Vice President of National Accounts

Brook & Whittle•Cleveland, OH

About The Position

As a member of the Sales Leadership Team, the Vice President of National Accounts builds and leads a high-performing national accounts organization and develops strategies that drive profitable growth, retention, and new business development. The role identifies attractive markets and strategic customer opportunities, expands relationships with key national accounts, and translates commercial priorities into clear plans and measurable results. It requires strong business judgment, hands-on team leadership, and collaboration across Sales, Marketing, Product Management, Pricing, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Customer Service. The Vice President partners with the SVP of Sales and cross-functional leaders to set national account growth priorities, sales objectives, profitability targets, and long-term customer strategies. The position owns budgets, forecasts, pipeline plans, staffing needs, and business performance commitments; leads strategic account and customer reviews; and uses Salesforce.com to support consistent execution and reporting. The role recruits, coaches, and develops the sales team, builds executive customer relationships, and pursues profitable growth through value-based selling and disciplined commercial decisions. The role also coordinates customer plans across internal functions, resolves complex customer and operational challenges, and leads cross-functional commercial, product, and market initiatives. It promotes the company’s products, innovation, and sustainability capabilities in customer-specific value propositions. Overnight travel is required, with frequency varying according to customer, territory, and business needs.

Requirements

Strategic sales leadership, including the ability to assess markets, set priorities, build growth plans, and translate strategy into execution.
Strong commercial and financial acumen, including the ability to evaluate pricing, profitability, account economics, competitive trends, and growth investments.
Exceptional problem-solving, sound judgment, negotiation, and decision-making skills in complex customer and cross-functional situations.
Executive presence and strong communication skills, with the ability to influence customers and internal stakeholders at all levels.
Proven ability to recruit, build, coach, develop, and hold high-performing sales teams accountable for results.
Strong organizational leadership, prioritization, and execution discipline; ability to navigate competing business priorities.
Proficiency with CRM tools, including Salesforce.com, and Microsoft Office applications; ability to turn data into actionable commercial insight.
10+ years of progressive sales, account management, or national account leadership experience.
Demonstrated success building or leading high-performing sales teams, managing strategic accounts, winning new business, and delivering profitable revenue growth.
Strong understanding of packaging or related manufacturing markets, customer buying dynamics, competitive practices, and value-added selling approaches.
Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams, resolve complex customer and operational challenges, and execute strategic growth initiatives.
Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Salesforce.com or a comparable CRM platform.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in business, sales, marketing, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
Experience in pressure-sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, flexible packaging, or a related manufacturing industry.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a national accounts strategy with clear growth priorities, sales objectives, profitability targets, and long-term customer opportunities.
Identify and prioritize attractive end markets, customer segments, and strategic prospects based on market trends, competitive dynamics, company capabilities, and profitable growth potential.
Build executive-level relationships with key national accounts and strategic prospects, positioning Brook + Whittle as a long-term business partner.
Evaluate sales strategy, account performance, market opportunities, and competitive threats; identify gaps and implement corrective action.
Own the development and delivery of national accounts budgets, forecasts, pipeline plans, staffing needs, and business performance commitments.
Lead strategic account reviews, executive customer meetings, business reviews, and sales planning sessions, ensuring clear decisions and follow-through.
Anticipate customer needs and solve complex commercial or service challenges with solutions that improve retention, share of wallet, and customer profitability.
Drive disciplined account planning, prospecting, opportunity management, pricing strategy, and coordinated customer engagement across the team.
Recruit, structure, lead, coach, and develop a high-performing national accounts sales team; establish clear expectations, performance standards, and accountability.
Drive profitable growth through value-based selling, disciplined commercial decisions, and alignment of customer opportunities with operational capabilities.
Develop the team’s business acumen, product and market expertise, negotiation skills, and ability to deliver effective executive-level customer presentations.
Promote the company’s products, innovation, and sustainability capabilities as part of differentiated, customer-specific value propositions.
Build and execute growth plans for existing strategic accounts and create a targeted approach to winning new national account business.
Provide account analyses, pipeline updates, forecasts, and performance reporting; use Salesforce.com to drive team execution and visibility.
Monitor customer retention, competitive exposure, and share-of-wallet opportunities; lead proactive plans to address risks and accelerate growth.
Translate customer priorities into aligned plans across Operations, Supply Chain, Pricing/Estimating, Product Management, Marketing, Finance, and Customer Service.
Lead resolution of complex customer issues, balancing expectations, quality, service, capacity, and profitability while driving root-cause solutions.
Identify and remove internal barriers to growth, improve the customer experience, and help establish scalable processes for national account execution.
Champion cross-functional initiatives, commercial opportunities, and new product or market efforts from evaluation through implementation.
Manage business expenses responsibly and in accordance with company guidelines.
Travel overnight as required, with frequency varying according to customer, territory, and business needs.