National Business Development Manager

Chemical Guys; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

401k match

PTO + 5 sick days

6 holidays

Employee discount

Job summary

Chemical Guys seeks a National Business Development Manager, Emerging Channels to identify, develop, and secure new retail customers across Grocery, Convenience Stores, Travel Centers, Drug and other high-growth channels in North America.

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Global Sales, this hunter role owns the full lifecycle from prospecting to onboarding, building executive relationships, negotiating agreements, and launching partnerships, with heavy travel and cross-functional

Qualifications

• Minimum of five (5) years of successful business development, national account sales, or channel development experience.
• Experience opening new national or regional retail accounts and delivering measurable revenue and distribution growth.
• Proven ability to build partnerships with retailers, wholesalers, distributors, brokers, and buying organizations.
• Strong understanding of Grocery, Convenience Store, Travel Center distribution models and channel economics.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Identify, prioritize, and secure new national and regional retail customers.
• Lead customer presentations, product demonstrations, and line reviews to communicate Chemical Guys' category leadership.
• Negotiate pricing, terms, and distribution agreements within guidelines.
• Travel 50-70% across the U.S. and manage onboarding to new accounts.
• Maintain CRM pipeline and provide regular forecast updates.

Skills

New business development

National accounts

Channel development

Executive presentations

Negotiation

CRM

Travel coordination

Sales forecasting

Autonomous work

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Sales, or related field

Tools

CRM platforms

Microsoft Office

Job description

The National Business Development Manager, Emerging Channels is responsible for identifying, developing, and securing new retail customers that accelerate Chemical Guys' growth across strategic retail channels throughout North America.

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Global Sales, this individual contributor serves as the company's lead business development professional for emerging retail channels, with a primary emphasis on Grocery, Convenience Stores, Travel Centers, Drug, and other high-growth retail opportunities.

This is a true hunter role focused on identifying new opportunities, developing executive-level customer relationships, negotiating commercial agreements, and successfully launching new retail partnerships. The position owns the complete new-account lifecycle, from prospecting through customer onboarding, before transitioning ongoing account management to the appropriate commercial leader.

The successful candidate possesses a strong understanding of the distribution models, merchandising strategies, pricing architecture, promotional funding, and margin expectations required to compete successfully within Grocery, Convenience, Travel Center, and Drug channels. This individual will leverage Chemical Guys' position as the category leader in automotive appearance care to expand distribution, create incremental category growth, and establish long-term strategic partnerships with retailers, wholesalers, distributors, brokers, and buying organizations.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

National Business Development & Prospecting

• Identify, prioritize, and secure new national and regional retail customers that align with Chemical Guys' long-term growth strategy.
• Build and execute strategic business development plans focused on Grocery, Convenience Stores, Travel Centers, Drug, and other emerging retail channels.
• Develop and continuously refresh a target-account list using market research, industry relationships, referrals, brokers, distributors, trade associations, and customer intelligence.
• Generate a self-sourced pipeline through direct outreach, industry events, trade shows, customer referrals, and strategic networking rather than relying primarily on inbound leads.
• Research prospective customers to understand their business model, assortment strategy, distribution structure, incumbent suppliers, buying process, and financial expectations before engagement.
• Lead customer presentations, product demonstrations, and line reviews that communicate Chemical Guys' category leadership, consumer relevance, innovation, and ability to drive incremental growth.
• Evaluate and recommend the appropriate route-to-market for each opportunity, including direct-to-retailer, wholesaler, distributor, redistributor, broker-supported, and hybrid models.
• Build financially sound customer proposals that account for retail gross margin, distributor margin, broker commissions, freight, promotional funding, allowances, rebates, slotting, returns, and other channel-specific costs.
• Understand the operating and margin expectations of Grocery, Convenience Store, Travel Center, Drug, wholesale, and distribution partners.
• Develop assortment, pricing, merchandising, and promotional recommendations tailored to each customer's format, consumer, store footprint, and category strategy.
• Identify white-space opportunities where Chemical Guys can create incremental category growth, improve productivity, and introduce new consumers to automotive appearance care.
• Negotiate pricing, terms, promotional programs, distribution agreements, and initial program structure within established company guidelines, escalating exceptions as required.
• Maintain accurate and current pipeline records in the company CRM, including account status, opportunity value, probability, next steps, decision timing, and expected launch date.
• Provide regular pipeline, forecast, and activity updates to the Senior Vice President, Global Sales, identifying risk and opportunity early.
• Manage a disciplined sales funnel from initial contact through signed agreement, prioritizing time against the highest-value and highest-probability opportunities.
• Track progress against assigned revenue, distribution, gross-margin, and new-account objectives and adjust activity levels to remain on pace.
• Develop realistic first-year sales forecasts and launch assumptions in partnership with Finance, Supply Chain, and Sales leadership.

