The Sales Planning and Area Business Manager is responsible for leading the sales planning team as well as managing regional business managers. This person will be a key liaison between the field sales team, marketing and operations to ensure strong communication of the sales and marketing strategies. They will also help manage sales agent partnerships, shape sales strategies, and drive strong execution in the marketplace.

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Key Responsibilities:

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Profit and Volume Growth

• Shape and lead the strategic direction needed to deliver the company’s sales volume and profit objectives by helping to set priorities, aligning resources, identifying growth opportunities, and guiding execution across regions, customers, and sales agents.

 

Broker & Agency Relationship Management

• Own broker relationship with our agency partner, in close collaboration with sales leadership, including participating in standing strategy calls with agency leadership 

• Maintain oversight of retail-facing performance — distribution, display execution, and key account focus areas — ensuring consistent execution against company objectives. 

 

Sales Planning Team Leadership

• Serve as a key liaison between marketing, operations, and the field sales team, overseeing new item launches, customer service/service-issue communication, price increase letters, and broker quota-setting.

• Oversee the sales planning & marketing assistant function, including coupon/ad-slick development and digital/e-commerce content support for the club channel.

• Partner with operations on the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process, with growing ownership of this responsibility over time.

 

People Development

• Lead, coach, and develop the three-person sales planning team and one Area Business Manager reporting to you by setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, building capabilities, and supporting career growth to strengthen individual and team performance.

 

What you'll need:

 

Core Requirements

• Corporate headquarters experience — demonstrated ability to navigate cross-functionally with marketing and operations; sales planning is built on close partnership with both groups.

• People management and development experience — a track record of managing and developing a team, as this role leads three sales planning employees and one Area Business Manager.

• Account and customer responsibility — experience owning key account relationships, including the ability to develop a direct report managing a major, demanding retail account.

• 10–15 years of progressive CPG customer and people management experience.

 

Preferred Requirements

• Senior-level sales agent/broker management experience is valuable, but the existing team can help a strong candidate ramp up on broker-specific processes.

• Strong familiarity with third-party syndicated data (Circana/Nielsen) — comfort interpreting key metrics is sufficient.

• Experience building new business (e.g., launching a brand into a new channel) is a plus but not necessary.

 

Additional Requirements:

• Strong leadership, communication, and presentation skills.

• Outstanding organizational skills and the ability to effectively manage multiple priorities.

• Assertive self-starter able to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree.

• Willingness to travel up to 30%.

 

Our client offers excellent growth potential along with attractive benefits and compensation package.  

 

Candidates must have permanent U.S. work authorization.

 

Equal Opportunity Employer