Food Service Sales Manager - East

Rip Van is on a mission to improve people’s lives by reducing their sugar consumption through sweet snacks. We are building the world’s first platform with delicious & low sugar snacks without the use of sugar alcohols, leveraging our prebiotic fiber based technology. We currently sell 3 product lines omni-channel of which our stroopwafels & sugar wafers are ranked #1 in their categories. Our products are available in 20,000+ locations nationwide. This includes Whole Foods, HEB, Costco, 7-Eleven, Amazon & the major foodservice GPO’s to name a few. The company has made both the Inc & Forbes 30 under 30 lists, won numerous business awards and has been featured in publications such as TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, Bon Appétit, and The New York Times.

Role Overview:

The Food Service Sales Manager covers the east coast territory within the foodservice & alternative channel segment. This includes working with the regional branches & key customers of Compass, Aramark & Sodexo across sub-channels including C&U, B&I, Healthcare, Hospitality and misc to grow our penetration within the channel.

You will be responsible for growing existing business within Vistar, Sysco, US Foods and Independent FS distributors in the region. Growth will be driven by building relationships, educating & equipping the distributor sales teams with the right customer promotions/incentives and simultaneously direct selling to key customers.

To be successful in this role you’ll need to be able to drive demand through the supply chain and by ensuring that the demand planning across key stakeholders from the customer to distributor to DOT are being connected.

You have 4+ years of relevant experience, yet you remain a continuous learner and improver. You’ll be joining a rockstar team of core team members who value making quick and informed decisions, achieving and celebrating wins, and executing with a ‘can do’ attitude!

What you will do:

• Achieve net sales targets by expanding distribution through existing and new accounts
• Utilize internal data and analytics provided to prepare and present client presentations
• Conduct broker, distributor and GPO training sessions via phone, webinars and on site/in-market visits
• Display effective trade budget and financial management
• Work cross functionally within Rip Van, to ensure the success of your accounts and your channel of business
• Be responsible for a sales forecast. Leverage relationships with distributor partners and customers to drive forecast accuracy in collaboration with Finance and Operation teams.
• Attend trade shows
• Occasionally conduct product demonstrations

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree or relevant work experience
• At least 4 years experience in food service/culinary sales, focused on the non-ingredient channels, with a track record of success and increased responsibility
• Excellent communication, and negotiation skills
• Experience working with and launching regional and national Food Service broadliners
• Experience working with brokers and industry buyers
• Ability to execute trade promotions that drive profitability and increase trial of Rip Van portfolio
• Strong capability to analyze data, work with spreadsheets and create presentations. We use Google Suite, so familiarity with Sheets and Slides is a plus. ● Flexibility with travel, including overnight stays, up to 50%
• Comfortable preparing for and exhibiting at trade shows
• Ability to work remotely and meet deadlines
• Sophistication in time & expense reporting
• High sense of urgency and responsiveness, with ability to prioritize and thrive while multitasking
• Must be self-motivated, curious and comfortable with ambiguity typical of a young and growing company

Physical Requirements:

• Requires full range of body motion including walking, standing, stooping, bending, and lifting, manual and finger dexterity and eye-hand coordination
• May require sitting, standing and walking for extensive periods of time.
• Occasional lifting and carrying items weighing up to 40 pounds
• May require irregular work hours and travel
• Occasional high stress situations may occur in dealing with customers