What are the responsibilities and job description for the External Sales Manager position at Valley International Cold Storage?
Summary
The External Sales Manager is part of a brand building team charged with delivering growth against one of the company’s major growth pillars. She/he is a builder, an individual who has the passion and the dedication to grow the business and team through innovative thinking, collaboration, and hard work. She/he takes a holistic approach to marketing, developing amazing products, competitive pricing strategies, and compelling marketing campaigns. She/he partners with multiple stakeholders from within the Department and outside the Department including Finance, Demand & Production Planning, Operations, and R&D.
Essential Functions And Basic Duties
Bonus/Commission: No
The External Sales Manager is part of a brand building team charged with delivering growth against one of the company’s major growth pillars. She/he is a builder, an individual who has the passion and the dedication to grow the business and team through innovative thinking, collaboration, and hard work. She/he takes a holistic approach to marketing, developing amazing products, competitive pricing strategies, and compelling marketing campaigns. She/he partners with multiple stakeholders from within the Department and outside the Department including Finance, Demand & Production Planning, Operations, and R&D.
Essential Functions And Basic Duties
- Background in Cold Storage & Food Processing-Repack Manufacturing.
- Understand customer business needs and build short and long-term strategies to drive mutually beneficial results.
- Promote brands and services to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing channel.
- Redesign and optimize websites to strengthen Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
- Understand brand strategies and implement them by working with the customer's decision makers, including buyers, category managers and merchandising leaders.
- Analyze business trends and make recommendations on strategies to increase sales with customer.
- Develop accurate monthly forecasts to maximize supply chain efficiencies by tracking shipments, consumption data and inventory changes. Call out potential risks to monthly forecasts.
- Develop annual strategy for the customer and present internally to gain agreement on important opportunities for growth and oversee the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and process, taking data and cross-functional input to build plans that achieve following year financial goals. Evaluate progress against plan and recommend corrective actions.
- Develop and implement trade promotion strategies and tactical plans with the customer to improve their experience and build brand loyalty.
- Develops and implements sales plan with all accounts. Attains all budgeted product line volumes, price, mix and share levels. Prepares and presents business reviews and new items. Monitors daily, weekly, quarterly and YTD relevant customer metrics.
- Develop and manage collaborative strategic partnerships and joint business plans with key customers.
- Develop calendar for customer-touchpoints - define who needs to be involved at each meeting, purpose for each interaction, etc. (top-to-tops, market visits, etc.)
- Present products, conduct category reviews, and use other related information with clients to gain sales and establish accounts. Including but not limited to tabletop presentations, trade/industry events, coordinating in-store demos, and other field related activities.
- Provide key inputs for demand planning - own the bottom-up forecast for the sales and operations planning process for each account owned.
- Grow profitable sales and develop new business within defined customer base.
- Negotiate annual price and volume commitments with CEO and customer as required.
- Coordinate activities with the team including but not limited to marketing, digital/social media & influencer campaigns, increasing awareness and sell-through with target demographics, and planning & deploying demos/sampling events.
- Conduct post event analysis to evaluate promotional volume, consumption, profit, and spending results versus plan and use findings to maximize future promotional opportunities.
- Conduct category business reviews to discuss the state of the business, consumer trends and incremental opportunities.
- Expand current customer relationships through innovation and identify profitable opportunities to grow incremental volume.
- Work cross-functionally with internal partners for optimal outcomes for both the Company and the customer.
- Cultivating positive interactions and relationships with sales representatives, team leaders and managers, and executives to evaluate sales strategy and results.
- Arranging business meetings and one-on-one conversations with prospective clients.
- Lead the joint business planning process with the customer with a focus on strategic expertise in the categories you represent.
- Define and implement account launch plans to drive sales, including initial trial, and meet both retailer and company expectations.
- Partner with Business Development and Leadership to develop collaborative sales programs in keeping up with customer strategies.
- Manage total customer spending and deduction management in a timely manner and within budget.
- Manage New Product Development projects for customers.
- Must have 3 years of experience in the food processing/storage industry (Sales, Marketing, or Customer Service), with a successful track record.
- Goal-oriented, organized team player.
- Eager to expand the company with new sales, clients, and territories.
- Hunter mentality.
- Proven track record of managing and succeeding in a territory sales role.
- Experience selling direct to consumers is a plus.
- Must have experience using a sales system; and reporting back on targets, visit plans and outcomes.
- Experienced in building B2B relationships with new prospective customers.
- High level of motivation to succeed both as an individual and as a Market Team.
- Able to receive and delegate orders diplomatically.
- Excellent verbal and written communication and organizational skills.
- Bilingual English/Spanish Preferred.
Bonus/Commission: No