National Account Manager - GALE Pacific

TITLE 

National Account Manager – Club & Distributor Channel, Americas 

REPORTING TO 

Vice President Sales & Trade Marketing, Americas   

SUPERVISORY RESPONSBILITIES 

N/A   

LOCATION 

Charlotte, NC. Hybrid office of Mon & Fri remote and Tue-Thur in office.  

THE COMPANY 

OVERVIEW OF ROLE OR HOW THE ROLE MAKES AN IMPACT 

The National Account Manager is primarily responsible for driving sales growth within our mass clubs and distributor accounts and developing the key marketing and promotional activities to accomplish this. This position is responsible for generating long-term profitable growth of the channel to achieve strategic business objectives including sales and margin goals.    

This includes developing long lasting and amicable relationships with key stakeholders including merchants, marketers, logistics, operations, and IT staff.  In addition, the National Account Manager is expected to possess a deep understanding of accounts processes and systems (i.e., their approach to business) and will tailor GALE’s business processes to interact with these stakeholders effectively and efficiently at all levels of the relationship.   

The National Account Manager will actively contribute to the development and implementation of annual sales plans, including both the development of existing business as well as identifying and developing profitable new sales opportunities.    

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES 

Account Relationships & Development 

• Develop and maintain strong relationships serving as the main point of contact for our national distributors, fostering long-term partnerships through strong communication, support, and training.  

• Actively promote and position GALE Pacific as the category manager for our product lines  

• Represent Gale at trade shows and retail events as required.  

• Identify new business opportunities and work with marketing to capture these opportunities.  

• Alert management to competitive and market intelligence that could assist in the development of winning business strategies.  

Strategic Account Management  

• Develop a vision and long-term channel strategy for profitable growth consistent with the long-range plans and strategy of the company.  

• Develop a comprehensive knowledge of account’s share by product type, product line and brand including competitor share and competitive pricing 

• Develop or use account tools for evaluating productivity of the account’s business, (i.e., item unit volume, profitability, sales per sq. ft., sales by linear foot, GMROI, inventory turns.)  

• Business case process, proformas and postmortems for programs, promotions, etc. to estimate, execute and measure success.   

• Competitive analysis, market analysis of trends, products, etc.  

• Develop detailed insights of company and category performance.  

• Assist with strategies to grow sales and improve margin, including promotional program and marketing calendar, pricing and trading terms, and reporting and forecasting 

 Sales Forecasting/Inventory Fulfilment  

• Prepare annual sales budgets.  

• Develop collaborative monthly sales forecasts with the Account for review with management that include purchase trends, on hand inventory, POS, growth trends, seasonality trends and promotional activity.   

• Weekly review of forward stock cover and work collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure that IFOT targets are achieved, out of stocks are effectively managed (and minimized).  

• Review prices annually or as market or manufacturing changes dictate to ensure that prices are competitive while margins are maximized.   

Teamwork  

• Foster and develop good working relationships with work colleagues.  

• Avoid the creation of silos and negative, non-team-orientated work habits.  

• Generate presentations for annual PLR meetings and lead the company in the scope and breadth of the requirements of the invitations 

• Lead collaboration and review meetings with forecasting and logistics teams to ensure accuracy of forecasts and the achievement of fill rates to required levels. 

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE 

Qualifications & Experience: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Sales, or related field preferred 

• Good understanding of retail consumer goods and the workings of Clubs and Distributors   

• Strong selling and analytical skills. 

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office and CRM systems.  

• Proven track record of developing and implementing large scale sales programs. 

• Proven track record of achieving sales and margin objectives.  

• Proven account manager with a minimum 5 years’ experience dealing with large retail customers at senior buyer levels.  

• Experience with home décor, outside lawn and garden, or commercial textile products would be a plus)  

Skills & Attributes: 

• Ability to travel 30% of the calendar year    

• Ability to comfortably interact with and engage with diverse groups of people.  

• Excellent attention to detail, Superior planning, and project management skills.  

• Able to work in a team environment but at the same time be a self-starter.