Name: Tim
Email:
Bio: Our Global Sales Director, Tim, has dedicated his career to running global sales teams within the financial services sector, including 14 years at Reuters.
Posts by TDennis:
- LME Data. Most transactions use the 3 month futures price (E.g. Copper or Aluminium), as a benchmark, incorporating average prices. Our users find our broken date average calculator a real benefit
- Treatment charges (TC’s) and Refining charges (RC’s). These they will frequently know at first hand, but our editorial articles in and around this area, give additional depth and breadth.
- Quotational periods (QP). Bearing in mind they are all about time, FastMarkets spread calculator along with LME/CME/SHFE prices are key to enable our clients to calculate QP’s.
- Currencies. Most trades are done in USD$, but the cost of production is normally in a local currency, so spot and future FX prices are key. With over a 100 leading financial institutions providing live prices over our service, we ensure our clients are kept abreast with exchange rate fluctuations
- Regional Premium Base metal prices. We cover all six main primary base metals (Copper, Aluminium, Zinc, Lead, tin and Nickel), and Aluminium billets. Our breaking news along with our weekly Physical Premium prices which cover over 60 price assessments including premiums on an in-warehouse, delivered, and cost, freight and insurance (CIF) basis. As part of this weekly research we contact over 60 different organisations , be they LME Brokers, Merchant traders, Producers , or Consumers
- Dynamic Risk Management (DRM). These organisations use sophisticated trading strategies and need second by second pricing, breaking news as well as detailed information concerning physical premiums. In addition they need end of day pricing for risk management purposes. Typically these clients take multiple subscriptions from us, which allows them to access this data either from their desk top or mobile phone. In addition they take a data feed from us to update their middle /back office risk management systems for the closing prices of Copper, Aluminium, Zinc, Lead,Tin and Nickel or FX rates
- Strategic Hedging. Typically they are locking in term TC/RC’s and hedge forward sales. Like DRM’s they need real time LME/CME/SHFE pricing as well as our news and research.
- Back to Back buying and selling based on LME averages. These organisations lock in their buy and sell price for the various base metals (Copper, Aluminium, Zinc, Lead, tin and Nickel) . Their information requirements are typically less “real time” from a pricing perspective and frequently take delayed LME prices, but find our suite of calculators – particular our average calculator very useful. In addition news and a data feed of daily closing prices are important
- Maximise revenue generation while renewing subscriptions within their account base
- Build strong strategic relationships within their account base.
- Provide market intelligence to management
- A minimum of 2:1 degree
- 1 year’s sales or account management experience.
- Demonstrate strong drive and enthusiasm
- Excellent communication and ‘people skills’, both verbally and in writing
- Ability to work under pressure and with a strong eye for detail
- Strong communication skills (verbal and written)
- Sound office IT skills and familiarity with browsers and the internet
- One major European language (French, German, Italian) is desirable
- www.metallo.com
- Traders non-ferrous scraps and metals on the local and international markets.
- They operate three warehouses in the UK to collect, sort and handle materials close to the local markets.
The Secret confessions of a Sales Director Part 2
February 14th, 2013I have just spent the week in Chicago with our sales team. I arrived just in time to watch the Super Bowl final. It was not quite as exciting as watching England beat Scotland, but I did enjoy Beyoncé
Kevin Powers (Sales Director North America) and I have only recently recruited the new sales team who are now fully up to speed.
We have recently signed an affinity agreement with ISRI, which is really good news as our FastMarkets professional product is ideally suited for the scrap metal community. I was involved in a number of demonstrations and it was not surprising to see their need for real time COMEX and LME data, along with our news coverage. What was particularly interesting was their requirements for a mobile application on the one hand and then to have their excel spree sheets auto updating with live prices via our DDE.
I spent quite a lot of time talking to Primary and Semi Producers and what was apparent apart from their need for physical premium data, was their search for a high quality end of day pricing feed, which was tailored to their needs and at a reasonable price.
The other thing we did was make a Product overview video. I don’t think I am in line for an Oscar, but it was great fun making
On the fun front it was great being in Chicago during their restaurant week – great steak and lobster at a knock down prices
Sitting at O’Hare airport with the snow coming down, I am not too confident about taking off on time. The one thing I know is I will watching England versus Ireland on Sunday ..Snow or no snow.
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Building a FastMarkets campaign aimed at Primary Metal Producers
January 24th, 2013With the New Year come new sales campaigns, as opposed to resolutions!!
Having done some considerable research on the various sectors our clients come from, we have decided to focus on Primary Producers. Presently 23% of our subscribers come from this sector
Their key information requirements revolve; hardly surprisingly, either around the price they buy in the concentrate from a miner, or scrap from the secondary producers (scrap metal dealers) and the premium they receive when they sell onto the semi- fabricator sector.
The key information from a “buying price” perspective for Primary Producers are:
From a “selling price” perspective Primary Producers key information requirement is
We have found our customers have 3 different types of pricing strategies
Already we are finding that whilst LME real time date is key, there is a huge appetite for physical premium prices as this remains an opaque market.
In addition our clients find our research (technical or fundamental) useful as it allows them to test their views against our analyst’s views, or give them a second opinion on the various base metals (Copper, Aluminium, Zinc, Lead, tin and Nickel)
If you would like to discuss how our services may be of use, please do not hesitate to contact me: tim.dennis@fastmarkets.com
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Account Manager
November 28th, 2012Working in our fast-paced London office we have a vacancy for a proactive Account Manager, building strong relationships with our existing clients to maximise renewal and incremental revenue.
