(Archived) Vice President, Sales

As a member of the executive management team (reporting to the CEO), the Vice President, Sales manages the sales of the Company including both the equine and pet categories, to achieve objectives, policies, programs and goals as set by and for the Company in all markets.

The objective of this position is to grow the impact of the Company by leveraging the resources of the organization and strengthening the relationships with retailers and distributors, through trade programs and innovation successful launches. The candidate will be strong at establishing different strategies depending on the categories and channels.

Sales Responsibilities:

• Make sales strategy recommendations to the Executive Team and work with team to establish and implement agreed sales strategies.
• Work with the President to help establish a positive and nourishing sales culture within the organization.
• Manage and develop customer relationships.
• Manage sales teams, including employees and broker partners.
• Establish and develop sales team performance metrics.
• Develop and oversee the implementation of the equine & sales selling cycles and methodology.
• Develop strategies for obtaining new points of distribution for both divisions.
• Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of sales, methods, costs and results.
• Establish and implement short- and long-range sales goals, objectives, policies, and operating procedures.
• Work closely with the Sales Managers to develop account specific goals and co-op plans as well as KPI’s for the sales force
• Represent the Company at various business meetings to promote the Company and its products.
• Make periodic visits to established and potential customers to promote the relationship with the Company.
• Coordinate regularly with marketing staff to develop effective and efficient trade promotional programs, communicate customer intelligence and field knowledge as it relates to marketing programs and promotions.
• Proactively facilitate collaboration and integration of the sales team with the Company’s marketing, new business development, operations and finance teams.

Human Resource Management:

• Organize and structure the sales team
• Prepare sales staff performance evaluations, and develop training programs, work closely with Human Resources
• Provide training and mentoring for sales team members.

Financial Management:

• Prepare accurate monthly sales forecasts for the Operations team and share major shifts in forecast with the Executive team in a timely manner.
• Prepare annual sales budgets for all divisions
• Manage all selling expenses within budget guidelines for both equine and pet sales divisions.

Requirements:

• Leadership of diverse teams at both strategic and tactical levels.
• Provides direction with an emphasis on forward thinking and planning for future growth. – foster and manage change
• Ability to motivate accounts to produce expected performance within tight timeframes and simultaneously managing multiple projects and properly planning solutions.
• Must have excellent interpersonal skills and enjoys working with people.
• Manages limited resources, including time, budgets, and expenses.
• Problem solving in a fast-paced environment and communicates decisions to various team members.
• Able to embrace current family owned Company culture
• Proven leader with track record of successfully growing a business, including sales distribution,
• Field Sales experience ideally in both Equine and Pet industries.
• Education: four years college degree in marketing or business administration, an MBA is a plus.