Sales Director, Mandarin bilingual (food)

Cesna Recruitment•New York, NY

3d•$200,000

About The Position

The Sales Director is the business leader of the company’s Asian sales segment. The role focuses on maintaining the company’s market leadership and profitably growing the business over the long term through market-oriented leadership and solution selling. The director leads the Asian sales team, develops sales and go-to-market strategies for existing and new products and channels, and builds strong relationships with key customers and prospects. The position develops and implements annual sales operating plans and budgets, including volume and revenue goals, customer plans, pipeline development, channel growth, promotions, territory plans, staffing, and other tactics. It collaborates with the VP of Sales on overall sales strategies and with the VP of NBD and Director of Marketing on end-user strategy, pricing, positioning, and new products. The director recruits, develops, and assesses the sales team, reports on sales performance and segment development, and is accountable for measures including volume, revenue, margin, new-business pipeline, customer product distribution, and channel development. The position reports to the President & CEO. Direct reports include the Asian sales supervisor, regional sales managers, and external sales team; the inside sales team is an indirect reporting group. Early deliverables include setting near-term priorities and territory goals, visiting major customers and working alongside sales representatives, conducting top-customer business reviews, assessing sales-team capabilities, and evaluating the Asian sales product line.

Requirements

10 or more years of sales and/or marketing experience within the Asian sales industry; relevant brand-management experience may be applicable.
Strong understanding of markets and distribution channels, including key sales drivers in relevant channels.
Negotiation ability and proven experience developing sales proposals and closing deals.
Proven skills in solution selling and building sales relationships.
Strong commercial sense and skills.
Creative thinking and problem-solving skills.
Good verbal and written communication skills.
Experience with planning, including business plans and sales forecasts, and budget management.
Experience developing and managing a sales team.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Bilingual ability in Mandarin, Cantonese, or Fukinese is required.

Nice To Haves

BA/BS degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the Asian sales team to deliver annual and monthly sales targets and development goals.
Develop sales and go-to-market strategies with the sales team for existing products, new products, and new channels.
Identify market and industry trends, market shifts, and customer consolidation; propose strategies to capitalize on market conditions and develop competitive market intelligence and pricing.
Build relationships with existing key customers and new prospects, and participate in quarterly and annual customer business reviews.
Maintain customer sales-development plans and the sales pipeline.
Propose and implement the annual sales operating plan and budget, including volume and revenue goals, customer plans, pipeline, channel development, new products, promotions, territory plans, and staffing.
Provide input on long-term sales strategy and collaborate with the VP of Sales on overall strategies, operating plans, processes, systems, and training.
Collaborate with the VP of NBD and Director of Marketing on end-user strategy, pricing, positioning, and new products.
Recruit and develop the sales team; assess team capabilities, plan employee development and staffing, structure key accounts and territories, and improve product knowledge.
Develop sales broker relationships if applicable in the future.
Report monthly and quarterly on sales performance and Asian sales development.
Within 30 days, establish and agree on sales-group priorities and deliverables for the next 90 days, and monitor and propose monthly changes on a rolling 90-day basis.
Visit the top 10 customers and work at least one to two days with each outside sales representative and manager.
Establish sales goals for each territory sales manager, representative, and inside sales representative.
Conduct top-10-customer business reviews, including SWOT analyses, customer profiles and goals, and key sales-development goals.
Assess internal and external sales capabilities, identify improvement areas, and plan training.
Assess the Asian sales product line, including strengths, gaps, opportunities, and SKUs to rationalize.