Customer Onboarding & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Finance, Marketing, Product Development, Supply Chain, Customer Experience, Operations, and Legal to ensure new opportunities are commercially viable and operationally executable.
• Coordinate customer setup, credit review, item setup, product data, samples, forecast development, inventory readiness, initial order flow, and launch timing.
• Work with Marketing to develop compelling sell-in materials, customer-specific presentations, merchandising concepts, and launch support.
• Ensure a complete and professional handoff to the appropriate account owner after the customer is successfully launched and stable.
• Share competitive intelligence, customer feedback, pricing trends, route-to-market insights, and emerging channel opportunities with Sales leadership and cross-functional partners.

Industry Engagement & Travel

• Represent Chemical Guys at relevant industry trade shows, buying events, conferences, and customer meetings, including Grocery, Convenience, Travel Center, Drug, wholesale, and distribution events.
• Build relationships with key retailers, distributors, wholesalers, brokers, buying groups, and industry influencers.
• Travel frequently throughout the United States to meet prospective customers face to face; travel expectation is approximately 50 to 70 percent and may include overnight and weekend travel.
• Manage travel and entertainment expenses responsibly and within company policy.

SUCCESS MEASURES

• New customer acquisition and number of qualified accounts opened.
• Incremental revenue and points of distribution secured.
• Gross-margin performance and quality of new business.
• Pipeline health, activity discipline, and forecast accuracy.
• Speed and quality of customer onboarding and launch execution.
• Strategic expansion into priority emerging channels.
• Cross-functional collaboration, professionalism, and successful transition of launched accounts.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Minimum of five (5) years of successful business development, national account sales, or channel development experience within Grocery, Convenience Stores, Travel Centers, Consumer Packaged Goods, wholesale distribution, or closely related industries.
• Demonstrated success opening new national or regional retail accounts and delivering measurable revenue and distribution growth.
• Proven experience developing business through retailers, wholesalers, distributors, brokers, and buying organizations.
• Strong understanding of Grocery, Convenience Store, and Travel Center distribution models, including direct, warehouse, wholesale, redistributor, broker-supported, and hybrid structures.
• Solid understanding of retailer and distributor gross-margin expectations, pricing architecture, promotional funding, freight, allowances, commissions, rebates, slotting, returns, and other customer economics.
• Proven ability to build persuasive, fact-based business cases and negotiate commercial agreements.
• Strong in-person selling skills, including needs discovery, executive presentations, financial discussions, negotiation, and closing.
• Highly self-motivated and comfortable operating with autonomy, accountability, and limited daily oversight.
• Strong organizational, project-management, and written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency with CRM platforms, Microsoft Office, and general sales productivity tools.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 50 to 70 percent, including overnight and occasional weekend travel.
• Valid driver's license and clean driving record.

Preferred

• Existing relationships with national or regional Grocery, Convenience Store, Travel Center, Drug, wholesale, or distribution customers.
• Experience working with national sales agencies, regional brokers, distributors, wholesalers, and buying groups.
• Experience using syndicated data, customer analytics, category insights, or market research to support customer recommendations.
• Experience in automotive aftermarket, car care, consumer products, or another branded CPG category.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Sales, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

COMPENSATION

Base Salary Range: $85,000 to $130,000 annually, depending on experience, qualifications, and business needs.

Variable Compensation: targeted at approximately 30 percent of base salary.

This range reflects Chemical Guys' good faith estimate of the base pay for this role at the time of posting and may vary based on experience, qualifications, location, and business needs, consistent with applicable pay transparency requirements.

Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401k match, voluntary Life and Disability insurance, FSA, PTO + 5 sick days, 6 holidays & employee discount.

Chemical Guys is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.