Zoltán Váradi
International commercial leader
Building and growing B2B distribution across international markets
Key accounts, channel partners and business units. 20+ years in commercial roles, the last 13 inside Dutch, French and Swiss-headquartered organizations.
From market entry to turnaround and profitable growth.
Positioning
Builder, fixer, scaler: I work where commercial structures need to be built, repaired or grown. My work goes beyond sales management. I identify the structural levers across market, customers, people, process, product, tools and governance—then turn diagnosis into action. From greenfield market entry and turnaround to business-model validation and commercial architecture, I build operating models that scale.
What I solve
Three layers of commercial work: the largest customers, the channel partners, and the business unit behind them.
01 — Key Accounts: Strategic account planning, decision-making-unit mapping and long-term contracts with the largest customers, negotiated on the customer’s own economics.
02 — Channel & Distribution: Dealer and distributor network build-up, partner tiering and development, channel architecture and pricing, digital ordering.
03 — Business Unit Leadership: P&L ownership, turnaround and market entry, leading the business through its leadership team.
Selected track record
20×
KRAMP Hungary growth over nine years
Top 10
National accounts managed personally for years
3
Countries built from a small base at KRAMP
A selection of commercial challenges where the work went beyond sales to improve how the business operated.
Kramp
Building a commercial engine
Challenge
A small base needed to evolve into a scalable commercial operation across Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
Approach
Segmented markets, built acquisition and keep-and-grow disciplines, embedded CRM, coaching and performance management, then expanded through validation-first country development.
Outcome
Hungary grew roughly 20× over nine years. Romania progressed from a representative office to a board-approved business development plan with detailed structure and set-up planning.
Retail development: issued a No-Go recommendation after KPI-based analysis.
Investment should follow evidence, not precede it.
KUHN AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY
Turnaround & operating system
Challenge
A loss-making dealership was taken over by the OEM factory, after which I was appointed Managing Director to lead the structural turnaround.
Approach
Reworked contracts, organization, commercial process, CRM, customer segmentation, performance reviews and local-group alignment.
Outcome
The operation restored profitability from Year 2 onward.
A turnaround is complete only when the rebuilt system can scale.
Javelot
Market validation & No-Go
Challenge
The expectation was rapid CEE scaling, but market readiness was unclear.
Approach
Conducted structured CEE market discovery to test market readiness and commercial potential. Used field insight, market research and customer dialogue to challenge the initial scaling hypothesis.
Outcome
Delivered an evidence-based strategic recommendation on whether to accelerate CEE investment.
Market validation is a strategic decision tool, not a sales activity.
KEY ACCOUNTS & DEALER PARTNERSHIPS
Owning the largest relationships
Challenge
The largest customers and key dealers were handled at transaction level: territorial order-taking, with no structured relationship at decision-maker level.
Approach
Personally managed the top 10 national accounts for years alongside the GM role. Mapped decision-making units at key dealers and moved them into key account partnerships. At an OEM subsidiary, personally led the relationships with the largest end-customer enterprises, from 1,000 to 15,000 ha.
Outcome
Key dealers moved from order-taking to decision-making-unit partnerships with key account status. The largest end customers were handled directly at senior level.
Key accounts are won at the decision-making unit, not at the order desk.
Reference
“A strategic and senior business developer who successfully built our CEE go-to-market presence from scratch.”
Félix Bonduelle
CEO & Co-Founder · Javelot
“A leader who combined strategic clarity with operational execution — restructuring the organization and restoring profitability.”
Dr. Mátyás János Borsy
Attorney at Law, LL.M. · KUHN Agricultural Machinery Hungary
Operating logic
Complexity → Diagnosis → Levers → Action → Impact
Understand the system before prescribing the solution. Separate symptoms from structural causes, validate the business hypothesis with market evidence, make an explicit Go / No-Go decision, then build people, process and tools around the chosen direction.
Structure before control
About
From account management to managing director, my career has focused on building and improving businesses in complex markets — from greenfield market entry and underperforming operations to newly acquired businesses. I’ve worked inside Dutch, French, Swiss, German and Hungarian matrix organizations across agricultural machinery, aftermarket distribution, AgTech/IoT, automotive retail and lubricants. Along the way, I’ve led teams from a handful to double-digit headcounts.
Working mode
Open to senior international roles: Key Account or Channel leadership with wide territorial scope, or Business Unit leadership through a leadership team. Permanent or interim. Remote or hybrid by default; open to travel. International, European or EMEA scope preferred.
Based in Hungary · Hungarian (native) · English (C1)