Foodservice Account Executive - Los Angeles, CA
About The Position
The Account Executive will accelerate sales growth through strategic planning and impactful execution with key foodservice distributors and operator accounts. This role will be in Southern California and cover territories in the Los Angeles Market. In this role, you'll lead both distributor and operator relationships across foodservice channels including K-12, Commercial, Healthcare, Lodging, Colleges & Universities, and Business & Industry. You’ll identify new growth opportunities and lead efforts to strengthen customer loyalty in a fast-paced, competitive marketplace. A strong candidate for this role will bring a high bias for action, with a proven track record in strategic sales planning, closing deals quickly, negotiating effectively, and building long-term relationships in an ever-changing business environment.
Requirements
- High School Diploma/ GED with 2 + years of Foodservice, Food & Beverage Industry, or relevant sales experience
- Strong ability to use influence to drive successful selling opportunities and drive impact for the business
- Willingness to work as a team to drive impactful business results and find win-win situations for all partners
- Experience with CRM Software and sales analytics tools
- Self-motivated with ability to maintain workload from remote office
- Demonstrated track record of consistently meeting or exceeding sales targets
- Strong understanding of the sales call process and ability to close deals efficiently
- Willingness to travel in market to meet with operators, distributors, and prospective customers, plus occasional overnight travel for key meetings.
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Operator or Distributor Management, Marketing Program Negotiation or Trade Management experience
- Project Leadership
- Familiarity with General Mills Product Line
Responsibilities
- Develop a deep understanding of your customers and business to identify and act on growth opportunities
- Lead sales planning and strong execution for your assigned distributors and operators
- Provide clear direction and communicate territory strategy to a Customer Account Specialist Team who call on distributor operators
- Use Salesforce daily to track pipeline, manage relationships, and drive execution
- Influence distributor sales teams to prioritize and sell General Mills products
- Create and implement customized marketing programs specific to the accounts within your territory
- Execute local sales programs as outlined by Distributor and Non-Commercial National Account Executives
- Launch new products and sales initiatives with operators and distributor partners in your territory
- Manage and maximize ROI for territory budgets, including T&E, distributor, and operator budgets
- Negotiate and execute distributor marketing agreements through joint business planning with a pay-for-performance mindset and win-win scenarios
- Communicate key business updates frequently to the Region Manager and contribute to trade budget planning
- Leverage Data & Analytics Tools including Salesforce, Operator Volume Data, and Bid Tool Data to identify and close new opportunities.
- Consistently meet or exceed the in-person sales Visits goal of 10 per week.
- Create and work a minimum of 74 unique, pre-planned operator opportunities per fiscal half, to be identified, aligned upon with the Region Manager, and loaded prior to the start of the half.
- Achieve assigned territory volume growth target.
- Ensure activation of 3+ distribution interactions per distributor, per fiscal half. Interactions to include 1 Joint Business Plan Meeting and 2+ à la Carte interactions inclusive of General Sales Meeting, District Sales Meeting, Culinary Meeting, and Product Training
- Leverage General Mills data sources to mine for additional opportunities within the territory.
- Collaborate with cross-functional peers across North America Foodservice (NAF) segment to grow your business
- Partner closely with Customer Account Specialists to build and execute your strategic territory growth plan
- Build rapport and credibility with external partners to achieve shared goals
- Lead critical distributor and industry events including Distributor Food Shows, Industry Expos, Distributor Sales Meetings, etc.
- Demonstrate product knowledge to operators through at-home and on-site sample preparation and baking across all product platforms.
Benefits
- health benefits
- retirement and financial wellbeing
- time off programs
- wellbeing support and perks
- annual incentive program
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
High school or GED
