Director of Sales

Eagle Distributing•Fremont, NE

About The Position

The Director of Sales leads Eagle's field sales organization to deliver profitable growth, strong customer relationships, and disciplined market execution. The role translates Eagle, supplier, and marketing priorities into annual plans, monthly priorities, and account-level actions across chain, independent, On-Premise, and Off-Premise customers. The Director leads sales managers and partners closely with Sales Support, Marketing, Finance, Operations, S&OP, and supplier partners. The position is accountable for both commercial results and the effectiveness of the sales-management system, including sales-plan delivery, gross profit, distribution, retail standards, customer experience, talent development, sales expense, inventory health, and compliance. Success includes delivering the approved sales and gross-profit plan, developing sales managers, executing account programs to standard, aligning cross-functional plans, and building a capable sales-leadership bench. The role regularly works in the market with customers and sales teams and also performs planning and business-review work in an office setting. Eagle will consider qualified applicants who can perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.

Requirements

Eight or more years of progressive sales experience in beverage alcohol, beverage, CPG, foodservice, or wholesale distribution.
Experience leading sales managers or a multi-level sales organization.
A record of building annual sales plans, running business reviews, and improving performance against revenue, volume, gross-profit, distribution, or execution goals.
Financial fluency with P&L statements, budgets, sales forecasts, and commercial performance data.
Strong written, presentation, negotiation, and relationship-management skills with customers, suppliers, and internal leaders.
Ability to travel regularly within the assigned market for customer, supplier, and team meetings.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience in beverage-alcohol distribution across On-Premise, Off-Premise, chain, and independent accounts.
Experience with supplier business planning, pricing and promotion execution, category or account strategy, and inventory-risk management.
Experience using sales, ERP, CRM, and reporting systems such as Encompass or comparable platforms.
Knowledge of applicable alcohol-beverage and trade-practice requirements.
Bachelor's degree in business or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

Responsibilities

Lead the sales organization's annual planning process and own field delivery of the approved plan.
Translate company, supplier, and marketing priorities into practical channel, territory, route, and account actions.
Establish an operating rhythm of weekly sales-leadership reviews, monthly business and P&L reviews, field work-withs, ride-withs, account audits, and documented coaching follow-up.
Use sales, gross-profit, case-equivalent volume, distribution, display, reset, execution, customer, expense, and market data to identify gaps and lead corrective action.
Manage the sales expense budget and partner with Finance on forecasts, financial performance, sales-plan risks, and profitable-growth decisions.
Lead territory, coverage, and resource decisions to support channel and customer-segment needs.
Partner with Marketing on portfolio priorities, pricing, trade investment, supplier business plans, supply planning, and the marketing calendar; own sales-side readiness, field adoption, market feedback, and execution results.
Establish and maintain retail standards for distribution, pricing, shelf and cooler condition, placements, displays, promotions, resets, rotation, and account condition.
Lead market work-withs, ride-withs, and audits to improve sales-call quality, manager coaching, execution, and long-term market development.
Maintain senior relationships with priority customers, lead business reviews, resolve material customer issues, and identify opportunities for mutual growth and profitability.
Ensure teams execute launches, supplier programs, displays, promotions, and resets as approved and capture results for future decisions.
Monitor competitive activity, customer feedback, and market changes, and turn those signals into account, territory, or channel actions.
Lead assigned sales leaders through clear responsibilities, performance standards, consistent feedback, and timely decisions.
Hire, onboard, train, coach, develop, and retain sales leaders in partnership with Human Resources; build succession plans and bench strength.
Hold managers accountable for team results, retail-audit quality, training completion, customer-service and operational performance, and talent health.
Protect managers' time for coaching, inspecting execution, developing people, and addressing market problems rather than routinely filling frontline coverage gaps.
Set baseline leadership expectations and use scorecards and Pay for Performance measures to reinforce results, retail standards, field execution, and people development.
Partner with Sales Support on staffing, relief coverage, merchandising, resets, special events, strategic-account support, and cost management.
Partner with Operations and S&OP on demand plans, new-product launches, inventory availability, forecast accuracy, service requirements, aging inventory, returns, finished product loss, and out-of-code risk.
Partner with Marketing, Chain/KAM, Portfolio, and supplier teams on annual business plans, account programs, authorizations, customer presentations, and program performance; own field execution and feedback within those partnerships.
Communicate material risks, tradeoffs, and decisions to Executive Leadership with enough context to act.
Embed Eagle's Vision, Values and Ways of Working throughout the sales organization.
Lead with sound judgment, integrity, respect, and accountability in customer, supplier, and employee interactions.
Ensure compliance with applicable alcohol-beverage, trade-practice, safety, privacy, and company requirements, and protect confidential information.