Retail Sales Lead - Northern California - General Mills

OVERVIEW

The Retail Sales Lead (RSL) leads, motivates and develops a team of field sales representatives within an assigned geographic area to successfully sell and merchandise displays, and implement retail distribution priorities. You will ensure consistent communication between our direct customer teams and retail organization, collaborate with internal customer teams and external broker partners, and manage resource deployment.

Candidates in this role must be located or willing to relocate to Sacramento or San Francisco.  

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• PROBLEM SOLVING & ANALYTICS
  • Analyze data to develop selling strategies and tactics for field sales representatives to drive incremental sales
• SELLING EXPERTISE & LEADERSHIP
  • Effectively lead and execute National Retail Organization (NRO) retail priorities, including training, management, and directional support to field sales representatives
  • Responsible for delivering business strategies, display plans, new product execution, established distribution, shelving, and merchandising priorities to field sales representatives
    • Collaborate with Retail Customer/Area Manager (RCM/RAM) to develop account & market-based retail business plans aligning retail execution with General Mills’ priorities and account specific needs.
    • Average of 3 days per week in the field working with retail sales representatives, performing store audits & meeting with customer account teams
    • Varies by location: As the NRO point-of contact (POC), meet with customer account teams on a frequent basis and review short-term/long-term promotional plans to develop retail executional strategies and tactics supporting key events
  • Lead, motivate and develop Retail Sales Representatives (RSR) to build an effective retail team
    • Monitor and coach RSRs through work-withs, individual skills development plans, and provide performance feedback
    • Strive to attain a minimum of 3 work-withs per year, as appropriately needed, with each RSR
    • Interview and hire RSR candidates with the right skills and motivation to represent General Mills
• EXECUTIONAL EXCELLENCE
  • Take personal accountability and ownership for results, and deeply understand customer needs
  • Understand GMI products, categories, and brand priorities and how to link those to store opportunities
    • Effectively deploy retail resources to support General Mill’s strategic business plans
    • Effectively manage team coverage against the retail deployment model to ensure RSRs are efficiently operating within an assigned territory
  • Collaborate and provide direction to third-party partners to meet key account priorities (i.e. merchandising programs, new item surges and open territory coverage, point-of-sale executions
    • Partner with Customer Teams to set objectives to align on priorities for RSRs to drive distribution and merchandising
    • Ensuring support materials are provided to RSRs (i.e. new item code numbers, direction on new item shelf-placement, updated distribution list).
  • Monitor and provide feedback on aligned priorities
• LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS
  • Model GMI Leadership behaviors to foster an inclusive environment and embrace a learning mindset and demonstrate personal accountability.

DIMENSIONS

• 16 direct reports
• 460 retail stores

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Must live within market area or be willing to relocate
• At least 3-4 years relevant experience
• Bachelor’s Degree required
• Passion to sell/represent General Mills and our top consumer food brands
• Must be proficient in software packages (Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint) and ability to use tablets (i.e. iPad)
• Demonstrated critical thinking skills and results orientation
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with internal and external partners
• Ability to build partnerships with key decision makers across and throughout an organization
• Strong problem solving, analytic, influencing, and negotiation skills
• Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, train, motivate, and provide clear direction to a team
• US work authorization that does not require sponsorship now or in the future
• Valid driver's license and satisfactory driving record

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Must be able to lift and carry a minimum of 20 pounds while using the appropriate lifting techniques and safety rules
• Prolonged walking, standing and some climbing of ladders at store level

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Prior experience using internal or external data sources (e.g., Nielsen, IRI, CPM, sales data)
• Relevant industry experience in sales or retail account management
• Willingness to relocate for future GMI career opportunities