Sales Director - Club, Mass & Retail

Location: Orlando, FL region
Relocation Assistance: Available
Industry: Baked Goods

About the Opportunity

We are partnering with a growing baked goods manufacturer to identify a Sales Director who can help accelerate the company's growth across the U.S. retail landscape.

This is a hands-on, individual contributor sales role with significant ownership over customer development and a clear opportunity to grow into broader commercial leadership as the business scales.

The immediate focus will be on expanding the company's presence across Club, Mass and Retail, developing relationships with key buyers, identifying new customer opportunities and building a sustainable pipeline of national and regional accounts.

Over time, this individual will have the opportunity to take on greater responsibility for broker strategy and leadership, national and regional account management, and broader sales strategy.

We are looking for a commercially driven sales professional who is comfortable opening doors, developing relationships and turning retail opportunities into profitable, long-term partnerships.

Key Responsibilities

Club, Mass & Retail Growth

• Develop and execute sales strategies to expand the company's presence across Club, Mass and Retail channels.
• Identify and pursue new customer opportunities across national and regional retailers.
• Develop relationships with key retail buyers, category managers and decision-makers.
• Build account-specific strategies focused on distribution, assortment, velocity, promotional activity and profitable growth.
• Identify whitespace opportunities within existing accounts and develop plans to increase distribution and share of business.
• Lead customer presentations, line reviews, product introductions and commercial negotiations.
• Develop compelling selling stories using consumer, category and customer data.

National & Regional Account Development

• Build and manage a pipeline of prospective national and regional retail accounts.
• Develop annual and long-term account plans for priority customers.
• Work closely with leadership to establish pricing, volume, margin and growth objectives.
• Support negotiations around pricing, promotions, distribution and new product launches.
• Develop strong relationships across customer buying, merchandising, supply chain and other relevant functions.
• Monitor account performance and proactively identify opportunities, risks and corrective actions.

Broker & Distributor Development

• Build and maintain relationships with brokers, distributors and other sales partners.
• Establish clear expectations, priorities and objectives for external partners.
• Work with leadership to develop the company's broader broker strategy as the business expands.
• Over time, assume greater responsibility for broker selection, management, performance and commercial strategy.
• Ensure brokers and external partners are aligned with customer priorities and company growth objectives.

Commercial & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing and R&D to ensure customer opportunities can be executed effectively.
• Provide accurate sales forecasts and customer-level volume assumptions.
• Partner with Operations and Supply Chain around new account launches, production requirements and customer service.
• Monitor trade spend, pricing, margins and overall account profitability.
• Provide regular updates to senior leadership on pipeline development, customer activity, opportunities and risks.
• Represent the company at customer meetings, industry conferences and relevant trade shows.

Building the Sales Function

As the company continues to grow, this individual will have the opportunity to play an increasingly important role in shaping the commercial organization, including:

• Developing the company's national and regional account strategy.
• Building a scalable broker and sales partner network.
• Establishing account management processes and KPIs.
• Supporting the development of future sales team members.
• Taking on broader leadership responsibility across the retail sales organization.

What We're Looking For

• Multiple years of progressive sales experience within baked goods or adjacent cetegories
• Proven experience selling into Club, Mass and/or Retail channels.
• Existing relationships with major retailers and/or regional grocery customers strongly preferred.
• Experience working with customers such as Costco, Sam's Club, BJ's, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Albertsons/Safeway, Publix, H-E-B, Whole Foods or similar retailers is highly relevant.
• Experience selling baked goods, bakery, frozen bakery or related food products is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to open new accounts and generate incremental business, rather than simply manage an established book of business.
• Experience working with brokers, distributors and/or sales representative organizations.
• Strong understanding of retail sales fundamentals including pricing, promotions, distribution, forecasting, trade spend and account profitability.
• Comfortable using customer, syndicated and internal sales data to identify opportunities and support customer presentations.
• Strong negotiation, presentation and relationship-building skills.
• Commercially minded with the ability to balance revenue growth with profitability.
• Highly self-motivated and comfortable operating as an individual contributor in a growing organization.
• Willingness to travel as required for customer meetings, trade shows and account development.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is someone who enjoys building rather than maintaining.

You may currently be a National Account Manager, Regional Sales Director, Director of Sales or similar commercial leader who has successfully grown retail accounts and wants greater ownership over a company's growth strategy.

You should be comfortable getting in front of buyers, developing new relationships, making the pitch, negotiating the deal and then working internally to make sure the business is successfully executed.

This is particularly well suited to someone with an entrepreneurial mindset who wants the opportunity to build a larger sales organization over time rather than stepping into an established corporate structure.

Location

This position is based in Orlando, Florida.

Candidates who are not currently located in the Orlando area but are interested in relocating will be considered, with relocation assistance available for qualified candidates.