Prestige Wine Imports - Chief Sales Officer

Department: Sales

Reports to: International Sales Director, Gruppo Mezzacorona

About us:

Prestige Wine Imports (PWI) is the exclusive importer to USA for a distinguished and diverse portfolio of high-quality Italian wines sourced from leading appellations including Veneto, Alto-Adige, Tuscany, Piedmont, Umbria, Emilia Romagna and Sicily.

Position Overview:

The CSO will lead the next phase of PWI’s commercial development in the USA, strengthening distributor execution, accelerating national and regional account growth, and building a high-performing sales organization aligned with Gruppo Mezzacorona’s strategic priorities.

The CSO for PWI will have Sales Management and Business Development responsibility for building the entire portfolio of PWI brands and products across all channels in the USA.

Reports to International Sales Director, Gruppo Mezzacorona and has four direct reports (Three VP of Sales and Senior Director National Accounts).

This sales leader will focus on improving performance through:

• Creating and executing aligned strategies and tactics to drive growth.
• Training, developing, hiring and inspiring the sales team.
• Enhancing distributor performance.
• Executing against new distribution and promotional events within defined National Account universe.
• Effectively utilize cross-functional resources (Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain).
• Optimizing promotional budgets and brand investments.

Responsibilities:

• Commercial Strategy and Portfolio Growth: Leverage in-market experience and perspective to be a thought‑leader in the development of PWI portfolio (brand, product, positioning, price, promotion).
• Sales Planning: intellectual thought leader who has command of overall industry and trends in addition to key customer objectives and strategies. Work collaboratively to leverage brand equity, commercial route‑to‑market strategy, data (consumer, distributor and account), pricing and promotional tactics to achieve volume (shipment and depletion), net revenue and operating expense objectives.
• Distributor Management: deliver business goals/objectives through best‑in‑class standards and exceptional top‑to‑top relationships. Establish effective and efficient ways of working through clear and timely communication and implementation of performance metrics.
• National and Regional Account development: Increase capability and capacity to drive distribution and volume in National and Regional accounts (retail and on‑premise).
• People Leadership and Development: enhance current team’s selling capabilities (e.g. annual business planning, conceptual selling, distributor management, analytical skills). Recruit and retain top performers by nurturing a collaborative and proactive culture, provide direct support and coaching while holding individuals accountable for delivery of plan.
• Commercial Performance and Analytics: with internal support, conduct business performance and competitive analyses to ensure critical decisions are well‑informed. Track and review results, measure versus plan, and implement necessary changes. Summarize the analysis to internal and external stakeholders.
• Executive Leadership & Governance: collaborate closely with International Sales Director, Gruppo Mezzacorona, to align and communicate supplier priorities, distributor execution and market opportunities in support of PWI strategic objectives.
• Serves on Board of Directors* for PWI with Board having equal member representation between PWI and Gruppo Mezzacorona.

Performance Measures:

• Volume (shipments, depletions), Net Revenue, Share growth, Operating Expense budget
• Execution of national customer and distributor program goals
• Annual distribution targets in on‑premise and retail channels
• Recruiting and building a strong team, contributing to a motivated Sales culture
• Strong 360 feedback (distributors, accounts, cross‑functional partners, team members)

Key Internal Operating Relationships:

• CFO
• Data Analyst
• Sales VPs (3)
• VP National Accounts

Requirements

Qualifications, Location and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Minimum 10-15 years of progressive sales leadership in beverage alcohol
• Close proximity to major airport hub. 25-40% travel required

Ideal Candidate Attributes:

• Working knowledge and demonstrated success within Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits planning and operating model.
• National and regional account leadership
• Experience creating and executing annual business plans for volume, net revenue, margin and expenses. This includes forecasting and recommended adjustments within the planning horizon.
• Commercial pricing acumen (structure and programming).
• Familiarity with premium/imported wine portfolios.
• Strong EQ (Emotional Intelligence) demonstrated by empathy and building team trust and optimism
• Influencer (both internally and externally with demonstrated ability to persuade others towards an idea or goal)
• Developer and builder of strong remote teams.
• Facilitating innovation from ideation to execution.
• Competitive drive to win.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to effectively influence, align and inspire stakeholders such as Board Members, agency suppliers, distributors, customers and internal teams.