Lucta Looking for Sales Account Manager West Coast in AZ, CA, CO, ID, OR, UT, WA Full Time

Position: Account Manager West Coast Flavor Sales

Location: West Coast (Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming)

Purpose of the Position

The Account Manager – West will be part of the Flavor Division of Lucta, reporting to the Flavor Director and directly responsible for managing and growing the territory aligned with the strategy of the division and larger organization.

Role and Responsibilities

• Responsible for executing against the commercial strategy for the territory.  Develop specific action plans per account for all key projects
• Use of all commercial tools provided using Challenger Sales approach (commercial insight selling: teach, tailor and take control).
• Ability to help customers throughout the buying process and help them achieve their goals making them feel successful in the process.
• Entrepreneurial approach to managing, growing and developing the territory.
• Presents the company’s flavor solutions to prospective customers and work to sell flavors at an acceptable profit level.
• Drive growth of territory through prospecting new accounts and supporting existing accounts within assigned geography.  Work to meet and ideally exceed budgeted growth against the company’s annual growth targets.
• Determine, with the support of Marketing, which regional trade shows to exhibit at and present products to showcase our core capabilities to prospective accounts.
• Provide customer, product, and market insights to the companies’ supporting functional groups to help them provide the correct levels and types of support needed to gain new business, increase profitability, and maintain current customers.
• Continually work closely with R&D and Applications to exhibit our products in proactive demonstrations that increase our visibility at prospective and existing accounts
• Continually research and contact new prospective customers to keep sales funnel active, to ensure continued and strategic growth of territory.
• Plan and arrange travel schedules to maximize efficient client contact to stay within provided expense budgets.
• Continually monitor and strive for ways to improve profitability through product mix, price negotiations and product cost optimization.
• Conduct all requested input for reports, follow up, projects and other communication so other functional groups can proceed and function in a timely manner.
• Act as a liaison between the customer and company’s functional areas when needed to support sales opportunities.

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree required; MBA preferred
• Strategic Planning, Business Development, Contract Negotiation and Key Account Management experience
• 3-5 years of previous sales experience in ingredient/food – experience in flavors a plus
• Entrepreneurial mindset and strategic thinker
• Project management skills, sales pipeline
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, problem solving abilities
• Knowledge of sales programs such as Consultive Selling, Strategic Account Management, Challenger Sales, Sense Making, and Virtual Selling a plus
• Strong analytical skills and a structured, effective and responsible style of working, managing time efficiently.
• Impressive communication and presentation skills
• Excellent knowledge of common MS Office applications, Teams, Skype, etc.
• Committed to the customer (customer centric)
• Ability to drive growth for the organization
• Team player – Able to be flexible and work under pressure when needed
• Ability to think through a complex selling environment to assess internal and external reactions/consequences to decisions or actions.

We are an Equal Employment Opportunity (“EEO”) Employer.

It has been and will continue to be a fundamental policy of Lucta not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, gender, gender identity, pregnancy, marital status, partnership status, domestic violence victim status, sexual orientation, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, veteran or military status, disability, medical condition, genetic information, caregiver status, unemployment status or any other characteristic prohibited by federal, state and/or local laws.

This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, demotion, compensation, training, working conditions, transfer, job assignments, benefits, layoff, and termination.