Regional Sales Manager in at SUGAR FOODS LLC
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Job Description
REGIONAL SALES MANAGER - MIDWEST RETAIL
Modern retail business development leadership | Digital commerce | CRM discipline | AI-enabled selling
Position Location | Midwest Region |
Level of Responsibility | Retail Regional Sales, Exempt |
Reports To | Regional / Retail Sales Leadership |
Travel | 25% minimum; varies by customer, broker, and market needs |
Sugar Foods LLC (Fresh Gourmet Co.) is a privately held food manufacturer, packager, importer, and sales & marketing organization. In Retail, our products are found in supermarkets throughout the country under our brands and private brands, in both fresh and center store departments, led by Fresh Gourmet, the #1 salad topping brand in America. From product development and package design to in-store merchandising adjacent to fresh ingredients, we partner with customers to help them win with convenient, discovery-driven meal solutions.
Position SummaryThe Regional Sales Manager is responsible for delivering profitable retail growth, deep customer relationships, excellent customer execution, and category leadership across assigned regional accounts. This role blends classic account management with modern retail capabilities: digital commerce awareness, CRM discipline using Microsoft Dynamics, AI-enabled preparation and follow-up, broker optimization, Power BI / customer portal fluency, and clear cross-functional leadership. The ideal candidate can manage complex regional business today while building the capabilities to progress into larger strategic or national account responsibility.
Primary Responsibilities- Manage all aspects of sales and customer development for assigned regional retail accounts, including branded and private brand opportunities.
- Deliver annual sales, profitability, distribution, and trade objectives while managing customer-specific costs, deductions, and retailer requirements.
- Optimize the 4 Ps: product assortment, pricing, placement, and promotions, with clear post-event analysis and fact-based recommendations.
- Strengthen broker execution by clarifying priorities, simplifying coverage, consolidating where practical, and holding partners accountable to measurable outcomes.
- Coordinate with Marketing, Product Management, Supply Chain, Finance, QA, and Customer Service to support customer needs from forecast to shelf.
- Lead customer meetings with concise, buyer-ready stories that translate insights, performance data, and innovation into category growth and retailer P&L benefits.
- Support in-stock performance and forecast accuracy by using available customer portals, internal dashboards, and cross-functional inputs.
- Use Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the system of record for customer activity, pipeline, contacts, call notes, next steps, risks, and opportunity tracking.
- Maintain clean CRM hygiene: timely updates, accurate opportunity staging, documented commitments, and disciplined follow-up on decisions and action items.
- Leverage approved AI tools to improve preparation, meeting agendas, recap notes, customer-specific insights, first-draft correspondence, and presentation efficiency while protecting confidential information and applying sound judgment.
- Use Power BI, syndicated data, customer portals, and internal reporting to diagnose performance, identify distribution or pricing gaps, and prioritize the highest-impact customer actions.
- Partner with Digital Commerce / eCommerce resources to ensure assigned accounts are supported across dot-com execution, content quality, customer search and browse behavior, digital promotions, and retailer platform requirements.
- Translate data into simple, action-oriented selling stories; avoid unnecessary eye charts by clearly stating what happened, why it matters, and what the customer should do next.
- Adopt a self-service mindset by using available dashboards, document libraries, product information tools, and CRM resources before escalating routine information requests.
Empowered to exercise independent judgment and discretion within the broad guidelines established by sales leadership. Keeps leadership fully apprised of market conditions, opportunities, obstacles, competitive activity, customer feedback, financial risks, and progress against key priorities.
Strengths & Passions- Thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment with changing retail expectations and increasing customer complexity.
- Builds strong relationships with customers, brokers, internal teams, and cross-functional support partners.
- Comfortable being a high-energy, professional virtual presenter: camera-ready, concise, tech-savvy, prepared, and engaging.
- Passionate about category leadership, customer problem-solving, high-quality food, and profitable growth.
- Simplifies complexity: turns messy customer, broker, and data inputs into clear priorities and decisions.
- Comprehensive understanding of the retail food industry, preferably including produce, deli, grocery, branded CPG, and private brand environments.
- 5+ years of CPG sales, account management, broker management, category management, or retailer-facing experience preferred.
- Strong financial acumen, including pricing, trade management, margin awareness, promotional effectiveness, and customer profitability thinking.
- Demonstrated ability to use CRM, Microsoft Office, Teams, customer portals, Power BI / analytics dashboards, eMarketing / eCommerce tools, and approved AI tools.
- Excellent written, verbal, negotiation, and presentation skills; able to communicate with buyers, brokers, peers, and senior leaders.
- Strong organizational discipline, follow-through, and ability to manage multiple customers, projects, and deadlines without losing priority focus.
- B.A. or B.S. degree preferred; equivalent relevant experience considered.
- Sales, gross profit, distribution, and trade performance versus plan.
- Quality and timeliness of CRM documentation, pipeline visibility, and customer follow-up.
- Broker productivity and simplification progress where applicable.
- Customer-ready insights, presentation quality, and execution of agreed next steps.