Customer Business Manager - Schnucks / Certco

Key responsibilities:

• Build and execute the customer plan to grow the business

– Coordinate selling process for the given customer for customer/channel/category to deliver net sales
– Gain a deep understanding of customer needs and priorities (e.g., their KPIs, business/category goals, etc.)
– Develop sales/account plans to meet customer objectives while operating within Danone corporate initiatives and guidelines (e.g., customized SKUs, operational targets, etc.)
– Look for opportunities to gain distribution on new products and improve product exposure (shelf positioning, advertising, and promotions) – including monitoring what competitors are doing
– Negotiate with customer headquarters/category buyers on pricing, new items, and promotions
– Collaborate with customer and internal teams on joint business plans
– Leverege internal resources (category management, customer planning, shopper marketing, etc.) to drive success at customer

• Enhance relationship with customer and Danone

– Build and maintain relationships with key customer personnel
– Develop calendar for customer-touchpoints – define who needs to be involved at each meeting, purpose for each interaction, etc. (top-to-tops, market visits, etc.)
– Coordinate top-to-tops and bring in sales leadership when necessary
– Engage cross-functional experts with customer as needed (e.g., category deep-dives, latest shopper marketing, etc.)
– Prepare for and conduct scheduled customer business reviews (e.g., bi-annual re-sets, JBP, etc.)
– Execute annual calendar visits at customer with internal and external leadership
– Manage the development and delivery for all customer presentations
– Represent Danone during annual tradeshows and conferences attended by customer

• Monitor account performance and customer P&L

– Manage the customer P&L – have very clear sense of the financial targets to hit with the customer – growth rates, trade rates, etc.
– Manage trade spending, promotional programs, spending across the brands to reach targets
– Manage total customer spending, deduction management and pre-pays within Danone guidelines
– Provide key inputs for demand planning – own the bottom-up forecast, provide key input into the bottom-up forecast for the RF process
– Track account-level performance and adjust behaviors to hit targets
– Perform account administration, including finalizing customer contracts and requests for trade funding (beyond plan)
– Ensure accurate and timely submission of customer promotional contracts
– Input expected trade/shopper spend (total customer plan) for each promo

• Deliver in-store execution performance

– Help define what success looks like in the store in coordination with the sales director
– Be accountable for delivering on in-store success
– Coordinate with the customer members to execute the in-store plans
– Regularly walk stores to flag and fix issues when needed

• Provide customer/category feedback internally

– Communicate customer needs to internal stakeholders
– Lead cross functional team communication (supply chain, customer service, shopper marketing, etc.) related to promotion, merchandising, and distribution
– Manage internal updates related to planning system, merchandising calendar, and distribution
– Provide category thought leadership and insights from customer to drive both category growth and business across Danone
– Communicate emerging market needs and requirements for product development

• Manage the team (applicable w/ direct reports)

– Build and maintain strong culture within team
– Set and communicate clear objectives for the team and individual team members
– Deploy team talent appropriately to build influence at customers – manage business complexities
– Cascade outcomes and key metrics to org based on overall unit KPIs, metrics (e.g., category specific metrics)
– Ensure that organization is aware of best-practices and tools and ensure that sales support functions are connecting appropriately

• Grow your people (applicable w/ direct reports)

– Identify, recruit, and retain a balanced and diverse team based on member/candidate strengths and role fit supported by relevant knowledge, skills, and experience
– Provide the foundation for team effectiveness by creating and maintaining team processes
– Apply training and coaching effectively for individual and team development
– Complete performance evaluations for direct reports