Large Account Sales Professional
Northern Lights Enterprises, Inc., a ZIPPO Company, is currently seeking qualified applicants for a full-time, salaried, and hybrid remote Large Account Sales Professional opportunity- responsible for selling premium candles and home decorative accessories to high quality gift shops, department stores, mail order catalogs and other wholesale customers. Following initial training, will generally work with the company’s larger volume wholesale key account customers. Work from the corporate office and will travel to trade shows and customer sites for presentations and appointments. Focus on sourcing new customers and servicing existing customers within the giftware industry thus supporting continual company growth.
Responsible for selling premium candles and home decorative accessories to national retailers in the following channels: department stores, grocery, drug, mail order catalogs, and more. Deploying prospecting strategies to identify and obtain new distribution through customer meetings and account management. Will travel to trade shows and customer sites for line review meetings as needed.
What you’ll do:
- Establish, manage, develop, and maintain strong, positive business relationships with existing and new accounts
- Proactively identify opportunities for channel expansion and innovation
- Identify business structure around new business opportunities (contact names, buying cycles, merchandising requirements, marketing tools, etc.)
- Manage leads database and utilize software to keep funnel constantly full of new leads
- Follow-up meetings with new customers as needed to review performance of current program and strategize on expansion / growth
- Prepare plans, present to customers, and develop business opportunities
- Effectively manage profitability, working through pricing negotiations with customers
- Develop and implement annual key account business plan
- Properly forecast account sales to maximize order fill rates and on-time delivery
- Conduct internal and external business reviews to measure, evaluate and present sales performance of the channel
- Performing any other job-related duties that the Supervisor may assign
- Learn and master all retailer provided reporting tools and Supplier websites
- Provide insight and feedback around business analytics from retailer portals
- Frequent store visits to assess competitive marketplace, opportunities with new chains, and point-of-purchase and display best-practices
- Other duties as assigned
What you’ll need:
- Bachelor’s degree AND/OR 2 years of inside/outside sales (preferably CPG) experience
- Experience with calling on both retailers and wholesale customers
- Demonstrated skills in achieving sales and profitability goals
- Business Math ability (understanding margins, mark-up, etc.)
- Understanding of Account buying cycles, margin expectations, and sell-thru expectations
- Demonstrated Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite
- Availability to travel and work outside of regularly scheduled work hours
- Passionate commitment to quality, follow through and high attention to detail
- Ability to operate with high sense of urgency and personal initiative. Responding to multiple deadlines while maintaining good coordination and communication with appropriate internal departments
- Must have the ability to travel up to 30-40% of the time; frequently requiring overnight stays
*If interested, please send cover letter, resume, and salary requirements to employment@zippo.com