Food Service Manager

Kemps•Saint Louis Park, MN

2h•Remote

About The Position

Join us as a Food Service Manager, where you’ll lead the growth and performance of a dynamic portfolio of accounts. The territory includes the Twin City area in Mpls, MN; WI; North & South Dakota; Nebraska. In this remote role, you’ll drive strategy, manage key sales functions, and optimize profitability across complex territories. You’ll strengthen existing customer relationships while using market insights and industry connections to identify and develop new opportunities. With deep knowledge of our products and the customer landscape, you’ll play a critical role in advancing both operational excellence and business growth.

Requirements

Undergraduate degree in business, sales, marketing, or related curriculum (or equivalent combination of experience and education).
5 to 8 years of sales, account management, or related experience that includes proven results in growing and advancing new market expansion and profitable sales growth.
Experience in the retail, foodservice, dairy, consumer packaged goods/foods, or related industry.
Experience selling to the food service industry is required.
Skilled at expanding existing accounts and driving new business growth.
Deliver exceptional customer service and resolve complex issues with efficiency and professionalism.
Effectively organizes time, energy, and resources to achieve goals.
Certification and/or License – may be required during course of employment.
Ability to travel up to 50% by car; home most nights
Possess a valid driver's license

Nice To Haves

Prefer candidates that reside within the Twin City area of Minneapolis

Responsibilities

Develop, manage, and execute a successful sales cycle across the area of assigned responsibility.
Deliver on assigned volume, profit, and administrative targets for the assigned accounts (national/regional).
Listen to customers to learn their future needs and anticipate new areas of business development for DFA.
Identify new sales/business opportunities, new markets, the need for new products, etc., and initiate action plans to increase share of market with existing and new accounts. Lead and participate in new account prospecting and sales calls.
Utilize a “solutions selling” approach drawing from organizational strengths and capabilities:
Determine customer needs, problems, insights, and strategy
Identify, clearly outline, and present the opportunity details including short- and long-term value to DFA
Drive opportunities to commercialization internally, and most critically, “close” with the customer
Follow a recognized sales process (e.g., channel plan, pre-call, post-call, insights gathering, opportunity pipeline, execute, close, report) and use the organization's capabilities to maximize opportunities.
Provide innovative ideas to customers by understanding their brands, platforms, and strategies.
Prepare and deliver sales presentations, product demonstrations, and proposals on existing and new products and/or services. Educate clients on the benefits and features of the products and/or services.
Develop, recommend, and help implement annual sales plans and strategies (retail, foodservice, etc.).
Influence the cross-functional team to streamline processes and broaden capabilities by demonstrating the value through customer opportunities. Provide strategic and tactical direction from customer feedback and market intelligence.
Provide customers with exceptional customer care; work with urgency to resolve customer issues and problems in a transparent manner with functional areas of DFA. Elevate and help resolve gaps within processes or systems to continue to improve the customer care.
“Own” the performance of assigned accounts and take action on difficult or complex account challenges and opportunities while effectively balancing the needs of DFA and the customer.
Foster customer relationships at various levels across multiple functions (R&D, marketing, purchasing, quality assurance, operations) and facilitate the growth of customer counterpart relationships within DFA.
Negotiate all aspects of a customer interaction, as directed by sales leadership, such as non-disclosure agreements, pricing, terms, contracts, and other items as necessary.
Utilize the various systems and processes such as the order process, Salesforce/Power BI, inventory management, logistics systems, supply/demand planning, etc. Maintain accurate records of customer interactions, sales activities, and sales pipelines.
Assist in training new sales and internal personnel, when appropriate.
Monitor accounts receivable reports to identify unusual customer activities or payment failures that require further attention; ensure that established company credit policies and objectives are met and ensure that action is taken to collect on delinquent accounts.