Jurriaan Taat

International Sales Manager

At ARVOO, as International Sales Manager, I was fully responsible for the global commercial organization. I managed an international sales team of 8 FTE, held full P&L responsibility, and developed the sales and marketing strategy for all markets.

What made this role special was the business-to-government context. Our clients were governments, enforcement agencies, and public organizations. Selling to the government is a specialized field: it involves long-term tender processes, strict technical and legal requirements, political sensitivities, and decision-making where multiple stakeholders, from policymakers to technical specialists and procurement officers, must be convinced. The highlight: under my leadership, we won the tender for parking enforcement for the municipality of Amsterdam, at that time the largest tender in this field worldwide. A process that brought everything together: strategic tender preparation, stakeholder management, and demonstrating proven reliability in a politically sensitive environment.

Because access to foreign governments is almost always through local parties, I also built and directed an international network of distributors and partners. I selected, contracted, and developed partners who could win tenders in their home market, and provided the strategy, training, and support that made them successful. This required cultural empathy, tight control over the funnel, and managing for results remotely.

This experience makes me valuable for organizations that are active (or want to be active) in public markets, complex tender processes, or international partner channels: I know the strategy and the practice of winning government clients, both domestically and internationally.

As director and shareholder of Atomeus, an AI agent software company, I combine full commercial responsibility with entrepreneurship in its purest form: bearing risk, setting the course, and building a scalable company. Together with my partner, who is responsible for finance and operations, I lead a team of 19 professionals, taking care of commercial strategy, sales, and positioning.

My main task was to transform the sales strategy. Selling AI agent software requires more than a good product: it requires building trust in a market that is new and sometimes skeptical. I redefined the proposition and positioning, focused on target audience selection, and redesigned the commercial process. This is bearing fruit: under my leadership, the first new partnerships have been closed and launching customers acquired for large national projects, customers who form the basis for further scaling.

Furthermore, I am closely involved in product development, bridging the gap between market demand and software capabilities. It is precisely this interplay between commerce and technology, translating customer feedback into roadmap choices, and translating product value into a compelling commercial story, where I make a difference.

Entrepreneurship in a fast-growing technology market requires sharpness: making quick decisions, prioritizing impact, and building pragmatically. At the same time, I bring the discipline from my corporate background: data-driven management, a tight sales process, and clear objectives. For clients, this means that I not only advise on growth, especially where AI and software play a role, but I know from my own experience what it takes to achieve it: as a director, commercially responsible person, and owner.

As Sales Manager at Mercedes-Benz & smart (Stern, Nieuwegein), I had full commercial responsibility for the sales department in one of the most demanding segments of the automotive industry: the premium segment, where customer expectations are high and margins are inherently under pressure.

I managed the sales team, was budget responsible for the sales department, and fully accountable for 30% of the variable dealer margin requirements across all branches. The latter made the role special: translating the importer's margin requirements into concrete, workable objectives on the shop floor, and steering across branches on sales volume, market share, and gross profit. It taught me to connect central commercial control with decentralized execution, and to keep a team sharp on both the customer experience the brand demands and the figures the company needs.

This role was the culmination of a growth path within Stern. Previously, as Manager Fleetsales, I managed inside and outside sales, with full responsibility for business sales. Before that, as (Key) Account Manager, I managed a portfolio of approximately 300 key accounts, for whom I drew up cooperation and Service Level Agreements and gained buy-in for joint plans and objectives. This is how I know the commercial chain of a dealer organization from the inside: from the individual customer conversation to strategic steering across branches.

My years at Mercedes-Benz set my standard for what premium means: quality, consistency, and a customer experience that must be delivered every day. I take that standard, combined with hard-driven results management, to every commercial organization I work with.