Sales Account Representative

This company is a distributor of food ingredients. They provide innovation and value to our clients in the food industry, and are successful because of their focus on taking ownership, providing needed help, and always doing the right thing. And perhaps most importantly, they understand that to take care of external customers, they must do right for internal customers – their employees.

Profit Sharing
401K Plan
Tuition Reimbursement Program
Health, Dental and Vision Insurance
Life Insurance
Employee Assistance (Chaplain) Services
Career Advancement Training
We place a strong emphasis on internal promotion. Many of our customer service, sales and management teams started in the warehouse.

We have many employees with long-term tenure, and that demonstrates we’re not just a place to work. We’re a family!

This is a Hybrid Role - 2 days in the office is required once training is complete

We are looking for professionals that have a scientific background in food science or other related studies. If you have sales experience, that is great, but we can train you on the sales side if you do not have a sales background.

You will need to take our existing accounts and continue to grow and develop them into a larger account. You will do this by becoming knowledgeable in our current and new ingredients.

The Inside Sales Account Representative generates sales and revenue growth by prospecting and qualifying leads and identifying new revenue opportunities from selected existing accounts. The accounts managed by the Inside Sales Account Representative will generally be of smaller volume than tradition Regional Sales Manager accounts, and the goal of the Inside Sales Account Representative is to grow accounts to the point at which they qualify for transfer to a Regional Sales Manager. The majority of the Inside Sales Representative’s functions will be conducted by phone, video conferencing, email, etc., though some limited travel can be expected.

Key Roles & Responsibilities
Meet divisional sales goals, usually 10% gross profit growth annually.
Build, retain and expand strong multi-level and cross functional relationships with key decision makers within the customer base including Purchasing, R&D, Marketing, Operations, and Quality, etc.
Develop a thorough understanding of customers’ business plan and operation.
Bring together needs of various departments or functions in the customer organization to create a strong compelling reason to take action and formulate the unique value we can provide.
Plan for prospecting new customers by effectively obtaining and using referrals, networking and cold calls.
Negotiate in a cooperative atmosphere, making absolutely sure all sides have an understanding of what is agreed upon and test for understanding.
Utilize suppliers and their expertise to continually bring new ideas to and solve problems for the customer.
Communicate results of customer visits via weekly reports to division management
Work internally to build strong business relationships within all departments.

Sales Goals & Objectives
Develop and execute a detailed sales strategy plan, with input from the VP, Sales and Marketing, to meet divisional financial goals. The plan should be based on assigned accounts/geography based on understanding of market, first hand customer information, and alignment with our strategy.
Ensure that sales revenues, volume, growth and contribution margin are achieved or exceeded.
Update project pipeline monthly. Identify where opportunities lie in the pipeline and takes effective action to move opportunities through the pipeline.
Meet measurable personal objectives developed around annual divisional goals.

Market Sales Activities
Conduct customer calls, in person and over the phone, in a customer friendly manner that reflects knowledge of the customer and industry.
Uncover customer’s need for offerings we can provide.
Fully investigate all sales leads with feedback provided through weekly reports.
Communicate to customer any pricing schedules and changes.
Use our full capabilities of which are valued by the customer (i.e., products and services from multiple functions and business units) to differentiate an offering from the competition.
Manage contract performance, as required.
Investigate and initiate cross selling opportunities within our of companies.
Develop and lead customer specific technical and marketing projects, leading them to productive completion.
Develop presentations using best practices to address customer needs, including appropriate next steps, setting audience expectations, and using variety and emphasis through intonation.
Move new opportunities forward by linking our capabilities to customers’ current business issues and ask questions to make customers think about or struggle with answers.

Sales Communications
Keep tentative travel plans in shared Outlook Calendars at least three weeks out.
Prepare meeting agendas for all customer visits.
Submit sales call report within Weekly Reports including, at least contact & titles, overall customer business review, pertinent opportunities with impact on gross profit dollar & any competitive information.