De Beers Group Auctions appoints new product development, sales head

De Beers Group Auctions has appointed Alastair Bickerstaff as its product development and sales head.

The new role is an amalgamation of two instrumental elements of the business, namely product development and sales.

As the head of this new department, Bickerstaff’s mandate will be to develop greater synergy between the two functions and better address the product needs of customers.

“The products we sell and how we sell them are intrinsically linked,” he said in a statement issued on Monday, explaining that “both must complement each other without exception”.

Bickerstaff believes that, “only when industry-leading products are sold through an industry-leading platform will [the company] truly be enabling its customers to have control and confidence in their purchasing”.

In addition to working alongside an experienced 12-person sales team that is well-acquainted with its customers, Bickerstaff will also lead the product development and supply teams.

This will allow for the correct products to be created and shipped through the company’s technology-driven production facility in Singapore.

With his appointment, De Beers Group Auctions becomes better placed to market its products in a more targeted way, while ensuring customer feedback is acted upon by production in a much more responsive way than previously possible.

Commenting on Bickerstaff’s appointment, Auctions senior VP James Kirby said that, together with Bickerstaff’s appointment, “customers can expect [De Beers Auctions] to introduce more product- and service-oriented solutions in the very near future where [the company] puts technology to great use to better address [customer] needs quicker than before”.