Director of Retail Sales

Black Girl Vitamins • Chicago, IL

4d • $130,000 - $145,000

About The Position

Black Girl Vitamins is hiring its first Director of Retail Sales to build the company’s physical retail business from the ground up, beginning in Chicago. This player-coach role will personally open independent retail accounts, develop a sales playbook based on those experiences, recruit and lead commission-based independent field representatives, and pursue chain and regional accounts. The role has a first-year retail revenue goal of $10 million and reports directly to the CEO. Chicago is preferred, but remote work is considered.

The Director will advise the CEO on the wholesale operating model, including terms, credit and minimums, and partner with operations to launch a Shopify B2B ordering portal. They will define and monitor account performance, develop retail packaging and merchandising materials, maintain a weekly sales dashboard, and meet monthly with the CEO. The company’s initial focus is independent stores, including beauty supply stores, salons and independent health stores.

Success milestones include personally opening 20 or more Chicago accounts in the first 30 days; opening 60 or more accounts and recruiting three to five reps by day 60; and opening 100 or more accounts, with 75 or more active accounts and five to eight producing reps, by day 90. The company will review results at 90 days and adjust the model based on performance.

Requirements

• Personally sold a consumer product into independent retail.
• Built or led a field sales team.
• Experience calling on beauty supply stores, salons or the natural channel.
• Able to recruit, coach and fairly and reliably pay commission-based field representatives.
• Comfortable working to clear targets and a measurable scorecard.
• Able to represent the company’s brand and its purpose for Black women respectfully and convincingly.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with textured-hair, beauty or wellness brands that built their retail presence from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Personally open initial Chicago accounts in beauty supply stores, salons and independent health stores, and use the experience to develop the sales playbook.
• Recruit, onboard and coach a commission-based team of independent field representatives, starting in Chicago and expanding to new metro areas.
• Advise the CEO on the wholesale operating model, including terms, credit and minimums.
• Help launch the Shopify B2B ordering portal with the operations team.
• Define account success measures and manage performance, including first orders, reorders within 90 days and revenue per active account.
• Build a pipeline of chain and regional accounts beginning in month four while keeping independent stores as the primary focus.
• Work with the team on retail-ready packaging, merchandising kits and in-store materials informed by feedback from store owners.
• Maintain a weekly dashboard covering accounts opened and active, reorder rate, revenue per account, collected revenue and producing reps.
• Meet with the CEO monthly.

Benefits

• Health coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• 401(k)
• Paid time off
• Dedicated mental health days
• Wellness stipend or additional benefits (listed in the posting as a placeholder)
• Company-funded field travel and materials
• Starter kits for each field representative recruited

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed