Area Sales Manager

Job Description

The Area Sales Manager role exists to drive customer acquisition, retention, and growth within a specific product segment (Fresh Meat, Food2Go, Ready Meals, or Dairy). As an individual contributor, the purpose of this role is to act as the primary customer-facing representative, building strong relationships, tailoring solutions to customer needs, and ensuring accurate demand input into the global S&OP process. Area Sales Manager is critical in bringing market intelligence back to the organization, ensuring that sales strategies are executed locally, and that customer commitments are met in alignment with production capabilities.

The position reports to the VP of Sales North America.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Acquisition & Development

• Identify and pursue new business opportunities within assigned segment (Fresh Meat, Food2Go, Ready Meals, Dairy).
• Build strong relationships with existing customers to drive retention and upselling.
• Tailor solutions aligned to global product- and solution governance to meet segment-specific customer needs.
• Maintain a robust pipeline of opportunities.

Sales Execution

• Deliver against individual sales targets for the assigned segment.
• Conduct customer meetings, presentations, and negotiations.
• Ensure accurate and timely input into CRM systems.
• Provide market intelligence and feedback to country/cluster sales manager.

Operational Collaboration

• Work closely with production and supply chain teams to ensure customer requirements are met.
• Participate in S&OP discussions to provide segment-specific demand insights.
• Align customer commitments with operational capacity.

Compliance & Governance

• Adhere to global sales excellence standards and processes.
• Ensure compliance with pricing, discounting, and contract policies.
• Maintain accurate documentation of customer interactions and agreements.

Team Collaboration & Contribution

• Lead, motivate, and develop Share best practices and market insights with fellow sales reps.
• Support onboarding of new colleagues through mentoring.
• Contribute to a collaborative and customer-focused team culture.

Stakeholder Management:

• Act as the primary contact for customers within the assigned segment/area
• Collaborate with country/cluster sales manager to align sales strategy.
• Provide feedback to global sales leaders on customer needs and trends.
• Engage with production and supply chain teams to ensure delivery commitments.

Performance & Outcome Measures:

• Individual segment sales target achievement (%)
• Customer acquisition rate within segment
• Customer retention and satisfaction scores
• Forecast accuracy for assigned accounts
• Pipeline conversion rate
• Compliance with CRM and reporting standards

Qualifications & Abilities

• Previous experience in B2B sales, preferably in food manufacturing or packaging industries
• Experience selling cPET is a plus
• Experience working with a CRM
• Strong consultative selling ability