VP, CPG & Industrial Sales

CTI Foods

About The Position

The Vice President, CPG and Industrial Sales is responsible for driving profitable growth by developing and executing the segment commercial strategy for consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers and industrial customers. This role owns segment customer acquisition and expansion through complex negotiations and long-cycle sales efforts, providing sales leadership, direction and resource stewardship. The Vice President, CPG and Industrial Sales must build strong cross functional relationships across R&D, operations, procurement, quality, and commercial teams to ensure successful commercialization, reliable supply, and an exceptional customer experience.

Requirements

8 plus years experience managing sales teams covering established CPG manufacturers and Industrial customers providing consumer products in retail and foodservice.
Proven selling solutions within a business to business market and a track record of effectively creating a robust pipeline of marginable and profitable sales.
Experience in the protein and/or kettle industry with an in depth understanding of custom food manufacturing, long sales cycle, food innovation and product development. Acumen in supply chain, regulatory and quality.
A background working in a matrixed environment where influence, relationship building, building consensus and open communications are important.
An entrepreneur with an energetic, mental agility and strong executive presence.
An open-minded professional with leadership skills, stature, persuasiveness and the ability to articulate well, both verbally and in writing. An ability to bring consensus to any negotiating environment.
Self-motivation, and a "can do" orientation, along with the ability to function both independently and as a member of a team.
Ability to collaborate and partner with other company functions. The capability to facilitate, gain compromise and/or consensus with diverse teams or individuals from the business and finance.
A performance driven mentality; one who brings solutions to challenges.
High moral and ethical standards; strong character, principles, and discipline; unquestionable personal and business integrity.
Assertiveness, with strong self-esteem and self-confidence, balanced with a sensitivity toward and concern for people. The ability to create strong work ethics and committed teams, foster open dialogue, and promote individual and team success.
Strong leadership skills including vision and strategy, building consensus, communications, total quality commitment, ownership and accountability and results orientation.

Nice To Haves

Experience in industrial manufacturing with acumen in other food channels, including retail, mid-size chains food service, food operators and branded players is desirable.

Responsibilities

Accountable to achieve revenue, gross margin, and volume targets for CPG and Industrial segments.
Develop and deploy annual and multi year segment growth strategy, blending expansion with the current strong customer base and acquisition of new customers to diversify the portfolio and manage sales and profitability objectives.
Create a culture of success and ongoing goal achievement by coaching team in price negotiation, contracts, volume commitments and commercial terms in alignment with profitability and capacity objectives.
Lead team with disciplined pipeline management, forecasting accuracy, and CRM hygiene to achieve predictable segment growth.
Recruit, coach, and develop a high-performing sales organization, including setting goals, performance standards, and operating cadence.
Represent the company at industry events and customer meetings; maintain awareness of competitive landscape, customer trends, and category dynamics.
Partner with Operations and Supply Chain to align forecast, production planning, and inventory strategy; proactively manage customer expectations.
Collaborate with Quality/Food Safety and Regulatory to support customer audits, documentation, specifications, and compliance requirements.
Partner with R&D/Project Management to translate market needs into innovation and renovation priorities; provide customer insights to inform pipeline decisions.
Create an entrepreneurial environment and culture that strives to consistently develop custom value-added products for customers.