Vice President of Sales

Pickle Juice•Mesquite, TX

50d•$175,000 - $190,000•Remote

About The Position

The Vice President of Sales will lead the commercial growth strategy for a high-growth CPG company operating in the functional sports, hydration, and cramping segments. The company has a differentiated product platform, strong consumer relevance, and significant white-space opportunity across existing and emerging channels. Reporting directly to the CEO, the VP of Sales will be responsible for accelerating revenue growth, expanding distribution, building strategic customer relationships, improving sales execution, and developing a high-performing commercial organization. As a valued member of our team, we ask that you exemplify and uphold our Company’s core values in your daily work. These values—Collaboration, Accountability, Solution Driven, Integrity, and Champion Mindset—are central to our company culture and guide how we interact with each other, our customers, and our community. This is a hands-on leadership role. The successful candidate must be equally comfortable developing a multi-year channel strategy, presenting to a major national retailer, coaching a Sales Team, analyzing customer profitability, setting & reviewing forecasts, removing barriers to facilitate team efficiency and personally helping close high-value opportunities. The VP of Sales will inherit a lean commercial team and will be expected to create the structure, accountability, processes, and urgency necessary to support aggressive growth expectations. As a valued member of our team, we ask that you exemplify and uphold our Company’s core values in your daily work. These values—Collaboration, Accountability, Solution Driven, Integrity, and Champion Mindset—are central to our company culture and guide how we interact with each other, our customers, and our community. Direct Reports The VP of Sales will lead a team consisting of: VP, E-Commerce, Strategic & Emerging Channels – responsible for e-commerce, mass, digital commerce, and development of emerging/nontraditional channels. Sales Director – Grocery – responsible for grocery channel strategy, customer development, distribution expansion, and execution. Sales Director – Convenience – responsible for the C-store and impulse channel, including national, regional, and distributor relationships. AE, Sales Planning & Support – responsible for sales analytics, forecasting, customer planning, reporting, sales administration, and commercial support. The VP of Sales will also work closely with the CEO and leaders across Marketing, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, Product Development, and other functional areas.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
Ten or more years of proven experience
Significant sales leadership experience within CPG, preferably involving functional beverages, sports nutrition, hydration, wellness, food/beverage, or other high-growth consumer categories.
Experience should include meaningful exposure to several major retail channels such as grocery, convenience, mass, club, e-commerce, drug, specialty, or emerging channels.
Demonstrated success building businesses rather than simply maintaining established accounts.
Demonstrated success opening new customers and channels.
Demonstrated success developing national and regional retail relationships.
Demonstrated success leading and developing sales teams.
Demonstrated success managing brokers and distributors.
Demonstrated success building sales pipelines and forecasting processes.
Demonstrated success negotiating complex customer agreements.
Demonstrated success developing effective customer presentations.
Demonstrated success working cross-functionally with Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain.
Demonstrated success operating effectively in a smaller, entrepreneurial environment.

Responsibilities

Deliver Aggressive Revenue Growth: Own the company’s overall sales plan and deliver annual revenue, distribution, and profitability objectives. Translate company growth expectations into clear channel, customer, and individual sales objectives. Develop a balanced growth strategy incorporating: Same-store/customer growth, New item placement, New customer acquisition, Increased points of distribution, Geographic expansion, New channel development, E-commerce and emerging channels, Strategic partnerships and distribution opportunities. Maintain a strong pipeline of opportunities capable of delivering both near-term results and sustainable long-term growth.
Attack the White Space: Identify where the company is not currently doing business and determine how to win there. Develop a comprehensive white-space strategy across channels, customers, geographies, occasions, and consumer segments. Identify and prioritize the highest-potential opportunities based on revenue potential, probability of success, strategic value, profitability, and required resources. Build actionable plans to convert white-space opportunities into distribution and revenue. Continually challenge the organization with the question: “Where is the next meaningful source of growth, and what do we need to do to capture it?”
Lead Channel Strategy: Develop distinct strategies for each major commercial channel, including: Grocery (Expand distribution within national and regional grocery customers while improving assortment, shelf position, promotional productivity, and velocity), Convenience (Build a scalable C-store strategy encompassing major chains, distributors, wholesalers, regional operators, and independent distribution networks), Mass, E-Commerce & Emerging Channels (Partner closely with the VP, E-Commerce & Emerging Channels to accelerate digital growth while identifying new routes to market). Evaluate additional white-space opportunities such as: Mass, Drug, Club, Sporting goods, Fitness and gyms, Travel, Military, Foodservice, Healthcare, Colleges and universities, Professional and amateur athletics, Industrial/workplace hydration, Outdoor and endurance sports, Specialty retail, Other emerging channels.
Personally Engage Strategic Customers: Maintain direct relationships with the company’s most important customers, prospects, distributors, and strategic partners. Participate personally in high-value selling situations and major customer presentations. Build relationships beyond the buyer level where appropriate, including senior merchandising, category management, operations, and executive leadership. Be viewed by major customers as a strategic business partner—not simply a vendor representative.
Build a High-Performance Sales Organization: Establish clear expectations, goals, and accountability for each member of the commercial organization. Coach and develop the sales leadership team while creating a culture characterized by: Speed, Accountability, Preparation, Follow-through, Customer focus, Winning. Establish clear performance metrics and conduct regular individual business reviews with direct reports covering: Revenue versus plan, Distribution gains/losses, Key account performance, New business pipeline, Forecast accuracy, Upcoming customer decisions, Risks and opportunities, Required executive support, Specific next actions. Ensure sales leaders spend their time against the opportunities capable of materially impacting company growth.
Create a Disciplined Sales Pipeline: Develop and maintain a company-wide sales funnel identifying major opportunities by customer, channel, estimated revenue, probability, timing, next action, and owner. Separate true opportunities from activity. Establish clear stages for major opportunities from initial identification through customer engagement, presentation, testing, authorization, distribution, and launch. Regularly review the pipeline with the CEO and sales leadership team. Always be able to clearly answer: What are our largest growth opportunities? What is the probability of winning each? What is preventing us from closing them? What happens next, and who owns it?
Improve Forecasting and Commercial Planning: Partner with Sales Planning, Operations, and Finance to improve forecasting accuracy and visibility. Establish disciplined forecasting by customer, item, channel, and timing. Ensure significant new distribution gains, promotions, customer changes, and potential losses are communicated early enough for Operations and Supply Chain to respond. Develop rolling forecasts that clearly distinguish between: Base business, Confirmed incremental business, High-probability opportunities, Longer-term pipeline opportunities.
Drive Profitable Growth: Own revenue growth while maintaining strong awareness of profitability. Evaluate customer and channel opportunities based on total economics, including: Gross margin, Trade spending, Promotional investment, Freight, Broker/distributor costs, Slotting and customer fees, Returns/allowances, Customer-specific requirements, Cost-to-serve. Partner with the CEO and Finance to ensure the company is pursuing profitable, sustainable growth—not simply volume.
Optimize our current Broker network and Distributor Performance: Evaluate the effectiveness of brokers, distributors, and other external sales partners. Establish measurable expectations for external partners including distribution objectives, account penetration, pipeline development, reporting, and execution. Make changes when partners are not delivering appropriate results. Determine where direct selling versus broker/distributor representation provides the strongest return.
Build Commercial Discipline Without Creating Bureaucracy: Implement simple, scalable commercial processes for: Annual sales planning, Customer plans, Pipeline management, Forecasting, Pricing, Trade spending, New-item launches, Customer presentations, Performance measurement, Sales meetings, Broker management. Bring big-company commercial discipline with small-company speed, creativity, flexibility and entrepreneurial thinking.