The Customer Business Manager Mid-Atlantic will drive sales strategies to grow all Danone North America Business Units at Ingles, Merchants Distributor Inc (MDI), and Lowes.  Be the key touch-point with customers – sharing and selling the Danone products to  retailers.  Understand customer business needs and build short and long-term strategies that support those customer goals while achieving company sales targets and financial expectations.  Execute company plan at the customer level – building customer/category plans in coordination with Net Sales targets.  Lead and coordinate cross-functional company efforts with customers (e.g., bring in category, shopper marketing, customer service, etc.) in order to accomplish customer plans.

Remote, ideally located in NC/SC/TN due to customer geographic proximity

In addition to driving results and using resources effectively, the CBM will be responsible for training, developing, and retaining a Sales Analyst. 

Key responsibilities

• • Build and execute the customer plan to grow the business
    • Coordinate selling process for the given customer for customer/channel/category to deliver profitable growth
    • Gain a deep understanding of customer needs and priorities (e.g., their KPIs, business/category goals, competition, etc.)
    • Develop sales/account plans to meet customer objectives while operating within Danone NA corporate initiatives and guidelines (e.g., customized SKUs, operational targets, etc.)
    • Look for opportunities to gain distribution on new products and improve product exposure (acv distribution, shelf positioning, advertising, and promotions) – including monitoring what competitors are doing
    • Negotiate with customer headquarters/category buyers on pricing, new items, and promotions
    • Collaborate with customer and internal teams on joint business plans
    • Leverage internal resources (category management, customer planning, shopper marketing, etc.) to drive success at customer
  • Enhance relationship with customer and Danone NA
    • Build and maintain relationships with key customer personnel
    • Develop calendar for customer-touchpoints – define who needs to be involved at each meeting, purpose for each interaction, etc. (top-to-tops, market visits, etc.)
    • Engage cross-functional experts with customer as needed (e.g., category deep-dives, latest shopper marketing, etc.)
    • Prepare for and conduct scheduled customer business reviews (e.g., bi-annual re-sets, JBP, etc.)
    • Manage the development and delivery for all customer presentations
    • Represent Danone NA during tradeshows, conferences, and events attended by customer
  • Monitor account performance and customer P&L
    • Manage the customer P&L – have very clear sense of the financial targets to hit with the customer – growth rates, trade rates, etc.
    • Manage trade spending, promotional programs, spending across the brands to meet targets and remain within compliance of all Danone Guardrails
    • Manage total customer spending, deduction management and pre-pays within Danone NA guidelines
    • Provide key inputs for demand planning – own the bottom-up forecast, provide key input into the bottom-up forecast for the S&OP process
    • Track account-level performance and adjust behaviors to hit targets
    • Perform account administration, including finalizing customer contracts and requests for trade funding (beyond plan)
    • Ensure accurate and timely submission of customer promotional contracts
    • Input expected trade/shopper spend (total customer plan) for each promo
  • Provide customer/category feedback internally
    • Communicate customer needs to internal stakeholders
    • Lead cross functional team communication (supply chain, customer service, shopper marketing, etc.) related to promotion, merchandising, and distribution
    • Manage internal updates related to planning system, merchandising calendar, and distribution
    • Provide category thought leadership and insights from customer to drive both category growth and business across Danone NA.
    • Communicate emerging market needs and requirements for product development

• 4 year business degree
• 3-5 years minimum with CPG company within a customer facing Sales function
• Strong communication skills (written, verbal, & active listening)
• Strong analytical & problem-solving skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office – Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• Ability to be both a self-starter and team player
• Category management background a plus
• People management experience an asset
• Open to remote (30% travel), ideally located in NC/SC/TN due to customer geographic proximity for Category Reviews, JBP’s, Food Shows, Conferences, Golf Events, Grand Store Openings, etc.)