National Account Manager - Grocery, East

Key Account Manager, Grocery — East

ABOUT ANTELOPE:

Antelope is revolutionizing pet care with its omnichannel platform, launched in August 2021. Our mission? To elevate the lives of pets by offering the very best in pet products through a bold buy-and-build strategy. The name “Antelope” says it all — “Ante” means raising the stakes, and “Lope” signifies bounding forward together. Backed by Alpine Investors, Antelope has already made impressive strides, acquiring five standout brands: Bocce’s Bakery, Diggin’ Your Dog / Super Snouts, My Perfect Pet, and Ark Naturals. Antelope has plans to acquire additional all-natural, high-quality brands to become the one-stop shop for pet parents.

OVERVIEW:

Antelope is hiring a National Account Manager, Grocery – East to drive new account acquisition and channel expansion across our full product portfolio in grocery, with a primary emphasis on our pet treat brand, across all states east of the Mississippi River — from national banners like Publix, Ahold Delhaize (Food Lion, Giant, Stop & Shop, Hannaford), Wakefern/ShopRite and Wegmans to the regional independents and co-ops across the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, plus any other accounts or channels assigned. This is a build role: our treat business has already established a foothold in grocery, and the mandate is to convert that proof of concept into full regional coverage, with Florida and the Southeast as the biggest near-term prize. The ideal candidate is a hunter who thrives on a long prospect list, builds category cases from syndicated data, and holds broker partners accountable to a plan.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

New account development

• Build and work a prioritized target list of grocery banners in your region, identifying the highest-value white space by geography, banner format and category role.
• Own the full sales cycle from prospecting and first contact through category review, item setup and first ship.
• Secure new authorizations and net-new points of distribution against annual store-count and revenue targets for your territory.
• Navigate the mechanics of grocery entry — category review calendars, distributor routes to market, new item paperwork, slotting and deduction structures — without needing them explained.

Pitching and category selling

• Build customer-specific, insight-led selling stories using Circana/IRI, Nielsen and retailer POS data — shopper trends, category gaps, incrementality and space productivity.
• Deliver the presentations personally to buyers and category managers, and defend the assortment recommendation with data.
• Translate the brand's consumer marketing plan into a retailer-facing case for support, including promotional and in-store activation.
• Surface innovation and assortment recommendations to internal teams based on product white space and competitive trends observed in your markets.

Broker network management

• Manage the broker agencies covering your east markets, setting clear objectives, priorities and scorecards by agency and territory.
• Onboard, train and continuously equip broker teams and distributor reps so they can sell the brand story with the same fluency you do.
• Run a consistent cadence of business reviews, market walks and pipeline calls; hold agencies accountable to distribution and revenue commitments.
• Assess coverage gaps and performance in your region, and recommend changes to agency scope, footprint or partnership as the business scales.

Planning, forecasting and accountability

• Build, communicate and execute annual account plans for your territory, including promotional calendars and trade spend.
• Forecast sales volume and spending needs at the customer and SKU level, partnering with Operations and Finance so new distribution is supported by inventory.
• Plan, execute and analyze promotions, reporting ROI and adjusting the approach based on what the results show.
• Operate within an assigned trade and travel budget and report on it.
• Conduct customer business reviews and maintain accurate opportunity tracking in Salesforce.
• Prioritize, plan and organize your own travel and market coverage, and coordinate with your counterpart Key Account Manager and the VP of Sales on any account with national or cross-regional buying authority.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Must-haves:

• Three to seven years of progressive CPG sales results, including recent grocery experience.
• A demonstrated hunter track record — specific new accounts you opened, not accounts you inherited and maintained.
• Existing relationships with grocery buyers in the East that can be leveraged into new business.
• Broker management experience, ideally across multiple agencies or territories.
• Fluency with syndicated data (Circana/IRI, Nielsen) and the ability to build a category story from it independently.
• Strong analytical skills and financial acumen; comfort with trade math, margin structures and promotional ROI.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication and a genuine ability to build relationships; an outgoing, charismatic presence in a buyer room.
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills, especially PowerPoint and Excel, plus Salesforce CRM, Slack and Google Workspace.
• Bachelor's degree.
• Residence within the territory with access to a top 25 airport — ideally the Northeast corridor, Atlanta, Charlotte or Central Florida.
• Familiarity with a remote sales environment and a desire to travel, including overnight and air travel. Estimated 25–30% travel.

Nice-to-haves:

• Pet category experience.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity with limited oversight; prior experience at a fast-growing consumer company is a plus.
• Must love dogs or cats (& treats!)

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT HERE

• Connected remote-first culture with a highly engaged distributed workforce
• Flexible PTO
• Competitive compensation
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401K employer match
• Home Office Stipend
• Parental leave including “pawternity”
• Discounted Antelope products and pet insurance