Business Development Manager - Food Retail

Vikan North America is an industry leader in professional cleaning and material handling tools, recognized for hygiene and food safety expertise and excellent customer service. For more than 40 years, we have served customers in food processing, food retail, pharmaceutical and safety industries. Our consistent sales growth and commitment to our employees make Vikan North America a great place to work. We value hard work, support individual success, and work as a team to deliver on our commitment to customers.

Role Overview

The Business Development Manager – Food Retail identifies and develops new and underdeveloped end-user opportunities, starting with the food retail market. The immediate priority is calling on targeted food retail end users to build relationships and grow Vikan’s presence. Over time, the role will expand into foodservice and public-sector markets. A key responsibility is building in-depth knowledge of Vikan products and how they’re used in this growing market.

The ideal candidate has a proven track record of engaging decision makers in food safety, procurement, and purchasing, as well as senior buyers and executive leaders, to influence buying decisions.

Responsibilities

Business Development

• Grow sales with new and existing customers, working closely with their preferred distribution partners to meet annual business goals
• Engage and educate customers and target accounts to develop new business
• Research accounts, identify key contacts and build account strategies
• Reach end customers and key decision makers through email, phone, text and video calls

Account Management

• Manage all current and future food retail and food service accounts
• Build and strengthen customer relationships, deliver excellent service, and maintain a pipeline that tracks opportunities, risks, wins and losses
• Participate in contract negotiations
• Coordinate distributor and end-user partnerships with the account management team
• Encourage customers to champion color-coded cleaning programs and become thought leaders in using them
• Keep Salesforce records detailed, accurate and up to date

Internal Collaboration

• Serve as an internal champion for Vikan North America’s food retail business
• Contribute to future business plans
• Share customer-specific needs with operations, order entry, marketing and customer service
• Share customer insights with the sales team
• Perform other duties as assigned

Requirements

• 5+ years of sales experience in food safety, chemicals, sanitation or a related industry
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
• Experience with Salesforce or another CRM
• Advanced computer skills, including Microsoft Office and AI tools such as Copilot and Claude
• Ability to work from a home office anywhere in the U.S., within reasonable distance of a major airport
• Travel up to 50%, depending on business needs

Core Skills

• Self-directed, with a proven track record of finding and developing new business
• Consultative selling skills and the ability to build partnerships between distributors and retail end customers
• A proactive approach to prospecting, backed by strong follow-through
• A motivated, persistent and goal-oriented team player
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong planning and organizational skills
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities and manage time well
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and resourceful in finding answers