Culinary Zone Manager

Lactalis USA is currently seeking candidates to join our Culinary Sales team in the Pacific Northwest. Ideally, we're seeking candidates who reside in the Seattle, WA area.

Lactalis, the world leader in dairy, is a family-owned business with more than 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals worldwide, committed to nurturing the future by providing healthy and delicious dairy products that bring people together every day. We offer an enviable range of dairy brands including Galbani, President, Kraft Natural Cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, Parmalat, Siggi's, and Stonyfield Organic in addition to several brands imported from our affiliates in Europe.

At Lactalis, our core values of AMBITION, ENGAGEMENT, and SIMPLICITY are at the heart of everything we do. We are dedicated to building a safe, diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace and we know that our candidates come from many different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. If you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job posting, we still encourage you to apply and share with us your STORY, your PASSION, and your EXPERTISE! You may be just the perfect candidate for this or other roles within our company.

From your PASSION to ours

The Zone Manager (Regional Sales Manager) is a direct selling role focused on managing and growing incremental sales within a specified territory. This role is responsible for maintaining a large book of business, including broadline and regional distributors, and executing strategic initiatives to drive incremental volume sales. In partnership with our national sales broker, the Zone Manager will regularly meet with strategic partners to conduct business reviews and ensure growth targets are achieved. A self-starter attitude is essential, along with the ability to perform cold call sales effectively. This role covers a 10-state territory (WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, UT, CO, ND, SD, NE).

Preferred location for the role is Seattle, WA.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

* Ability to develop sales plans that align with the company's short and long-term strategic initiatives and follow through with those plans on an annual basis.

* Develop new business: identify prospective customers by utilizing market intelligence databases. Regular communication and meetings with strategic customers to perform business reviews and drive incremental sales.

* Cold calling leads and high value targets to generate new sales. Following up on all Marketing-provided leads quickly and efficiently.

* Develop your own customer-specific, robust sales pitches by creating sales decks via PowerPoint.

* Daily use of Salesforce to dictate priorities. Logging all prospective and customer interactions.

* Creating deal sheets; structuring deals by using all available market data to create a competitive and profitable offering.

* Provide a monthly volume forecast to Supply Chain based off of customers' trends and recent wins/losses.

* Analyze weekly sales numbers and develop/adjust plans based off results.

* Collaborating with the sales broker by leveraging their relationships to gain new business. Develop a "train the trainer" mentality to maximize the effectiveness of the sales broker.

* Become a category resource for prospects and customers by leveraging our market intelligence to provide value

* Organize and attend market-specific trade shows. Log all leads into Salesforce and follow-up in a timely manner. Provide an ROI for each show and a recommendation on future attendance.

* Creating contracts in our contract management system

* Ability to diffuse negative customer situations due to a product shortage or logistics challenge

* This position requires approximately 50% travel within your assigned territory

* Demonstrate commitment to a safe working environment that promotes the health and well-being of all employees and that will further contribute to the Company's overall performance and success.

* This description reflects management's assignment of essential functions, it does not proscribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.

* To fulfill these responsibilities, tools such as a computer, phone, and/or allowance(s) may be provided.

* Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these Essential Duties and Responsibilities.

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

Education

* Bachelor's degree preferred; or equivalent experience to include a minimum of seven (7) years job related experience

Experience

* 5-7 years of related sales experience required

* Experience in B2B foodservice sales is preferred, both commercial and non-commercial (i.e. healthcare)

* Experience managing a sales broker is preferred

Specialized Knowledge

* Previous experience with Salesforce is preferred

* Intermediate Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel skills

* Familiarity with Technomic, Datassential & NPD is preferred, but not required

Skills/Abilities

* Excellent oral and written communication skills and presentation skills

* Competitive spirit and results-driven mentality

* Business acumen: ability to perform basic data analysis of sales numbers and make self-recommendations to course correct as indicated, basic understanding of a P&L

* Strong negotiation skills

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.

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