Product Specialist

Candidate can reside in Raleigh, NC or Charlotte, NC Job Profile Summary

This position is responsible for building and maintaining relationships with local farmers & suppliers with the goal of purchasing and selling their products to FreshPoint customers. The Specialist helps farmers understand food safety requirements as well as forecasting needs, and how FreshPoint can aid in growing their business. The Specialist is also responsible for building and maintaining a customer base with a focus on local produce.

Responsibilities :

Develop and execute targeted sales strategies to achieve region and individual annual business goals, delivering profitable sales growth and penetration

Identify the needs of customers and prospects to assemble a product mix that delivers solutions and helps achieve business objectives

Communicate with sales and merchandising teams on market conditions, product availability, new items and applications

Coordinate with buyers to determine which products can be grown by and committed to local farmers

Work collaboratively with Food Safety team to ensure vendors adhere to and maintain required food safety standards

Manage new vendor onboarding with insurance, GAP audits, and AS400 farm maintenance

Manage local reporting for both OpCo’s, monthly insurance reports, and quarterly Small Supplier reports

Connect with contract customers to ensure chefs receive the local reports, marketing, and product lists to support local purchases

Be informed of market conditions, product innovations, and competitors' products, prices, and sales; share information with customers as part of value-added services provided

Track activities and results, collaborate on opportunities, and champion the team selling process through use of Salesforce (Sysco’s CRM tool)

Leverage sampling in a solutions-oriented manner to close sales

Provide feedback on product quality, product integrity, product mix, customer satisfaction, perceived value and competition

Develop and maintain relationships with customers, chefs and sales team members

Support execution of prioritized sales strategies through direct selling and engagement of customers and prospects at Sysco events (e.g. food shows, industry events)

Utilize data analytics to prioritize produce opportunities

Other duties as assigned by Manager

QUALIFICATIONS

Education / Experience :

Minimum : High School Diploma or GED and 3+ years of sales experience within a retail, broker, wholesale or distribution environment with a deep technical expertise of produce categories

Preferred : Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent educational level

Knowledge & Skills :

Proficiency in produce knowledge and trends required

(Internal Certification & External Certification may be required)

Analytical problem-solving skills, including familiarity with analyzing reports and deriving insights from data

Ability to express information in terms of profit and loss, food cost and expense ratio

Strong financial acumen and ability to properly plan and execute business plans

Flexible; readily accepts change; open to new ideas

Track record of success in the area of consultative selling, networking and negotiations

Proficient communication and interpersonal skills and ability to work with and influence a variety of key stakeholders

Experience building trust with prospective customers and securing new business

Strong business and restaurant operations acumen to manage sophisticated customers

Ability to learn the use of proprietary CRM tools for planning and forecasting sales growth

Proficient in Microsoft Applications Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

Proactive and self-directed, with the ability to structure a weekly schedule to be successful

Demonstrated ability to deliver against deadlines and produce high-quality results (accuracy, thoroughness in the deliverables they are producing)

Excellent organizational and project management skills, including the ability to execute multiple initiatives at the same time

Travel

Must be able to travel to operating locations and other destinations as needed – equates to 25-50% of the time

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