Customer Account Manager - Alternate Channel

Are you looking to catapult your career by driving high-impact transformation with household brands? Do you crave an entrepreneurial, fast paced and engaging growth assignment working with incredible people from across the globe?

At Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, we are excited to start a new chapter of accelerated growth as part of Froneri – a global pure-play ice cream leader. With nearly 100 years of winning experience in the U.S, a robust portfolio of powerhouse brands that consumers know and love such as Häagen-Dazs, Drumstick, Dreyer’s/Edy’s, Skinny Cow, OREO®, Outshine and Frollies, and the backing and coaching of European-based ice cream experts, we know we have the winning recipe.

Headquartered in Walnut Creek, the Bay Area’s hub for up-and-coming food trends, our DGIC team across our offices and factories is raising the bar on all things ice cream. Our growth has been tremendous in the past few years – moving from being #2 manufacturer in market to being #1 in 2024. The brands have strong investments in marketing support, quality improvements and exciting line extensions and innovation. DGIC has also been recognized by retail partners as the top manufacturer partner, winning the #1 position in the prestigious Advantage Award in 2024.

At DGIC, we don’t just hire for roles, we grow future business leaders. Here, everyone is encouraged to think like a general manager. That means owning your piece of the business, making bold decisions, and seeing the big picture. What makes us unique? You won’t just stay in your lane, you’ll get hands-on exposure to everything from Sales, Marketing and operations to Finance and Supply Chain. It’s like getting an MBA on the job (but with way more ice cream). If you’re curious, driven, and ready to learn a lot about a lot, this is the place to stretch your skills and fast-track your career.

Unleash your potential at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream and discover what a sweet career we have in store for you!

What to expect from Dreyer’s

At the heart of our culture are four core values that guide our actions and define how we work together. We Take Ownership by staying committed from start to finish, making thoughtful decisions, and focusing our efforts on initiatives that drive growth, efficiency, and sustainability. We Do What Is Right by prioritizing transparency, setting clear roles and responsibilities, and speaking up when something doesn’t align with our values. We Seek to Improve through continuous innovation, embracing feedback, and learning from both our successes and setbacks. And We Are Better Together by making decisions that benefit the whole organization, fostering inclusion through diverse perspectives, and treating everyone with fairness and respect. These values are not just ideals—they are the behaviors we live by every day.

MAIN ROLE AND ACTIVITIES

You will be involved in Selling, negotiating, and executing business plans. Leveraging business intelligence data, you will create a selling story to drive the business with Alternate Channels such as Airports, Sports & Entertainment Venues, Schools, Healthcare and others. You will be managing internal and external cross-functional departments to support these emerging customers, such as GPO's. This is a remote based position.

Objectives:

• Drive new business development and channel expansion by identifying, prospecting, and securing strategic partnerships across priority alternate channels including airports, theme parks, sports and entertainment venues, hospitality, and higher education, increasing brand distribution and market penetration.
• Grow and optimize existing accounts through collaborative business planning, assortment expansion, promotional execution, and data-driven account management to deliver sustainable revenue growth, increased market share, and improved customer satisfaction.
• Build scalable channel strategies by leveraging consumer insights, cross-functional partnerships, and distributor relationships to accelerate brand presence, maximize sales opportunities, and establish Dreyer's as a preferred frozen treats partner across emerging and established alternate channels.
• Create new item presentations with data specific information to hold and gain shelf space.
• Create and consistently modify sales forecasts in each category.
• Negotiate monthly promotions with customer.
• Understand customer contracts and work within guidelines to ensure policy compliance.
• Manage trade spend to maximize profitability with maintaining good customer relations.
• Analyze promotion effectiveness through data reporting.
• Execute all Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream (DGIC) priorities.
• Collaborate with team members to share best practices and drive Customer related initiatives, as well as other functional groups like customer facing supply chain, finance manager, and category sales development.
• Become a quality agent by continuously checking our products in various stores and location. Provide feedback and challenge as necessary to help the organization understand the retail experience.

Maintain Customer Relations : Frequent customer interaction to implement the annual plan, drive execution of the plan, gain distribution on new and d-build items, activate the customer category strategies, shopper marketing, and any urgent communications such as service level issues or product quality issues

• Identify gaps between customer plan and customer feedback and propose resolutions to gaps
• Ensure achievement of agreed Customer(s) targets/Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Category growth, Sales, Customer service and in-stock levels, etc.

Business Development

• Develop and execute a strategic business development plan to identify, prioritize, and secure new opportunities across targeted alternate channels, including airports, theme parks, sports and entertainment venues, hospitality, healthcare, and education, driving distribution, revenue growth, and market share expansion.
• Cultivate and strengthen relationships with prospective and existing customers through regular engagement, business reviews, industry networking, and collaborative planning to uncover growth opportunities, align on customer objectives, and position Dreyer's as a preferred partner.
• Identify market gaps, competitive threats, and emerging channel trends by gathering customer feedback and industry insights, then develop and present solutions that support customer needs while accelerating business growth and brand penetration.
• Lead the new business acquisition process including prospecting, pipeline management, customer presentations, contract negotiations, and onboarding activities to ensure successful account conversion and execution.
• Partner cross-functionally with Category Management, Shopper Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, and Sales Operations to develop customer-specific strategies, support new item launches, and ensure seamless execution of growth initiatives.
• Ensure achievement of agreed business development targets and KPIs, including new account wins, revenue growth, distribution gains, volume, profitability, and customer retention metrics, while maintaining a healthy pipeline of future opportunities.

Sales (net sales to goal) measurable outcomes

• Trade spend (to goal)
• Share growth (Year over Year)
• Profitability (Gross margin to Budget)
• Forecasting accuracy (for your accounts)
• Reporting and Administration Accuracy (Promotional Plan)

Qualifications:

• Experience managing or selling into non-traditional retail channels such as airports, hospitality, theme parks, sports and entertainment venues, foodservice, higher education, healthcare, or other alternate channels.
• Experience working with GPO’s to create centralized demand of products
• Strong network of industry contacts and decision-makers across key alternate channels, with a proven track record of securing new placements, expanding distribution, and delivering profitable growth.
• Demonstrated success developing new business opportunities while simultaneously growing existing accounts through strategic customer partnerships, distributor management, and joint business planning highly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative and be proactive in identifying customer issues, recommending solutions, and executing effectively to ensure resolution.
• Proven track record in building effective relationships with customers and internal associates.
• Strong negotiating skills to create win win outcomes for the company and customer
• Strong oral, written and interpersonal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to achieve performance goals with minimum direction and supervision.
• Demonstrated solid forecasting skills and the ability to research data from all internal reporting sights i.e. (Circana, PowerBI, Numertor, Kwikee, Run Report, Trade Rate Report)
• Experience in Ice Cream category preferred
• College or Undergraduate degree preferred

The pay scale for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. The pay range for prospective employees in this role is between $110,000 and $130,000 per year.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.