Description The Channel Leader plays an essential role on the Sales team to support the growth of our business. Reporting to the Vice President of Sales, you will lead the customer relationship while delivering the sales, trade spend and profit plan for your respective business. The Channel Leader will be integral to formulating business strategy, hunting new business, implementing key initiatives, leading tactical execution, and developing disruptive strategic channel/account-specific business plans to fuel growth. This is a remote position. Estimate approximately 50% overnight travel. Travel is required to visit customers, direct reports, broker sales agencies and off-site events, such as trade shows and industry conferences. Travel will be primarily in the U.S., though some limited travel to Canada would be needed. The scope of your role would include overall leadership for all aspects of the Food Service channel as well as direct reports that lead other business sectors (i.e. Industrial). Top food service customers to include:
- Commercial (restaurant chains such as Sweetgreen, True Food Kitchen, Pura Vida etc.)
- Non-commercial (main priority segments - Colleges/Universities, Business/Industry)
- Food service management companies (i.e. Compass, Sodexo, Aramark, etc.)
- Group purchasing organizations (i.e. Foodbuy, Premier, Vizient, Buyer's Edge, etc.)
- Major distributors:
- Broadline & specialty: Sysco, US Foods, GFS, Vistar, etc.
- Custom Products/Industrial:
- Amy's Kitchen, JFC International, Nijiya Market, etc.
Key Responsibilities:
- Deliver the Results (net revenue, margin, operating profit)
- Drive Growth | Shape the Future
- Be strategic and analytical
- Develop and build your team
Requirements
- Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Sales, Marketing, or other related field with progressive managerial responsibilities.
- 10+ years of sales experience in the consumer-packaged goods industry, with 5+ years in the food service channel and/or industrial/ingredients segment.
- Demonstrated track record of hunting and developing new business/customers.
- Deep experience in leading fast-growing strategic customers is required in addition to deep background in food service sales including commercial & non-commercial segments
- Experience leading a national broker sales agency is also preferred.
- Hunter Mindset - passion and tenacity to identify, prospect, open and build new business
- Exceptional leadership skills.
- Expertise guiding strategic decisions and gaining buy-in across multi-disciplinary teams.
- Data-driven and goal-oriented..
- Strong analytical skills (via Excel) with strong proficiency in utilizing and interpreting syndicated data (Nielsen/SPINS/Technomics/Mintel/etc.).
- Advanced story-telling skills (via MS PowerPoint) to create concise selling decks that showcase the Lundberg advantages.
- Strong business acumen with demonstrated understanding of the financial aspects of sales including experience with trade funding and overall P&L management.