Agriculture Area Sales Leader – Eastern, NC Territory – Southern States Cooperative, Inc – Wilson, NC

The Agriculture Area Sales Leader – Eastern, NC Territory is responsible for leading a team in achieving a sustainable growth in sales and margins for fertilizer, seed, crop protectants, farm supplies, precision agronomy and other services within a defined geography.

In this role, you will provide leadership, direction and professional development to the set of Agronomy Sales Managers (ASM’s), Territory Sales Managers (TSM’s) and Technical Agronomist reporting to them. Collaborates with district GMs & product line leadership to develop regional Go-To Market strategies and execution plans to drive district and corporate profitability. Optimizes territory resource utilization through customer segmentation, strategic account planning and account assignment management.

Responsibilities include:

Achieve annual budgeted sales and margin goals

• Territory Budget: Meet or exceed overall annual budgeted territory sales and margins goals for the products and services assigned to their team of direct reports.
• Key Initiatives: Drive the achievement of the key product line initiatives impacting the budget.
• Sales Goals: Collaborate with COR General Managers (GMs) & Product Line leads (PLL) to align each associated district revenue and margin budgets to goals at the sales representative and grower levels.

Develop professional sales team

• Team Evaluation: In collaboration with HR and the EVP of sales, periodically evaluate sales team for succession plans, development needs and long term skill set fit.
• Coaching: Provide coaching support to your direct reports catered to each individual’s development needs. Assists ASM/TSM’s on sales calls with key customers to help solicit sales and make recommendations on sales techniques and value driven customer strategies. Utilize Carew training coaching techniques to drive solution selling consistency.
• Training: In alignment with corporate and business unit training activities, support team training programs that develop skills in solution selling, agronomy, product & service offerings and key required IT solutions (EX: CRM, Tableau, Webex, Microsoft Outlook — including Excel). Create and maintain an individualized development plan for all direct reports. Collaborate with GMs to include part time sales resources in their sales capabilities development.

Sales strategy development and execution

• Strategic Planning: Participate in strategic planning and budgeting processes to assist in the development of strategies that ensure the achievement of both short and long-term sales goals for the organization.
• Strategic Alignment: Collaborate with EVP of sales, GMs and PLL to ensure sales strategies and execution efforts align with both corporate and regional business & operational strategies.
• Price Execution: Work closely with GMs and PLL’s to develop and execute a pricing strategy that aligns with the business units goals and maximizes district profitability.
• Customer Segmentation: Support the development and execution of a customer segmentation that aligns with our long term growth strategies. Ensure segmentation aligns with achieving marketing, GMs and PLL business objectives.
• Sales Execution Planning: Ensure all sales team members clearly understand sales targets & initiatives and have completed business plans and key customer plans to achieve targeted sales growth.

Qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy preferred
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in the crops industry required.
• Certified Crop Advisor (CCA) credentials highly recommended.
• Demonstrated ability in leading a successful sales force to meet and exceed crop sales targets.
• Proven leadership skills with team and other indirect stakeholders
• Proven ability to interact well with customers, suppliers, employees and management of all levels
• Ability to teach & coach solution selling capabilities.
• Strong technical learning aptitude( EX: Agronomy, IT solutions)
• Demonstrated computer skills in Microsoft suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Strong analytical skills and background
• Ability to work in a team environment

Southern States Cooperative is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against individuals based on their race, color, religion or belief, national or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, family medical history or genetic information, or any other status protected by federal, state or local laws or regulations.

Job Type: Full-time