Jeff Killin, CD
Sales Executive. Business Leader. Instructor. Veteran. Father.
By leading from the front, Jeff Killin leverages his experiences as a Sergeant in the Canadian Armed Forces and as an executive in the private sector to ensure both the success and growth of his organization.
Jeff has a significant expertise supporting manufacturing, defence and export businesses, including working with partners and colleagues around the globe. With proven victories in tender competitions, negotiations of supply contracts, navigating offset agreements and other hurdles for international business, Jeff has secured astronomical market and revenue increases for small and medium enterprises.
With his expertise developing new markets, Jeff has assisted North American companies to grow their export business in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia. His focused, military-style approach to research and unlocking new or traditionally unengaged customers provides significant growth year over year.
Jeff has significant experience in sales, business development, marketing, contract negotiation, customer and business management. He is a student of leadership and believes that in order to be successful you need to forge meaningful relationships with your suppliers, customers and internal team.
Always ready to laugh, Jeff believes that you must enjoy what you do in order to feel genuinely fulfilled at both work and at home.
Management Success
As a key member of ICP - International Custom Products Inc's management team, Jeff helped guide the company forward during the COVID-19 crisis while at the same time doubling sales vs. the previous year.
In addition to growing the company's Aerospace and Defence lines, Jeff took it upon himself to stand-up a new medical division. Quick action and positive networking resulted in the successful negotiation of contracts to produce 300,000+ medical gowns for frontline healthcare workers.
As Defence Sales Director, Jeff is now managing a complete company rebrand in addition to overseeing growth in new markets.
While serving for over 15 years in the Canadian Armed Forces as an Infantry NCO, Jeff trained over 1,000 current and future soldiers in everything from basic to advanced operations. He has significant hours certifying soldiers in skills such as military laws and regulations, advanced weapons handling, CBRN, communications, fieldcraft, reconnaissance, demolitions, psychological operations, first aid, urban combat and counter-insurgency operations.
In his final years of service, Jeff was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and was made responsible for planning and executing training for 100+ members of his regiment.
After trading his camouflage for suit and tie, Jeff continues to use his leadership and training experiences in the boardroom. Over the past 6 years, he has had the honour of teaching high ranking military members and special forces units from nations such as Canada, UK, USA, Germany, France, Belgium, Brazil, Iraq/Kurdistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Qatar and Oman.
Sales Success
While serving as International Sales Manager at Newcon Optik, Jeff was able to expand the company's customer base into several previously unsuccessful markets including the Canadian Military and their NATO Allies. Jeff also lead significant regional successes in North Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
One notable success was the management of the bid and award for the company's first large-scale domestic tender: the supply of laser rangefinders to the Canadian Army for use in reconnaissance and target acquisition.
This project was won against both fierce competition and an alternative supplier already identified as the predetermined winner. By leveraging his knowledge of Canadian tender and procurement legislation, Jeff successfully lobbied the Canadian Government to ensure a truly open, fair competition.
Jeff then went to work assisting in the R&D team to finely tune the company's product in order to ensure it met the rigorous demands for acceptance by the Canadian Armed Forces. Jeff personally demonstrated the equipment on a live-fire artillery range and assisted in the adjustment of software features to align with in-field requests by the prospective customers.
Finally, he oversaw the successful bid and detailed contract negotiations, including overseeing the production and delivery of the contract as well as integration of the items into Canada's next-generation soldier system suite.
Awards
In addition to sales and business development success, Jeff has assisted companies in receiving management awards.
Some of the most recent awards being:
- Canada's Best Managed Companies (2017 - 2019)
- Ontario Export Awards (2015)
Jeff is working with new organizations to market them via such awards and has secured articles in publications such as Manufacturing in Focus, as well as entered ICP as finalists for Canadian Manufacturing Magazine's COVID-19 Leadership Honours.