Director, Commercialization

Your Opportunity as the Director, Commercialization (Pet Sales Team)

You will be responsible for leading the translation of Brand and Customer strategies into business plans. You will lead a team that includes Brand Commercialization and Customer Commercialization while also working with a diverse cross-functional team to support Pet SBA Long Term Strategies.

The commercial organization is charged with translating national strategies and initiatives into an actionable Go-To-Market approach across U.S. Retail. This role is a key partner with all our cross-functional teams, working closely with sales, marketing, finance, project management, and demand and supply planning to provide inputs to help drive strategic decision making.

Location: Orrville, OH (Close proximity to Cleveland/Akron)

Work Arrangements: Hybrid ~30% onsite presence

In this role you will:

1. Create and deploy National and Channel GTM activities
   • Translate and integrate category growth initiatives and brand strategies into national go to market plan
   • Set channel level AOP (Annual Operating Plan)
   • Identify, manage, and resolve channel conflicts
2. Filter and set priorities for sales organization through category lens
   • Own and develop stories around key business drivers (e.g., pricing, innovation, assortment)
3. Act as internal voice for the customer
   • Be able to speak to customer and channel opportunities (know what is possible)
   • Represent customer and channel strategies at stage-gate and consensus forecast meetings
4. Support customer initiative sell-in
   • Create all national new item sales material (including innovation preview)
   • Set distribution/NIF assumptions and intro activation levers
   • Lead Joint Business Planning (JBP) internally (externally owned by CC)
5. Lead and develop BC/CC team
   • Identify growth opportunities for team members
   • Provide feedback and direction
   • Translate national brand strategies, marketing plans, and insights into sales strategies by key customers and channels
   • Support new item launches, GTMs, and SKU optimizations
   • Participate in Long Range and Annual Operating Plans development (quota, trade, situation assessments) from multiple perspectives
   • Develop channel-specific sales initiatives to achieve sales priorities: distribution, pricing, merchandising, and new items
   • Develop sales presentations and webcasts using category and shopper insights
   • Recommend improvements for trade promotions and other sales activities
   • Assist in trade promotion strategies, merchandising plans, and initiatives
   • Update Field Sales on marketing elements and initiatives
   • Report key initiatives and changes to the Business unit

The Right Place for You

We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, play to win, and support a thriving community. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we are committed to supporting every employee\’s physical, emotional, and financial needs.

What we are looking for:

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor\’s degree
• 10+ years of CPG experience
• 5+ years in Customer Marketing, Brand Commercialization, or related go-to-market roles
• Experience with multiple brands, customer/sales development, project management; from strategy to sell-in
• Experience managing a team
• Previous experience with Joint Business Planning
• Financial acumen
• Ability to work cross-functionally to drive results
• Understanding of customer strategies and retail environment
• Customer/sales facing experience
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office

Additional preferred skills:

• MBA
• Experience with accrual-based trade systems
• Pricing strategy experience
• Experience in Sales, Marketing, or Category Leadership
• Experience with platforms like Spotfire, Tableau, CAS

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