Title: Japanese Speaking Sales Team Leader
Salary: £40,000
Location: Newcastle
Job status: Permanent
Working hours: 35 hours per week
Start date: Late August 2026
Responsibilities:
* Maintain and strengthen relationships with key customers in the UK and overseas markets
* Provide prompt and effective support in response to customer enquiries and requirements
* Deliver sales targets and profit objectives through proactive sales activities and account management
* Develop and implement medium- to long-term sales and marketing strategies
* Collaborate with management to respond to RFQs and identify opportunities for business growth and profitability improvement
* Work closely with operational teams to forecast and monitor customer production requirements
* Sales team management
* Maintain and update sales-related records, including quotations, drawings, product master data, and model control sheets
* Travel regularly across Europe, especially Eastern Europe, to visit customers and support business activities (1–2 trips per month).
* Support inventory management activities, including biannual stock-taking
* Identify training and development needs and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives
Requirements:
* Previous B2B sales experience selling tangible products
* Experience within manufacturing, automotive, engineering, or industrial sectors is highly desirable
* Fluent Japanese and English language skills
* Must have full UK driving license
* Available for regular business travel within Europe, with a focus on Eastern Europe.
* Excellent communication, relationship management, and negotiation abilities
* Capable of responding promptly and effectively to customer requirements in a fast-paced environment
* Familiarity with interpreting mechanical or technical drawings would be an advantage
* Familiar with Microsoft Office applications
Please follow us on Linkedin: people-first-team-japan
We would be grateful if you could send your CV as a Word document. If your application is successful, you will be contacted within 7 days. We regret that due to the high volume of applications we receive we cannot provide feedback on individual CVs. Please note that we can only consider candidates who are eligible to work in the UK and are able to provide relevant supporting documentation.
People First is committed to increasing diversity, and maintaining an inclusive workplace culture. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age, marital status or whether or not they have a disability.
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Salary description
£40000.00 - £40000.00 per year