners
What We Do
As a leading global innovation service provider in the specialty chemicals and food ingredients industry, we are committed to creating value for principals and customers whilst providing a great work environment and career opportunities. Azelis has 4,200+ employees across 65 countries worldwide. We work with around 2,800 principals to provide a diverse range of innovative products/services to 63,000+ customers. Our industry-dedicated sales teams have specialist product and application knowledge, combined with business know-how, enabling us to add value in all business relationships. We’re always looking to add new talent to our team and encourage and support the personal and professional growth of all employees. Specialties include: Life Sciences: Personal Care, Home Care & Industrial Cleaning, Pharma & Healthcare, Food & Nutrition, Animal Nutrition, Agricultural & Environmental Industrial Chemicals: CASE, Electronics, Essential Chemicals, Fine Chemicals, Advanced Materials & Additives, Chemicals, Lubricants & Metal Working Fluids, Other Applications, Textiles, Leather & Paper At Azelis, our partnerships with customers and principals remain at the heart of our activities. As a leading global innovation service provider, our entrepreneurial approach to doing business is reflected in our can-do attitude. Across our network of more than 70 application laboratories, our award-winning staff help develop formulations and provide technical guidance along the customers’ product development process. We combine a global market reach with a local footprint to offer a reliable, integrated and unique digital service to customers and attractive business opportunities to principals. Striving to create a positive impact on the environment and communities around the world, we are top-industry-rated by Sustainalytics. Azelis is a leader in sustainability. We aim to provide effective, sustainable, and reliable solutions. Our business is your business
