Sales Manager North America - Pet Food

PURPOSE:
APC is the world’s largest producer of functional plasma proteins, dedicated to producing safe and effective products that create value. We do this by holding true to our values: Performance, Entrepreneurship and Leadership.

This position will lead and drive performance by leveraging their background (training, work experience and technical expertise) in Pet Food markets for immediate impact.

This position works under the direction of the Director of Sales – North America for APC, to develop and execute on performance goals, standards, and objectives within the North American market.

ROLE OVERVIEW:

This position is expected to take ownership of the pet food business for assigned customers, working closely with the Director of Sales – North America to drive customer relationship management, activities prioritization, pricing, and regional strategy. The individual will leverage the support of the Director of Global Pet Food Sales to ensure alignment with global strategies while incorporating regional nuances. Collaboration with the Marketing team will be essential to execute communication and promotional initiatives, while the Technical team will provide critical support to resolve issues and drive new product development opportunities with customers.

• Bachelor’s degree in related field.
• 5 years of general sales experience in pet related industry is required.
• Extensive sales & marketing experience in the North American pet food industry. Experience in pet food ingredient sales a plus.
• Advanced sales acumen and deep business insight.
• Proficient in MS Office applications, Salesforce.com and or other CRM systems
• Commercial drive, entrepreneurship attitude, superior communication skills, with the confidence to present concepts, data, innovation to customer senior leadership and diverse audiences.
• Multicultural sensitivity and language fluency in the English language.

• Collaborate closely with the Director of Global Pet Food Sales to align regional sales strategies with both short- and long-term global objectives.
• Working knowledge of Pet Food in North American market. Ability to be a door opener to initiate new application business and having strong relationships with key decision makers.
• Lead and oversee sales & business activities for APC products sold into North American pet food.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with customers top-level decision makers.
• Identify a robust pipeline of opportunities and convert opportunities into business.
• Technical knowledge to promote specialty ingredients to pet food brand owners/manufacturers in North America.
• Create and execute detailed business plans, including customer performance, key account metrics, sales, margin, credit management goals for North American pet food.
• Ability to demonstrate value/return on investment.
• Negotiate prices and grow margins to meet North American objectives.

• Partner with the marketing team to develop and implement a comprehensive North American pet food marketing plan, ensuring alignment with both regional and global company priorities.
• Develop an exceptional understanding of customer needs, market conditions and competitor activities to develop product and channel strategies.
• Collaborate with regional and global colleagues for necessary support.
• Implement Pet marketing plan through email communications, trade shows, technical conferences, mailings, and other promotional activities.

• Collaborate closely with the Senior Director of Global Pet Food Technical Services to identify regional research priorities and escalate technical support requirements as needed.
• Identify and assess customers' technical support needs, acting as the primary intermediary to escalate these demands to APC's specialized technical support team.

• Ability to travel as business needs require, which is expected to be above 50%, depending on season and time of year.