Seafood Merchandising Manager

usfoods; Columbia (SC); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

US Foods in Columbia, SC seeks a Seafood Strategy Specialist responsible for sourcing, pursuing and developing high potential seafood opportunities to drive COP penetration in new and existing accounts.

You will drive the implementation of the seafood strategy within the market area and provide strategic counsel to district and regional sales managers by capturing growth opportunities and expanding market share.

Qualifications

• 4 years of sales experience in food service or manufacturing preferred.
• Travel up to 20% required.
• Strong knowledge of seafood species and seasonality preferred.

Responsibilities

• Synthesize market trends and develop seafood growth strategies for share expansion.
• Train sales reps and specialists on seafood category features and benefits.
• Build and maintain relationships with top tier seafood customers and vendors.

Skills

Sales experience

Project management

Seafood knowledge

MS Word

MS Excel

PowerPoint

Education

Four-year college degree

Tools

CRM systems

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Join Our Community of Food People!

Responsible for sourcing, pursuing, securing, and developing highest potential new seafood opportunities to drive COP penetration in new and existing accounts. Drive and execute the implementation of US Foods division seafood strategy within the defined market area. Provides strategic counsel to district and regional sales managers by capturing and penetrating high potential seafood growth opportunities and developing market share.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Research potential customer requirements, menu design, business size, current suppliers, etc.; analyze current trends within the market and remain informed of seafood market conditions, product innovations, competitors' products, prices, and sales. Share information with chefs/specialists to provide customers with new menu ideas and products. In coordination with local merchandising & sales leadership teams, develop and implement plan for seafood share growth strategy. Ensure implementation is in alignment with overall US Foods category strategy and goals, as defined by Region & Area.
• Drive KPIs across category (including sales case growth, category penetration, EB penetration, and TM feedback) and competitive market pricing; work with TMs to refine customer product offering, order guides and potential pricing for new accounts.
• Communicate changing market conditions and weekly talking points for the sales team and top seafood customers.
• Become an expert on assigned US Foods exclusive brands programs. Understanding full product specifications, sourcing model, seasonality, and product variations to work directly with vendors & customers.
• Work with merchandising & marketing to communicate incoming products, current inventory, item movement/history, seasonal projections, and potential/current outages to all. Communicate with sales management on existing contract inventory levels, future buys and dead inventory.
• Work directly with local merchandising team to review NPD and NLP to develop species strategy and development plan.
• Train sales reps and specialists throughout the market area on key features and benefits of the category and how to better position the product with our customers. Develop species and seasonality tracker for training and buying.
• Build relationships with all sales management and tier 1 seafood customers to develop sales plans for excessive inventory, customer bids and segment strategy. Maintain ongoing relationships with key decision makers; leverage industry contacts to "follow" decision makers as they move.
• Leverage SME to support Specialists/NBMs/DSMs/RSMs in opening new accounts with highest potential and accompany them on high potential accounts' visits to provide strategic category expertise.
• Other duties as assigned by manager

SUPERVISION

N/A

RELATIONSHIPS

Internal: Will work directly with local sales, sales support, and merch teams. Will work closely with seafood commodity procurement manager and field category manager to build and execute strategy.

External: Manage relationships with approved corporate and local seafood vendors. Also responsible for building and maintaining customer relationships with top tier seafood customers and prospects.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Onsite: The associate in this role is expected to perform assigned responsibilities inside a US Foods office-based environment.

Build & Maintain relationships with top tier seafood customers through a combination of in person visits and telecommunication. Will require use of personal vehicle and in-person visits to accounts.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum 4 years sales experience required, with some project management experience preferred, ideally this experience will derive from the food service or food manufacturing industries.

20% of overnight travel required.

Strong knowledge of a wide variety of seafood species and seasonality preferred.

EDUCATION

Four-year college degree in business or related field, or equivalent field experience required.

CERTIFICATIONS/TRAINING

N/A

LICENSES

N/A

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Must possess the ability to operate successfully within a matrix organization, working effectively with multiple groups. Must be able to work in a team setting, drive organizational transformations and support change management within the organization. Must be able to provide fact-based recommendations across a variety of management levels resulting in buy-in and improvement in category performance. Must be self-directed and highly motivated, possessing a strong business acumen, sound interpersonal skills, and excellent presentation skills. Proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel required; working knowledge of PowerPoint is required.

PHYSICAL QUALIFICATIONS

Standard required physical activities including length of time performing each activity.

HR/Manager: The Corporate Support Office physical activities chart