National Key Accounts Manager-Adult Beverage

Key Account Manager, Beverage

Cornbread Hemp is the nation's leading USDA Certified Organic hemp company, dedicated to creating the highest-quality, full-spectrum hemp products on the market. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, we have built our brand on organic integrity, third-party transparency, and Kentucky heritage. Today we are scaling rapidly across e-commerce, national retail, and a fast-growing beverage portfolio that includes our THC seltzers and our non-alcoholic functional Spritz line.

We are seeking a Key Account Manager, Beverage to own and grow Cornbread Hemp's presence in large chain accounts for our THC seltzer line. This person will own the end-to-end sales process — from prospecting national and regional chain buyers, to winning authorizations, to growing each account from first order into a category staple.

The ideal candidate is a true self-motivated sales leader with a track record selling adult beverages — beer, hard seltzer, RTD cocktails, or similar — into key account chains across convenience and grocery/mass. This role is for a highly motivated sales leader who thrives under pressure and tight deadlines, builds buyer relationships quickly, and has the discipline to follow each deal through to reorder and velocity.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Account Acquisition: Identify, prioritize, and pursue THC seltzer placements at large convenience chains and major grocery and mass retailers. Develop account-specific strategies for each target banner.
• Distribution Pull-Through: Use the chain authorizations you win to activate and accelerate distribution, partnering with our DSD and distribution teams to ensure product flows reliably into every account you open.
• Full-Cycle Selling: Own the complete sales cycle — build your own pipeline, secure buyer meetings, present the brand and category story, negotiate terms, and close to first purchase order.
• Account Growth and Velocity: Drive each account past the close. Win reorders, expand SKUs and door counts, and grow rate-of-sale through ongoing buyer engagement and category management.
• Spritz Line Extension: Introduce our non-alcoholic functional Spritz as a complementary offering where it fits the account, especially THC-restricted retailers. Position the Spritz clearly as a non-hemp, non-THC functional beverage so buyers understand what it is — and is not — relative to our THC seltzer and hemp lines.
• Forecasting and Pipeline Management: Build and maintain a detailed, accurate sales pipeline with reliable forecasting. Partner with the VP of Sales on KPIs, revenue targets, and account-level reporting.
• Marketing & Operations Collaboration: Partner with marketing on sell-in materials, promotions, and account support, and with operations to ensure supply-chain readiness for chain orders.

Requirements:

• Beverage Sales Experience: Minimum of 5+ years selling beverages — beer, hard seltzer, RTD cocktails, or comparable — into large chain accounts, with existing relationships among category buyers at national or regional convenience and grocery/mass banners. This is the single most important qualification.
• Chain Account Track Record: Demonstrated success landing and growing key chain accounts — owning the buyer relationship, navigating category reviews, negotiating, and driving velocity after the close. Experience across both convenience and grocery/mass is strongly preferred.
• Hunter's Mentality: Highly self-motivated, autonomous, and confident, with the social skills to build buyer relationships quickly and maintain them. You move fast and thrive under pressure. You follow through; deals don't fall off after the handshake.
• Regulated-Category Fluency: Comfort selling in a fast-evolving, regulated category, with a proven ability to introduce a new or unfamiliar product into a buyer's set and make the category make sense. You can navigate the patchwork of state-level THC rules, buyer hesitancy, and shifting compliance requirements, and turn a category buyers find unfamiliar or risky into a confident, shelf-ready story.
• CRM & Pipeline Rigor: Disciplined with sales systems and data, familiarity with VIP strongly preferred. Comfortable owning a CRM, maintaining clean and current pipeline records, and producing reliable forecasts and account-level reporting without being asked. Strong closers who are a black box on reporting will not succeed in this role; we need both.
• Flexibility and Travel: Ability to work remotely with frequent travel for buyer meetings, trade shows, and key markets — up to 50% of the time.
• Account Ownership & Scope: This role owns large chain accounts (national and regional convenience, grocery, and mass) for the THC seltzer line. Our THC seltzer business also moves through a separate DSD sales organization, and certain national retail accounts (including but not limited to Target, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Sprouts) may be managed in coordination with existing fractional key-account and broker resources. The VP of Sales will define specific account ownership and any shared-account protocols at the outset to ensure clear lines and no channel conflict. The ability to collaborate cleanly across these motions is essential.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Existing relationships with beverage distributors — a meaningful value-add, though not required.
• Experience launching a new or emerging beverage brand. Experience with beverage and convenience/grocery trade shows.
• Familiarity with the THC beverage and functional-beverage categories.
• Why Join Cornbread Hemp? THC seltzer is one of the fastest-growing segments in beverage, and Cornbread Hemp is positioned to win it with a Kentucky-grown, family-owned brand people trust and a distribution engine expanding every month. What we need is the chain firepower to turn that momentum into shelf space at scale. You will own your accounts, work with real autonomy, and capture uncapped upside tied directly to what you close

Compensation:

• This is a high-impact sales role with compensation structured to reward the accounts you open and grow.
• Base Salary: $120K - $150K, plus cash incentives. Actual salary based on experience and book of business.
• Performance Bonuses: Milestone-based cash bonuses paid out immediately upon securing new retail chain authorizations.
• Equity Participation: Equity grant from the company's existing option pool, vesting over four years with a one-year cliff, offering meaningful ownership upside in a high-growth company.
• Benefits: Full benefits package including health, dental, and vision insurance. Travel and expense budget for account visits, trade shows, and industry events.

What We Offer:

• The opportunity to build a chain account book for a high-growth, nationally recognized brand in one of beverage's hottest categories.
• A direct line to senior leadership with significant strategic autonomy to own and grow your channel.
• A collaborative, supportive work environment rooted in Kentucky heritage and organic integrity. Professional development and career advancement as our sales organization scales.
• Flexible and remote working capabilities.
• Cornbread Hemp is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.