ABOUT THE COMPANY
Messe Berlin Asia Pacific is the regional headquarters of Messe Berlin GmbH, one of the leading trade fair organisers in the world. Messe Berlin Asia Pacific is steadily working towards growth and expansion, enhancing its presence and impact across the Asia Pacific region.
RESPONSIBILITIES
The Head of Sales is responsible for driving revenue growth, sales strategy, and market expansion across assigned exhibition portfolios in Asia Pacific. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on execution, including new business acquisition, team mentoring, and key account development.
Sales Leadership & Revenue Growth
- Lead and own overall sales strategy, revenue targets, and execution for events under assigned portfolios
- Lead and own exhibitor, sponsor, and partner sales for events, ensuring strong market penetration and year-on-year growth.
- Translate portfolio-level revenue targets into clear sales plans, pipelines, and account strategies.
Business Development & Market Expansion
- Proactively drive new business through outbound prospecting, cold calling, and networking
- Build and manage relationships with government bodies, trade associations, and industry partners to develop country pavilions and group exhibition participations
- Appoint and manage sales representatives to expand regional pipelines and market reach
- Identify new exhibitor segments, revenue streams, and cross-selling opportunities
- Support new event launches, geo-cloned shows, and brand extensions across the region
Lead Generation & Market Development
- Oversee lead generation strategies across the exhibitor and stakeholder ecosystem of assigned events, ensuring alignment with commercial and growth objectives.
- Identify new exhibitor segments, sales and cross-selling opportunities to support portfolio growth and diversification.
- Lead market development initiatives for new and existing event platforms across Asia Pacific, including the evaluation, conceptualisation, launch, and regional expansion of new shows, geo-cloned events, and brand extensions in line with Messe Berlin's growth strategy.
Sales Team Management & Performance
- Lead and mentor sales team, ensuring clear accountability, performance against targets, and adherence to company sales processes.
- Monitor pipeline health, forecasting accuracy, and conversion performance, and provide coaching to build a high-performing, collaborative sales culture.
Stakeholder & Internal Collaboration
- Work closely with senior management to align sales strategy with portfolio growth objectives and long-term expansion plans.
- Represent the organisation at industry events, partner meetings, and key client engagements to strengthen the portfolio's reputation and market position.
Requirements
- Minimum 10 years experience in business development within B2B exhibitions or conferences industries
- Proven track record of achieving aggressive revenue and acquisition targets in fast-paced, metrics-driven environments
- Strong experience in outbound telemarketing, cold calling, and high-volume lead generation across diverse industries and geographies
- Demonstrated ability to consistently meet or exceed new prospecting activities levels (50+ daily) and deliver strong conversion rates across complex sales cycles
- Experience across multiple markets (APAC, Middle East, US preferred)
- Proven experience working with government stakeholders and international partners to develop group participation or country pavilions
- Experience appointing and managing sales representatives and regional sales networks
- Strong commercial acumen with experience engaging enterprise-level and multinational organisations
- Familiarity with consultative and solution-based selling frameworks (e.g., SPIN)
- Highly driven, organised, and adaptable in dynamic, target-driven environments
- Ability to understand technical or specialised industries such as healthcare, energy, transportation, industrial, and telecommunications, with the ability to quickly grasp key industry pain points and trends.
