Job Overview
The Key Accounts Manager is responsible for managing and strengthening customer relationships with assigned accounts and contributing to the team selling for their team. The Key Accounts Manager will be responsible for increasing product velocity and distribution through effective distribution change management, category management and promotion management. The Key Accounts Manager is responsible for prospecting new customers as assigned. The Key Accounts Manager may potentially be responsible for people leadership and development.
Job Responsibilities
Account Management
Manage relationship with set list of customer accounts that includes one or more National Accounts
Lead and maintain regular customer meetings and communication and at minimum meet virtually face to face with each customer monthly.
Manage and respond to all customer requests or ensure team responds in a timely manner
Lead internal account meetings to include Sales Operations, Customer Service and Sales in support of smooth business to the customer at a regular weekly cadence.
Responsible for annual completion and regular updating of Account overview documentation.
Bid Management
Lead customer negotiations in bids, RFPs and price changes.
Project-manage internal cross-functional coordination in support of bid including Pricing, Procurement, Engineering, Supply Chain, etc. as well as customer-facing presentation of bid proposal.
Broker Management
Quarterly broker scorecard management, review, feedback and audit of expectations. Negotiating, auditing and renewing annual broker contracts.
Category Management
Determine sustainable and reasonable private label share goals for each key customer, share these results with customers during quarterly reviews, and hold customers accountable towards these goals.
Support sales team by providing insights and best practices on category management. Review National Account Manager and Regional Account Manager customer goals for alignment.
Distribution Change Management
Lead and set execution strategy and collaboration of any major distribution changes (bid award, planogram results, etc.) to result in smooth onboarding or off boarding for the customer.
Forecast Management
Conduct formal quarterly forecast reviews by meeting with customers to review and align customer forecast against internal forecast to identify gaps. Responsible for communicating any adjustments needed to forecast for supply chain planning.
People Leadership
Conduct quarterly individual development plan sessions with each direct report, which include seeking out diverse cross-functional and leadership feedback to incorporate. Listen to employee career path goals, understand workload balance, and provide positive and constructive performance and expectation feedback and work together to set SMART goals for gap improvement.
Create comprehensive onboarding plan (Cross-functional lunches, HR formal onboarding, team peer shadowing, functional expertise sessions etc.) utilizing tools provided.
Price Management
Responsible for coordinating that pricing is accurately set up with Pricing Ops. team in GLC system in parallel to new item setup workflow.
Responsible for leading and managing customer Deduction investigation, resolution and payment coordination
Promotion Management
Manage customer promotions by vetting customer promotional requests for capacity and ability to fill using established process. Responsible for owning communication between customer and various internal departments who support the activity (Procurement, Supply Chain, etc.)
Team Selling
Responsible for executing on the selling strategy for new product innovation and presenting opportunities to customers.
Responsible for leading the development of customer facing presentations and meeting preparation.
Responsible for managing Sales pipeline process including the submission of all opportunities for vetting and approval and keeping the pipeline status up to date as opportunity develops.
Required Education and Experience
Bachelor's degree in business administration, sales or related field.
5 years or more of direct sales or customer client facing experience.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to present data in an organized manner.
Strong interpersonal skills with aptitude in building relationships with professionals of all organizational levels.
Extensive and accurate product knowledge in cheese and or dairy markets.
Must be highly motivated, result-oriented individual that can work effortlessly in a fast-paced and highly competitive environment.
Strong presentation skills and ability to build a sales story using Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
Demonstrated ability in problem-solving.
Demonstrated ability to work comfortably in cross-functional settings, and have an ability to work on multiple projects which will include effective prioritization and time management to handle multiple tasks and customer requests simultaneously.
Experience negotiating complex business deals that are mutually beneficial for all parties.
Time management and multitasking skills in order to handle multiple tasks and customer requests simultaneously.
Demonstrated ability to coordinate and plan all activities necessary for strategic customer visits that include senior level leadership.
Thorough understanding of sales performance metrics and ability to identify areas of opportunity.
Ability to operate independently to make sound decisions and recommend solutions based on functional expertise and experience.
Skilled at goal setting planning, and execution.
Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite.
Up to 50% travel.
Must be legally authorized to work for a company in the United States without sponsorship.
Preferred Education and Experience
5 years or more of sales experience as a National Account Manager.
Food industry or CPG experience.
Proven experience of having driven sales initiatives and achieving or surpassing business targets.
People management experience.
Strong project planning, tracking & organizing skills.
Exceptional analytical skills and High proficiency in Excel data reporting.
Working Conditions
Work is mainly performed in an office setting, with some time spent in a manufacturing environment
Occasional exposure to industrial operations including: temperature extremes from approximately 35ºF to 100ºF; noise levels in excess of 85 dB; moisture and moving machinery.
EEOC & Disclaimer
Great Lakes Cheese is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities.
