SALES MANAGER – Specialty Produce | Retail and Foodservice

The Sales Manager is responsible for executing the business objectives that drive commercial sales across retail and foodservice. Core areas of ownership include account management, account development, broker management, new business development, and sales reporting. The Sales Manager works closely with customer service, finance, and marketing to ensure functions are aligned and opportunities are executed and tracked.

About Our Client

Our client is one of the largest growers and suppliers of specialty produce in the United States, with a catalog of more than 500 items shipped nationwide. The company serves leading chefs, restaurant groups, hospitality brands, retailers, and produce distributors, and is known for consistent quality, year round availability, and strong food safety standards. The commercial organization is being built out to support the next phase of growth, and this role sits at the center of that effort.

• Manage and grow the current book of business across both retail and foodservice channels.
• Identify opportunities by channel and build business cases to support investment.
• Develop a deep working knowledge of the product line, procedures, services, and capabilities in order to guide customers and grow accounts.
• Drive new business development and manage broker relationships across assigned channels.
• Contribute to sales forecasting and demand planning, and coordinate with the operations team through regular sales and operations meetings.
• Own regular reporting of business by channel, including monthly recaps, quarterly business reviews, and CRM reporting.
• Partner on freight and logistics problem solving to support account sales.
• Monitor industry trends, competitor activity, and customer developments, and keep the commercial team informed.
• Project manage new sales initiatives across internal and external opportunities.
• Implement price changes in the system in coordination with finance and customer support.
• Attend trade shows for each channel and build relationships with key customers.
• Collaborate with cross functional partners in customer service, finance, and marketing to track budgeted investments and return on investment.
• Identify and drive process improvements across the commercial function.

• Seven or more years of selling experience, ideally with produce or specialty food companies.
• Experience selling into both foodservice and retail channels.
• Genuine passion for food, with a background in hospitality and/or retail preferred.
• Strong CRM experience with Salesforce and/or HubSpot, including tracking sales funnel, pipeline, and opportunity activity.
• Strong data analysis, forecasting, and budgeting skills, with exposure to ERP systems such as NetSuite and reporting tools such as Power BI.
• Excellent communication skills and strong interpersonal EQ.
• A change maker with a positive, solution oriented mindset.
• Able to work independently and manage projects to completion.
• Strong attention to detail and a consistent track record of meeting deadlines.

Travel

• Travel required for trade shows, store demos, farm tours, and customer meetings.