Director of Customer Success

Confidential; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-based bonus

Job summary

Confidential in New York seeks a Director of Client Success & Inside Sales to drive revenue growth and client retention across an established client base. You will lead the Client Success/Inside Sales team, shape programs and processes, and partner with executive leadership to define commercial strategy.

This leadership role offers high visibility and growth potential within foodservice distribution. The ideal leader combines data-driven decision making with deep foodservice distribution

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in inside sales, account management, or client success within a foodservice distribution environment.
• 2+ years of direct people-management experience, ideally leading a team of approximately 5–10 inside sales, account management, or customer service professionals.
• Demonstrated success growing revenue and gross profit across an existing portfolio of foodservice accounts.
• Strong understanding of food distribution operations and economics, including order cutoffs, routing and delivery windows, drop size, pricing, gross margin, credits, and accounts receivable.
• Strong food and product knowledge, including storage requirements, shelf life, seasonality, availability, and substitutions.
• Understanding of how chefs, restaurant owners, operators, and purchasing managers buy, including order guides, par levels, menu changes, and price sensitivity.
• Establish relationships within New York restaurant/hospitality community; analytical with data.

Responsibilities

• Own organic revenue and gross profit growth across the existing client base, including retention, expansion, share-of-wallet, and margin targets.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Client Success/Inside Sales Representatives, including hiring, onboarding, training, performance management, and professional development.
• Oversee multiple books of business and ensure client coverage is balanced, responsive, and aligned with each account's potential.
• Manage the team's daily order cycle, ensuring order accuracy and proactive communication around out-of-stocks, short-ships, substitutions, and same-day changes.
• Develop account growth strategies using purchasing patterns, menu analysis, order guide reviews, and product sampling to identify expansion opportunities.
• Monitor client health using purchase history, order frequency, drop size, and engagement data to identify at-risk accounts and lead proactive retention efforts.
• Manage account pricing and margins within company guidelines and partner with Finance on credit terms, collections, credits, and returns.
• Leverage ERP and CRM systems to track account performance, identify growth opportunities, and provide visibility across the portfolio.
• Build scalable processes, playbooks, service standards, reporting, and CRM/ERP workflows for the Client Success organization.
• Establish and report on key performance indicators including retention, sales per account, gross margin, drop size, order accuracy, credits, and returns.
• Partner closely with Outside Sales, Sourcing & Procurement, Logistics, Finance, and Marketing to ensure seamless client onboarding, ordering, fulfillment, and service.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex delivery, product quality, billing, and client-service issues and address root causes to prevent recurring problems.
• Build strong relationships with key chefs, owners, operators, and buyers and represent the voice of the client internally.
• Stay closely connected to restaurant, culinary, and broader food‑industry trends to help inform product assortment and client recommendations.

Skills

Inside Sales

Account Management

Client Success

Leadership

Data Analysis

ERP/CRM Systems

NetSuite

HubSpot

Foodservice Knowledge

Relationship Building

Education

Bachelor's degree in business/hospitality/culinary

Equivalent industry experience

Tools

NetSuite

HubSpot

CRM Systems

B2B Ordering Platforms

Job description

Director of Client Success & Inside Sales

Location: New York City/Brooklyn

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

The Opportunity:

A leading specialty foodservice distributor is seeking a Director of Client Success & Inside Sales to lead its Client Success/Inside Sales team and drive organic growth across an established client base.

The company supplies high-quality specialty and international ingredients to some of New York's most innovative restaurants, cocktail bars, bakeries, cafés, hospitality groups, and food retailers.

This is a highly visible leadership role with direct responsibility for revenue growth, client retention, expansion, and team performance. The Director will oversee multiple books of business, lead and develop a team of Client Success Representatives, and ensure clients receive the service, expertise, and attention needed to grow their businesses.

Reporting directly to the CEO and partnering closely with executive leadership, this person will also help shape the systems, processes, and commercial strategy behind the Client Success function. As the company continues to grow, there is potential for this role to expand into broader sales leadership, including Outside Sales.

The ideal candidate is a data-driven inside sales, account management, or client success leader with deep foodservice distribution experience who understands how chefs and restaurant operators buy. This person should thrive in an entrepreneurial environment, enjoy building processes and teams, and have a genuine passion for food and the New York restaurant scene.

Responsibilities

• Own organic revenue and gross profit growth across the existing client base, including retention, expansion, share-of-wallet, and margin targets.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Client Success/Inside Sales Representatives, including hiring, onboarding, training, performance management, and professional development.
• Oversee multiple books of business and ensure client coverage is balanced, responsive, and aligned with each account's potential.
• Manage the team's daily order cycle, ensuring order accuracy and proactive communication around out-of-stocks, short-ships, substitutions, and same-day changes.
• Develop account growth strategies using purchasing patterns, menu analysis, order guide reviews, and product sampling to identify expansion opportunities.
• Monitor client health using purchase history, order frequency, drop size, and engagement data to identify at-risk accounts and lead proactive retention efforts.
• Manage account pricing and margins within company guidelines and partner with Finance on credit terms, collections, credits, and returns.
• Leverage ERP and CRM systems to track account performance, identify growth opportunities, and provide visibility across the portfolio.
• Build scalable processes, playbooks, service standards, reporting, and CRM/ERP workflows for the Client Success organization.
• Establish and report on key performance indicators including retention, sales per account, gross margin, drop size, order accuracy, credits, and returns.
• Partner closely with Outside Sales, Sourcing & Procurement, Logistics, Finance, and Marketing to ensure seamless client onboarding, ordering, fulfillment, and service.
• Serve as the escalation point for complex delivery, product quality, billing, and client-service issues and address root causes to prevent recurring problems.
• Build strong relationships with key chefs, owners, operators, and buyers and represent the voice of the client internally.
• Stay closely connected to restaurant, culinary, and broader food‑industry trends to help inform product assortment and client recommendations.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in inside sales, account management, or client success within a foodservice distribution environment, including broadline, specialty, produce, protein, imported, or specialty ingredients.
• 2+ years of direct people-management experience, ideally leading a team of approximately 5–10 inside sales, account management, or customer service professionals.
• Demonstrated success growing revenue and gross profit across an existing portfolio of foodservice accounts.
• Strong understanding of food distribution operations and economics, including order cutoffs, routing and delivery windows, drop size, pricing, gross margin, credits, and accounts receivable.
• Strong food and product knowledge, including storage requirements, shelf life, seasonality, availability, and substitutions.
• Understanding of how chefs, restaurant owners, operators, and purchasing managers buy, including order guides, par levels, menu changes, and price sensitivity.
• Established relationships within the New York restaurant and hospitality community are a plus.
• Highly analytical and comfortable using data to manage client portfolios, identify opportunities, and measure team performance.
• Hands‑on experience with ERP, CRM, and B2B ordering platforms; NetSuite experience strongly preferred and HubSpot experience a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to build processes, systems, and teams in a fast‑moving, entrepreneurial environment.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence clients, colleagues, and executive leadership.
• Client‑first mentality with a hands‑on, solutions‑oriented approach.
• Bachelor's degree in business, hospitality, culinary arts, or a related field preferred; equivalent industry experience will be considered.
• Availability for early‑morning starts tied to the foodservice order and delivery cycle and occasional off‑hours support for urgent client needs.
• Culinary, restaurant operations, or hospitality experience is a plus.
• Fluency in an additional language, particularly Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, or Spanish, is a plus.
• Genuine passion for specialty ingredients, global cuisines, and the New York restaurant scene.
• Base salary: $120,000–$150,000, depending on experience.
• Performance‑based bonus opportunity.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive workplace.