Regional Sales Director

** This role is not with Force Brands. This craft infusion brand is looking for a strong regional director to help lead their Central Division. Candidates are ideally based in Chicago and have premium on-premise (hotels, restaurants) relationships.

• Existing relationships – Support balanced lead referrals, conduct regular business reviews, ensure distributors are well trained on tea and fully supported with selling collateral and programing. Draft, and with internal approval, present distributor agreements to all distributors.

• Expand distributor footprint – Prospect and onboard distributors in coffee, food service and nontraditional channels that will unlock access to incremental outlets in the market, generate healthy competition in the market, with an emphasis placed on minimizing distributor account cannibalization.

• Equal focus spent on identifying revenue-driving multi-unit opportunities across the region, as identifying the halo accounts within each subchannel in tier 1 markets that will continue to build the brand presence, consumer awareness, brand desirability, and positive trial in the market.

• Provide strong team leadership through celebrating successes, coaching to opportunities, providing servant leadership and effective delegation and development. Support the long-term career development of the sales team.

• Support the tea journey of your team, by seeking customer and tea cupping activities, and working with other Sales Directors, Marketing teammates and company leadership to generate tea tasting opportunities, trainings, palate development and dialogue.

• Identify, and with the assistance of marketing team, execute key marketing opportunities within the region that generate inbound leads, support key partnerships, and promote wholesale and consumer brand awareness.

• Attend national marketing events as requested, with the objective of maximizing the ROI of the event. ROI can be measured by revenue generating leads, quantity of closeable leads generated (direct or for distribution), beverages served, impressions for the brand, and/or building relational equity with strategic partners. Internal functional and cross functional team building activities are important, yet secondary goals of national marketing events.

• Research the market for consumer beverage trends within F&B settings and maintain fluency of competitive trends and positioning.

• Work within developed forecasting templates to forecast the expected unit needs of teas sold into the region, making regular adjustments to the forecast as insights and growth opportunities are unlocked.

• Ensure prompt and consultative selling process is extended to inbound leads.

• Monitor trends in inbound lead close rates, and coach to opportunities to enhance close rate for desirable leads.

• Demonstrate responsible customer advocacy through obsession to detail with each step of the customers experience with the brand and strategize, present, and implement cross functional programs that enhance the customer experience with responsible impact to company financial resources.

• Champion innovation in the market through distribution and direct channels.

• Strategize effective selling approaches to position innovation, and provide insights to marketing team for sales collateral requested to sell innovation.

• Model positive leadership and change management as the organization continues to grow and scale.

• Support hiring and onboarding activities as occasionally requested by cross functional teams.

• Develop cross-functional relationships across the company to build organizational fluency and collaboration.

• Serve as the brand's connection to the market and our customers; communicate customer needs, product forecasts and feedback to cross functional partners in a timely and respectful manner.

• Manage personal and team expenses within T&E budgets.

• Meet or exceed budgeted revenue goals for the region.

• Meet or exceed KPIs for the region, and develop management practices to monitor and coach to KPI performance.

• Make positive contributions to overall team and company goals by vocalizing best practices with teammates, demonstrating and encouraging participation in team meetings, and collaborating with teammates and sharing intelligence on key multi-unit or distribution opportunities that cross region lines.

• Other projects and responsibilities may be assigned.

• New Direct Accounts, net of Churn

• Direct and Distribution Revenue

• Average Order Value for Direct and Distributors