Zone Sales Manager

Campbell's•Washington, DC

1d•$108,000 - $148,500•Hybrid

About The Position

Since 1869, Campbell's has connected people through food they love and is proud to be stewards of amazing brands. The company offers opportunities to grow, innovate, and inspire. The Zone Sales Manager (ZSM) is responsible for leading a team of Market Development Leaders (MDLs) to achieve distribution, sales, merchandising, and promotional targets through effective engagement with the Independent Distributor Partner (IDP) network and the local warehouse logistics organization. The ZSM is responsible for over $100MM in revenue and must develop and implement the zone business strategy to drive growth across brands, increase dollar share, and deploy resources to maximize volume and minimize operating costs. The ZSM provides sales leadership and personal development to the respective MDLs.

Requirements

With Bachelor’s degree, minimum 5 years’ of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) or Direct Store Delivery (DSD) sales experience required
Without Bachelor’s degree, minimum 10 years’ of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) or Direct Store Delivery (DSD) sales experience required
Minimum 2 years managing and influencing sales teams
Excellent leadership and communication skills
Must be a strategic thinker, operational and retail knowledge and have strong business acumen
Ability to travel as needed, both local and overnight within district, to company meetings, company training and other regions as business needs demand.

Nice To Haves

DSD route to market, warehouse experience is a plus
Bachelor’s degree preferred, but not required

Responsibilities

Proactively managing, monitoring, evaluating, and updating the overall business plan to meet Campbell Snacks objectives.
Developing business plans for 60-90-180 days out across all retailers and multiple geographies to support executional excellence and share growth.
Communicating targets for distribution, merchandising, and promotional execution.
Securing retail space for new items and points of interruption with key retail decision makers through partnership with IDPs.
Forging and developing strong relationships with key retail decision makers.
Assessing the retailer’s competitive position, behaviors, and strategies and understanding how they align with Campbell Snacks strategic goals to identify opportunities for win-win scenarios.
Tracking and evaluating competitive threats in the market and setting strategic gap closure plans to win.
Designing and forecasting quarterly business plans to attain key metrics across the portfolio to deliver the quarterly lock retailer business plan.
Designing go-to-market strategies through partnership with IDPs and utilizing business analytics to recommend key business issues/plans related to base products, innovation, and marketing activation.
Conducting retailer-specific analysis across the portfolio of brands to identify opportunities to the plan and make appropriate recommendations.
Providing insights, feedback, and collaborating with internal retail customer teams with solution-oriented ideas and adjustments for continuous improvement and improved executional excellence.
Communicating retail execution goals and monitoring the performance of MDLs to achieve business strategies.
Leading retail development within the assigned area with an emphasis on designing and maintaining a retail wiring plan for compression selling through partnership with IDPs.
Penetrating and establishing retail relationships with elevated levels of management with focused compression selling through partnership with IDPs.
Cultivating, developing, and implementing optional quality joint business engagement with IDPs.
Participating in optional quarterly IDP business meetings to collaborate on operational matters with the IDPs.
Offering syndicated and retailer-supplied data to discuss the state of the snacks business, consumer trends, key business drivers, and discover incremental opportunities.
Developing growth strategies to support route infrastructure growth and aligning on priorities with local Business Development Managers.
Improving route viability by reengineering for growth and minimizing turnover of routes to support IDP engagement.
Recommending potential IDPs for open routes as potential future business partners.
Designing and collaborating with the internal sales operations team to create a route infrastructure strategy.
Collaborating with the internal sales operations team to provide clear and concise communication regarding sales and distribution opportunities and other key information utilizing available applications and tools to assist them in engaging with IDPs.
Coaching, leading, and influencing the internal team to develop strong relationships and improve engagement with IDPs.
Ensuring a clear understanding of IDP contracts and the independent distributor partner business model.
Reviewing weekly MDL deployment plans to improve execution, IDP engagement, retailer visibility, and deliver on Campbell Snacks objectives.
Collaborating with Sales Operations to improve the efficiency of the market and drive growth.
Seeking out and providing support as needed to different functions on assigned categories (e.g., new product development, process improvement, brand marketing).
Tracking monthly forecasts to maximize supply chain efficiencies and providing constructive feedback on shipments, consumption data, and inventory changes.
Proactively identifying potential risks or threats to monthly forecasts.
Utilizing performance management plans with MDLs to develop and enhance individual skills, capabilities, and behaviors to build a team culture.
Conducting MDL team meetings as necessary to share best practices, role play, and communicate deployment plans and other strategic initiatives.
Engaging with a diverse set of outside stakeholders, including retailers and IDPs, while navigating complex route-to-market distribution models, distributor models, and market trends.
Assessing market needs and deploying resources against business issues and demands.
Utilizing iPad business applications to provide up-to-date information regarding business trends.
Training, coaching, and developing new MDLs on processes and best practices.
Identifying and implementing growth strategies for infrastructure opportunities.
Delivering gross revenue targets, share growth, and executional excellence metrics.
Delivering ACV display gains in key accounts and region geography.
Establishing strong selling relationships with key retailers and divisional leaders of top retail accounts within the zone.
Ensuring the MDL team is engaging IDPs in a collaborative spirit to build relationships and maximize growth potential.
Building, recruiting, and developing a high-performing MDL team that promotes positive IDP engagement and culture.
Conducting periodic strategy meetings with the MDL team to align on goals and opportunities.
Identifying and mentoring MDLs so they can achieve personal development and career progress.
Effectively managing the performance of MDLs struggling to meet role expectations.
Requiring cross-functional interaction within the retailer, sales strategy, operations team, supply chain, plant operations, depot management, and IDPs.

Benefits

Medical insurance
Dental insurance
Short-term disability insurance
Long-term disability insurance
AD&D insurance
Life insurance (for individual, families, and domestic partners)
Matching 401(k) plan with immediate vesting
Unlimited sick time
Paid time off
Holiday pay
Free access to the fitness center (if in WHQ)
Access to on-site day care (operated by Bright Horizons) (if in WHQ)
Access to company store (if in WHQ)
Campbell’s Cares program (matches employee donations and/or volunteer activity up to $1,500 annually)
Variety of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)