Your main responsibilities will include:
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Salary and benefits are competitive.
For more information please read the full job specification attached and if you wish to be considered for this vacancy please subit you CV and covering letter to: tim.dennis@fastmarkets.com
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The secret confessions of a Sales Director
October 26th, 2012After the recent rapid expansion of our sales force who are responsible for selling FastMarkets into the metals market – 4 new staff in Chicago, 4 new staff in London and a new Sales Director in Singapore, stories from the new team are coming in thick and fast. Some are highly amusing, others are interesting and a few beggar belief, but that’s life in the metals market.
I have spent the last week with the London FastMarkets team. One of the new team “The Fog horn”………….the whole office has the pleasure of listening to his calls was on great form. One of his questions was,
“If I can show you how our service is more comprehensive than your existing information vendor and better value for money (read cheaper) would you be interested in a demonstration”.
As you would imagine 6 of the 7 clients he contacted that day agreed to a demonstration of our metals service.
The odd man out was the curious one. He explained he had used his information system for 15 years (I might have sold him the service when I was selling the Reuters 2000 metals commodity service) and that he did not like change and furthermore did not have budget responsibility.
The initial reaction was one of frustration, but later on that day we talked it over and decided most of the people we talked to, took responsibility and pride in ensuring that they used the best tools to trade metals on the LME or COMEX Exchanges, whilst at the same time took ownership of spending the companies money wisely.
This week I am down in Salisbury which is proving to be good and bad. Bad because an old friend Ed is moving on, and good because his successor as Finance Director is already helping us. Hopefully next week one of the team down here will have something worthy for my blog!!
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It’s all about mobile these days
September 13th, 2012I have now been the Sales Director at FastMarkets for 9 months. It is interesting to see how the LME has moved on since I was a trader in the early 80’s. I also spent 3 years selling the Reuter commodity service into the scrap metal community – in those days there was not much demand for an information service and sales were few and far between. Things have certainly changed since then.
During the last 9 months I have met many scrap metal dealers be they large or small, based in the UK, Europe or the US. Whilst they have many individual particular needs, two key drivers have emerged, namely how can they access live LME prices and key market moving information at a competitive and cost effective price either in the office or on the move.
Last week I began showing our new mobile app, to clients, which went down a treat. One client felt that the combination of our price and news alerts facility with the new phone app was “The dogs dangly bits” (a technical term I am sure).
He loved the idea that he could put upper and lower limits into the system for Copper and it would send him an email when the market traded through his limits. He could then; via his Smartphone, log onto FastMarkets and see what was happing in the market. He also thought it was very useful to show clients the price of copper when he was in their offices
The whole information world has moved on since playing spoof for lunch in the 80’s – we all used to write down the price of Copper 3 months and then someone would ring up a broker on his very new mobile phone and the loser would pay
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Concorde Metal Recycling and FastMarkets
August 22nd, 2012Profits maximised by having instant access to price of copper.
Part of the international Metallum Group, and based in the West Midlands U.K, the Concorde Metal Recycling Group bases its financial success of knowing the exact minute-by-minute changes of metal prices.
According to Andrew Montgomery (UK Manager) at Concorde, ‘in days gone by we used to decide on a settlement price on a Monday and that would be good for the week, but now the markets move so much within a day that I can either lose money or business if I do not know exactly where the price of copper is’.
Overcoming market volatility to make better pricing decisions with FastMarkets.
The chart below demonstrate how volatile the markets are. On the 15 August 2102 Copper closed only $13 down on the opening price but had an intraday movement of $88. On the 16 August 2012 it closed $38 up but had an intraday movement of $143. This sort of intraday volatility means scrap metal merchants need to price their deals with close regard to the actual LME prices. FastMarkets has enabled Concorde to remain on top of metal market changes, ensuring they are competitive in the sector as well as being focussed on the bottom line. As well as having the price information they need, the news service has provided additional benefits, “the news service ensures we are aware of what is happening in the market and helps us explain price movements to clients,” says Andrew.
Won over by a customisable service, at the desk or on the move.
Technology is playing an ever increasing part in our lives and it’s certainly true in the scrap metal industry. More than 20% of FastMarkets clients access the service via a smart phone or iPad – a 50% increase in the last twelve months. Concorde Metal Recycling are one of these clients, making full use of our mobile service. They also appreciate the ability to customise the data and news provided according to individual needs As Andrew Montgomery says, “I like the way the system can be customised and am looking forward to using the new, improved mobile service”.
More insights for a wider range of company functions, whilst limiting information overload.
When researching services it often becomes clear that different departments within a company have different data and information needs. Finance Directors need LME prices for managing risk and hedging as well as FX and money market rates, while sales team need rates to gauge competitiveness and make decisions based on live pricing. In addition, the Owner or Managing Director needs to keep up to date with news and likes our research as it keeps him well informed of what happening.
By each area being able to customise the news and data they get delivered to their desktop it mobile it means each get the information they want without over-loading the other, as is the case at Concorde, “Whilst FastMarkets is mainly used by me and the other buyers. Our finance department use it for the FX rates”.
Operational efficiencies increase focus on direct sales
One of the fears of installing a new data service is the amount of resource that can be used in using it. Concorde have benefited from a simple installation and proactive support and advice, allowing the company to focus on their business growth, “The customer service is great- very responsive and ensures we get the best out of the service”.
A proven solution for Concorde Metal Recycling Group.
Concorde may have carefully tested the waters before deciding on FastMarkets , but thanks to a strong mix of technology and service, at a value for money price, they feel at ease at relying on FastMarkets.
About Concorde Metal Recycling
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