Description

Job Title: Customer Specialist

As a Customer Specialist, you play a pivotal role in driving our client’s success at our customer’s retail locations. Your primary responsibilities include owning the HQ relationship with key customers. You will work closely with Key Account Managers (“KAMs”) to manage implementation of clients’ strategic annual plans with our customer’s.

In this role, you are the customer expert. You will develop accurate promotional plans and drive successful annual reviews using data and insights. You will drive operational excellence with the customer by ensuring accurate purchase orders, implementation of cost changes and client/customer contract uploads in customer systems. You will work with the customer, face-to-face, in their retail stores, ensuring our clients’ promo activities and strategic sales initiatives are executed.

The Company is one of North America’s leading sales and marketing agencies specializing in outsourced sales, merchandising, category management, and marketing services to manufacturers, suppliers, and producers of food products and consumer packaged goods. The Company services a variety of trade channels including grocery, mass merchandise, specialty, convenience, drug, dollar, club, hardware, consumer electronics, and home centers. We bridge the gap between manufacturers and retailers, providing consumers access to the best products available in the marketplace today.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Direct Reports

• This position does not have supervisory responsibilities for direct reports

Indirect Reports

• Does not have direct reports, but may delegate work of others and provide guidance, direction and mentoring to indirect reports

Essential Responsibility

Revenue Budget Achievement

• Implement budgets (company and client income/expense) by operationalizing all plans in-store thru timely on-ground execution of activities
• Responsible for achieving P&L targets, company/client income and expense budget goals for multiple clients at a customer

Client Key Performance Indicators Achievement (focused on executional excellence)

• Align clients’ strategic sales plans to customer priorities, consumer preferences and client plans
• Conduct data analysis to lead customer presentations using expertise on customer needs and strategy to win for multiple categories
• Implement client strategic annual plans at the customer by driving distribution, pricing, shelving, and promotional volume at assigned set of customers
• Track retail pricing and indirect order guides to critically analyze category performance
• Lead issue resolution in-store to accurately reflect clients plans (planned vs. implemented) and effectively address them by swiftly resolving the identified discrepancies
• Monitor distribution of new products or SKUs for clients at assigned customers and proactively maintain distribution of existing SKUs and products at stores

Customer Relationship Management

• Drive engagement with multiple stakeholders at a customer’s HQ via buyer meetings to understand customer needs; then aligning customer goals with client initiatives to get winning results
• Represent our KAMs and aligned client strategies to various customers, with regular store visits to assess key trends, opportunities, and competitive threats to the client portfolio

Data Systems and Pricing Activities

• Analyzes and consistently monitors customer data reports; actively communicates customer performance metrics vs. forecast targets with respective KAMs
• Drives cross-collaboration among all internal teams (e.g., administrative support functions) to ensure seamless execution on client system changes (e.g., deductions, POs, contracts, etc.)

Minimum Qualifications

• Education Level: (Required): Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience
• Field of Study/Area of Experience: Product Innovation, Marketing, or related field
• 3-5+ Years of experience in on-ground/field sales

Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Excellent sales data platform and customer systems knowledge
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills
• PC skills- including a working understanding of spreadsheets (Excel), word processing (MS Word)
• Work experience in applicable field, (i.e., sales and marketing agency, Customer, Client)
• Proven track record in sales helpful

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