Sales Strategy Manager - San Leandro, CA

At Ghirardelli, we're on a mission to become a one billion dollar brand and beyond. We want to be every consumer's first choice of premium chocolate, and we believe we can do that through our products and the way we do business, which are all inspired by our brand commitment to Making Life A Bite Better. We are a company committed to both personal and professional growth and believe that each employee contributes directly to Ghirardelli's growth and success.

The Sales Strategy Manager will develop the Business Plan strategies and tools which will deliver national sales and profit objectives. This Manager leads the development and implementation of business plans, sales presentations, and tools for field sales. The Sales Strategy Manager owns the growth plan on In-Store Execution, specifically Distribution and Display. They create & deploy Perfect Store guidelines for their categories, and track Sales performance against these goals. They will work as an internal sales liaison across all functional groups with emphasis on marketing, supply chain, and manufacturing to deliver against the demand plan and customer needs for their business.

• The Sales Strategy Manager will own their responsibilities across all Wholesale Retailers, working with Sales Teams to bring plans to market.
• The Sales Strategy Manager will partner closely with the cross functional teams to build plans, but does not have any direct reports.

Develop and implement In-Store Execution plans

• Present strategic direction and business building programs to the sales organization and internal management including:
  
  • Owns development of Distribution growth plan by identifying opportunities for distribution gains through IRI, evaluating opportunities according to ROI, and deploying plan to Sales team to close distribution gaps.
  • Owns development of Display growth plan by identifying opportunities to drive incremental displays and developing tools to unlock through creating new display vehicles, selling stories, or working with partner brands.
  
  
  
  
• Create national sales presentations in support of the Branded Sales Priorities
• Use consumption and consumer data to build fact-based sales presentations to address market opportunities
• Lead role in the development of sales presentations for National Sales Meetings

Develops and Tracks In-Store Execution Goals

• Presentations and materials to achieve Perfect Store objectives
• Develop and deploy pricing strategies
• Determine assortment & display priorities
• Maintain on-shelf guidance with input from Category Management & Marketing
• Track on/off goals by creating IRI and Shipment data reporting
• Ad hoc presentations in support of field sales

Act as the Company's internal sales resource

• Attends key internal meetings
• Own sales input into New Product Development process
• Resource to marketing department on external opportunities
• Work with field sales in developing and monitoring key account business plans
• Coordinates and facilitates broad communications between marketing team and field sales
• Conduct joint analyses with other functions in order to develop and provide account strategies

Accountable for monthly category forecasts (where applicable)

• Forecast volumes for customer-specific trade programs and new display programs
• Forecast innovation in the tactical planning horizon

Other Responsibilities

• Works with field sales and participates in key sales calls.
• Assisting with training and onboarding new team members on Customer Marketing team, as well as onboarding cross functional team members on how to engage with Customer Marketing.
• Transfer expertise and knowledge to Cross functional team members.
• Responsible for leading the Sales Business Planning process to include Management Plan reviews.

• Bachelor's degree required
• Minimum 6 to 8 years of CPG sales team experience
• Minimum 2 years in analytical role (sales analyst or similar)
• Minimum 3 years of direct selling experience, category management, or marketing experience in major CPG company

Other Job Requirements

• Travel on average 2-3 nights per month, but up to 5 nights in a month.
• Ability to travel to various locations across the country or local travel to meetings
• Work from our Corporate office on a hybrid schedule

Salary: $$/ year + Bonus Eligibility