Territory Field Sales Merchandising Representative - Western Chicago Suburbs, IL

Basemakers, LLC•Naperville, IL

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Basemakers is a trusted retail sales management company in the food and beverage industry, experiencing significant growth and expanding its services and technology. The company's core philosophy is built on the power of relationships, partnering with innovative brands to turn them into household names. Basemakers goes beyond traditional sales and merchandising by fostering deep connections with brands, communities, and individuals committed to making a meaningful impact. The company values include Pursuing Excellence, Integrity, Teamwork, Communication, and Heart. The opportunity is for a full-time, outside field sales and merchandising representative to cover a territory in the Western Chicago Suburbs, IL. This role is independent yet collaborative, involving daily visits to 6-8 grocery stores to enhance the in-store presence of various brands. The representative will work with brand products and grocery store decision-makers, aiming to build trust, increase sales velocity, and solve problems. The ideal candidate is self-motivated, high-achieving, team-oriented, coachable, and operates with integrity.

Requirements

Positive mindset, driven to accomplish, high degree of emotional intelligence and grit, coachable and detail oriented.
Growth mentality and goals.
Strong problem solving, analytic, influencing, and negotiation skills.
Experience working in or closely with grocery store operations or the ability to learn nuances of grocery store backgrounds quickly.
Experience working in "route" sales experience, brand ambassadorship, brand vendor sales, merchandising, general retail, or similar territory sales.
Passion to represent our Brand Partners, mainly in the natural, organic and specialty food and beverage space.
Track record of success in a highly self-directed environment.
Maintain a high level of communication across team members, including comfort initiating multiple lines of communication through smartphone apps over the internet.
Achieve monthly key performance indicators (KPI’s) and metrics set by supervisors.
Professional demeanor and representation in working with coworkers, distributors, retail representatives and consumers.
Valid license, clean driving record, registration, and auto insurance.
Willing to drive many miles per day in your own own vehicle.
Willing to transport promotional materials such as POS or signage, etc., and very rarely, minimal product quantities (a trunk or back seat is enough).
Capacity to perform the physical requirements of the position individually while utilizing in-store tools.

Nice To Haves

Premium selling skills are preferred, or the desire to quickly learn and apply sales techniques.

Responsibilities

Work 100% of the time in the field from your vehicle and in grocery stores merchandising and selling for multiple brands.
Work the hours required each week to visit every store on a specified route, generally as frequently as 2-3 times a month.
Work Monday-Friday, with work beginning in the early morning hours as soon as you can get into a store.
May be asked or expected to work on Saturday or Sunday to make-up time missed during the workweek if necessary.
Work independently with little supervision while collaborating with grocery store managers, brand-company representatives, and internally with Basemakers' Brand Partner Managers, District Managers and Sales Directors.
Capture brand data (e.g., photos, typing notes, filling out forms) as the feet on the ground, in-store for our brand partners using mobile phone apps (Repsly, Slack, Gmail, Google Workspace).
Take full ownership of all in-store presence for our brands. This includes improving the in-store presence of brands through display execution, void filling, off-shelf displays & placements, relationships with grocery managers, performing and working collaboratively on effective merchandising and selling points (secondary/tertiary placements, proper shelf management positions, rack, equipment, POS placements), and understanding real in-store needs and pain points through asking questions and being willing to help store staff when applicable.