Sales Manager - DACH (Steel Trading, B2B)

About Vanilla Steel

Vanilla Steel is a B2B steel trading company based in Berlin. We combine industrial metal trading across Europe with the proprietary software our own traders use to make transactions faster and more transparent than traditional phone and spreadsheet processes.

Your mission

We’re looking for a driven and entrepreneurial Sales Manager to own and grow our steel trading business in the DACH region. Your core mission is to grow regional P&L by sourcing, negotiating, and executing profitable B2B steel trading transactions while building long-term relationships with suppliers and buyers.

This role blends B2B sales, account management, trading, and business development and plays a key part in scaling Vanilla Steel’s commercial footprint across Europe

Your role

You will drive sales across the DACH region, managing the full trading lifecycle from suppliers to buyers while utilizing our internal platform.

• Own and grow Vanilla Steel’s steel trading & brokerage activity in the DACH region
• Act as the main point of contact for German-speaking buyers and suppliers
• Source, negotiate, and close profitable steel trading deals
• Manage the full deal lifecycle: pricing, contracts, coordination with operations & logistics
• Proactively identify and approach new customers via cold calls, emails, LinkedIn, and meetings
• Develop and manage your own customer portfolio
• Maintain clean documentation in our CRM (HubSpot) and internal systems
• Analyze trading and sales performance to improve margins and scalability
• Share market insights, pricing trends, and customer feedback with the team
• Collaborate with our product and engineering teams to feed market insights back into our trading software

Requirements

• Professional background in B2B sales, account management, or industrial trading
• Commercial experience focused on the DACH market
• Fluent German and English communication skills
• Experience selling or negotiating with business customers. This does not have to be steel or industry. Hospitality, logistics, recruitment, retail management - anything where you carried a target and dealt with people directly is relevant
• Experience in steel, metals or commodities is a real advantage, not a requirement.

Your profile

• Entrepreneurial, target-driven mindset with strong ownership mentality
• Experience or strong interest in B2B sales, account management, trading, or business development
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills
• Analytical and structured with a hands-on approach
• Comfortable using digital tools and CRM systems (HubSpot is a plus)
• Fluent German and fluent English (written & spoken)
• Well-organized and able to manage multiple deals in parallel
• You build your own tools. You are the person who automates the boring part rather than doing it twice - a dashboard to track your own pipeline, a script or a no-code flow to clean a list, AI to draft and research faster. We don't care which tools. We care that you reach for them without being told
• Ownership. You follow up, you keep your CRM clean, you learn the product properly, and you do not need chasing

Nice to have

• Experience in steel, metals, commodities, industrial sales, or logistics
• Background in a startup, scale-up, or fast-paced sales environment
• Spanish, French or Polish is a plus.

Your first months at Vanilla Steel

You will take over existing regional accounts, establish contact with new buyers and suppliers, and run your first deals end-to-end on our platform. By shipping transactions and working closely with our trading and tech teams, you will quickly understand how our software shapes modern metal distribution.

Why us?

• Be part of a fast-growing Berlin-based tech startup revolutionizing the steel industry
• Learn from an experienced team and receive ongoing support and mentorship
• Work in a dynamic, performance-driven environment that values ownership and autonomy
• Enjoy a flexible working model and a vibrant office in the heart of Berlin
• Competitive compensation based on experience
• Additional perks: Urban Sports Club membership, subsidized BVG ticket, JobRad
• Regular team events and an open, collaborative company culture

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