Semo Milling, LLC has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Manager, Sales.

Company Overview

SEMO Milling is a leading manufacturer of high-quality food ingredients that are derived from corn. Established in 2007 and headquartered in Scott City, Missouri; they operate a dry corn mill that produces a range of products serving the Food & Beverage sectors.

Position Purpose

The Senior Manager, Sales is primarily responsible for identifying markets and customers for SEMO’s full range of prime milled products; promoting them; and then securing sales. They will be responsible for gaining technical knowledge of the products offered by SEMO Milling to assist potential customers in qualifying them in their applications. This position will include developing new markets from inception. This role is primarily external and customer-facing, gaining insights from both existing and new customers, and is a critical conduit back to the plant operations.

Position Responsibilities and Duties

• Understand current product portfolio for both applications and customers to better leverage existing relationships to increase sales and identify adjacent applications and customer targets.
• Assess a wide range of Food and Beverage ingredient markets for attractiveness, competitive landscape, strategic fit, and ability to win for the company’s products and technologies.
• Leverage existing knowledge, market research, internet search, customer insights, trade shows, technology, etc. to identify prospective customers and applications.
• Demonstrate a keen understanding of the market, trends, and dynamics to create winning strategies that grow the business.
• Account management of large customer accounts and small / midsize growth customer accounts.
• Prospect, establish, and build relationships with customer contacts and potential channel partners and create company name recognition in the US market.
• Implement various pricing strategies, like value-derived or cost-plus, appropriate for a wide range of products and markets.
• Required to negotiate sales contracts and pricing both during the annual contracting process and ongoing throughout the year to ensure that profitability targets are met while maintaining product mix and volumes.
• Translate customer and market feedback into recommendations for products to add to the portfolio and new product development. Ability to understand the needs of customers from both a functionality and procurement standpoint.
• Maintains knowledge of current market trends and competitive activity to regularly update business leadership.
• Responsible for sales forecasting and inputting into company’s S&OP processes.

Experience / Education / Competencies Necessary for Success

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Food Science, Nutrition, Chemistry or a related area. MBA preferred.
• Minimum of Five (5) years of sales, segment marketing, or business development experience working in a B2B environment required.
• Previous experience selling in into Food & Beverage industry is a requirement.
• Proven track record of prospecting new customers and achieving new sustainable sales that have delivered incremental profit for a business.
• High degree of commercial acumen. Ability to work with ambiguity.
• Self-starter and has a relentless passion for growing sales and winning in the marketplace.
• Strong negotiation skills and ability to influence others.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, and high level of professionalism.
• Team player that works collaboratively with both customers and internal stakeholders.
• Familiarity using a CRM database system preferred.
• The ability to engage and build relationships across multiple departments within an organization and at all levels.
• Experience with invoicing, sales contracts, order entry, handling of customer complaints and inquiries.
• Computer proficiency with Microsoft Office products. Previous ERP experience preferred.
• Ability to travel up to 50% of the time.

Location

Home Office Midwest or Southeast U.S. within 45 miles of a major airport.

Physical and Mental Requirements

This position is in an office or traveling environment, and requires physical and mental alertness, attentiveness, and stamina for the length of an entire 8+ hour work shift each day. Occasional light lifting, frequent changing from a seated to standing position and occasional stair climbing are all physical demands of this position. Travel to customer locations will be frequent.