Associate Manager, Regional Sales East

Job Location : Remote

Must reside on the East Coast by a major airport

Summary :

Job Responsibilities :

Lead development and execution of annual Business Plans for key accounts responsible for distributors, natural and grocery.

Customers will include Wakefern, Ahold / Delhaize, Weis, Big Y, and other grocery retailers and distributors

Direct the development of annual grocery and distributor business plans; strategy, tactics (new products, distribution, shelving, and merchandising).

Establish trade promotion plans and generate the annual customer promo calendar while staying within approved trade budget.

• Conduct quarterly business reviews with Grocery customers, identify opportunities to fulfill customer objectives, and recommend changes to the promotional planner that will achieve targets at the assigned trade budget.
• Collaborate with Marketing to develop solutions and products that appeal to the Grocery channel.
• Provide regular, formal updates to the Senior Leadership Team on key accounts. Own the key Grocery / Specialty distributor relationships on behalf of Hershey Protein.
• Establish specific sales and merchandising objectives and achieve those sales targets with end-to-end visibility from supply to fulfillment.
• Develop ongoing tracking and assessment of all activities, setting objectives at all levels.
• Work closely with Category Management team for ongoing reporting of internal sales data to monitor customer performance in IRI & SPINS.
• Provide timely and accurate forecasts of volume and trade spend; develop promotional plans for all customers and create corresponding forecast.
• Champion of Broker / Partner Team Development (training, orientation, coaching, motivation); manage performance and monitor progress vs.

plan with regards to volumes, budgets, and spending. Direct and participate in the Quarterly Broker Review Meetings and provide input into preparation of Broker selling tools.

Conduct periodic business updates with brokers to educate on new initiatives or products, provides selling tools and targeted accounts.

• Responsible for directing all programs driven through distributor management and relationships, with guidance from the Director of Sales.
• Schedule, conduct and participate in national account customer meetings and tradeshows to educate, inform, and build capabilities on selling the brand.
• Responsible for building sales presentations and reports to share both internally and with distributor partners that will provide an action-oriented response.
• Support the execution and management of national account budgets, sales expenses, T&E, and reporting.
• Penetrate customer’s key decision makers, understand their business model and key initiatives to meet customer needs and business objectives.

As appropriate, bring in Senior leadership to align with customer strategically.

• Work closely with cross-functional team to establish and implement successful customer programs to profitably increase product availability and points of distribution.
• Build and maintain sales plans in PlanEx

Job Requirements :

• Bachelor’s degree (BA / BS) or equivalent.
• Location : Candidates must be based in the east and have access to a major airport.
• Candidates must have demonstrated experience managing Food and / or distributor customers on a regional scale.
• Experience working with grocery distributor partners preferred
• Must have a foundation in data-based selling and have strong analytical capabilities.
• Cultural fit is an absolute must the right candidate will be willing to see the business from a holistic perspective, have excellent time management skills.
• Travel : Willing to travel 2-4 days a week during peak seasons.
• At least five years sales experience in the high growth food and / or beverage industry.
• Minimum 3-5 years Grocery / distributor channel account management experience.
• Capable in both the strategic aspects and the hands-on execution of the day-to-day elements of building a brand.
• Excellent skills in presentation, negotiation, analysis, customer service, selling, communication and organization.
• Proficient computer skills, specifically in MS Office applications

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