National Sales Manager (Pet Specialty)

Job Purpose

Manage existing and prospective Direct Independent and Distributor accounts within the Pet Specialty channel US & Canada.  Build and execute growth plans, to leverage the innovation and uniqueness of MPM and our brands. Delivering profitable and sustainable expansion of MPM brands to meet annual objectives.

This role deals with a wide variety of tasks including, but not limited to the following:

Ownership

• Develop and strengthen relationships with new and existing accounts, driving a clear understanding of the account’s needs, strategies, and objectives to achieve maximum retail distribution, pricing and promotional merchandising for MPM brands.
  • Direct Accounts:
    • Pet Supplies Plus, Pet Supermarket, Pet Food Express
  • Distributors:
    • USA: Pet Food Experts, Phillips Pet Food, VSI
    • Canada: Natural Pet, Anipet, Avafina
    • In-direct key accounts: Regional chains purchasing via Distributor
• Understand competitive landscape and market trends
• Monitor and deliver sales target goals within assigned responsibilities.
• Manage JBPs, trade spend and ROI to stay within desired budget.
• Develop Distributor and Direct Retailer promotional plan, integrate a national strategy into each account’s promotional calendar and advertising plans as appropriate.
• Organize and lead customer meetings including agendas, retailer specific presentations, follow up actions and summaries to key stakeholders.
• Attend trade shows and open houses driving business development for MPM.
• Responsible for customer contact strategy, presentation creation, analysis, forecasting, and tactical preparation related to customer calls and events.

Support

• Work cross functionally to support new products, go to marketing strategies, and sales techniques across the brands.
• Use data analysis (Syndicated data, Distributor generated data, Store Level POS, etc.) to assist in identifying trends, coordination of promotional plans & inventory forecasting.
• Provide regular summaries of Category trends, EPOS performance, and budgets.
• MAP Policy – partner cross functionally for policy data, authorized sellers and to improved violation tracking, and overall compliance.
• Monthly inventory forecast plan, assist with accurate and timely forecasting for MPM to maximize sales opportunities by having the right product, in the right quantity, at the right time.
• Manage P&L by recommending opportunities for increased penetration, based on knowledge of customers and territory.
• Any other duties commensurate with the level of responsibility of this role.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Competencies

• Strong written and verbal skills – Ability to demonstrate sales capability, knowledge and understanding of the business, products, and people
• Ability to present – to accounts, brokers, sales and distributor reps, including excellent communication skills
• Effective relationship builder – working collaboratively with customers and MPM stakeholders is a key part of the role
• Strategic Thinker – Prioritizing tasks to deliver impactful results with resources using effective time management. Always focused on business objectives and company goals.
• Commercial Acumen – Assess business opportunities looking at upside and investment. Understand the impact of costs and has a focus on profit when driving sales growth. Identify risks and mitigation and understand financial impact of actions.
• High attention to detail – Ensures accurate delivery of information and collateral
• Open to change – Ability to work in a fast paced and continuously evolving environment
• Team Player – Comfortable working both individually and as part of a dynamic team. Caring about “what gets done” and “how it gets done” a key component of MPM culture.

Essential

• 10 years in sales with direct account responsibility/ national sales management experience

• Passion, knowledge and experience within the pet industry is preferred
• Communication skills – Ability to clearly and concisely communicate with consumers and key stakeholders.
• IT literate – Familiar with Microsoft Office Suite – particularly Excel and PowerPoint. Training will be provided on in-house systems

Desirable

• Bachelor’s degree or related discipline preferred but not required
• Experience with Pet Specialty distributor network and knowledge of distributor requirements for new products and on-going annual support programs preferred but not required
• Experience working with syndicated data or category management preferred
• Pet Lover! 😊

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