Sales Manager - Plant Proteins

Louis Dreyfus Company • Kansas City, CA

22d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Sales Manager will play a key role in driving growth within the plant protein segment by delivering innovative solutions to customers in the food and nutrition industries. The ideal candidate brings strong commercial acumen, pea proteins sales experience, excels at negotiating and closing deals, and consistently delivers on business commitments. They are naturally curious and creative, identifying new opportunities and solutions, and thrive in fast-paced, evolving environments. This role requires a proactive, customer-focused mindset and the ability to collaborate cross-functionally to bring plant-based innovations to market.

Requirements

• Bachelors degree required
• Five (5) or more years of experience in the food industry, as sales or business developer or technical scientist
• Experience within Pea Proteins sales
• Experience in R&D product development and go-to-market
• In-depth knowledge in Food Science
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Commercial Acumen, Persuasive i.e. negotiates to close successfully
• Strong understanding of customer needs, and business drivers to make sound commercial decisions.
• Advanced negotiation skills to negotiates win-win outcomes to close deals and drive business growth.
• Creatively displays a growth mindset, actively seeks new knowledge, and applies creative thinking to solve problems and identify opportunities.
• Ability to work proactively with continual drive for results
• Anticipate customer needs and proactively create new solutions that exceed customer expectations
• Challenge the status quo by offering ideas to make things better, faster and with value creation in mind
• Adaptable and thrives in dynamic environments, quickly adjusts to change, and remains focused and effective under pressure.

Responsibilities

• Support Global Commercial Director in the design of US commercial strategy for the plant proteins business (Definition of sales objectives and business goals, growth targets, customer portfolio, strategy accounts plan, commercial activities, marketing activities, team and LDC capability building).
• Deliver the US commercial strategy.
• Be LDC representative and point of contact for US customers across their entire buying cycle, ensuring a first-class service and a positive customer experience with all LDC functions.
• Represent LDC for US customers requiring technical support, in close collaboration with the applications team.
• Deliver business goals and growth targets for the defined customers portfolio, through managing existing business, developing new customers and customer projects, with differentiated and innovative products and creating new cross-selling opportunities.
• Conduct sales and account development activities including on-site visits and technical support to achieve pipeline, revenue goals and objectives.
• Nurture customer relationships, ensuring a positive customer experience across all LDC functions, across entire customer buying cycle.
• Manage internal relationships and network across different departments (Applications team, R&D team, supply chain, finance, quality etc.) to ensure flawless communication and customer service.
• Manage pricing, contracts and sales forecasts and supply chain in collaboration with Supply Chain
• Manage technical support and product development support for customers, in collaboration with applications team, according to customer brief, for the formulation of a wide range of food & beverage and sports nutrition products using plant proteins, plant based functional and texturizing specialty solutions.
• Work with applications team to analyze customer processes and formulations, provide recommendations on ingredient selection and/or process adjustments for cost savings, quality improvements and identify new product innovation opportunities to drive business growth in target accounts
• Support technical teams in conducting trials related to customer projects (prototyping, development or fine tuning of recipes / process developments in the presence of customers or not, prototyping).
• Network with customers, industry players and partners and build relationships within the food industry, including visits at LDC facilities, participation in conferences and industry events.
• Record and share relevant customer activities and project updates via regular reporting and using knowledge management and CRM tools.
• Take full responsibility for delivering on commitments, meeting deadlines, and achieving results with minimal supervision.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental and vision care coverage, flexible spending account plans, employee assistance program, life insurance and disability coverage
• 401k with Company Match
• Family Friendly Benefits including childbirth and parental leave, fertility and family building benefits
• Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays
• Flexible work available (not applicable to all roles)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior