Portland, United States | Posted on 12/07/2023
Compensation Range: $50,000 Base, up to $125,000 with commission
The statements below reflect the general responsibilities and requirements for the position, but may not describe all the work requirements inherent in the job. It is the responsibility of the employee to comply with Good Laboratory Practices, ISO/IEC 17025 and other state mandated certifications.
Nova Analytic Labs is seeking a highly motivated and experienced sales professional to join our analytical testing laboratory in Portland, Maine. In this role you will be selling analytical cannabis/hemp testing services to licensed cultivators and manufacturers in Maine. In addition, you will have the opportunity to cultivate leads in a new area testing for Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS).
Company Description
Nova Analytic Labs, an analytical testing facility, specializes in analytical services across the cannabis and hemp sector. The testing Nova Analytic Labs performs is critical to the health and safety of recreational and medicinal cannabis and hemp products. Nova Analytic Labs provides the highest quality and safety in testing to the community by combining advanced technology and innovative scientific methods.
Purpose
This position is responsible for generating new business, as well as maintaining and deepening our existing customer relationships. This includes sourcing, coordinating with, and meeting potential customers in the industry that have cannabis testing needs. Primary areas of focus are identifying new customers, promoting existing customer retention, and successfully onboarding new accounts. This role is an outside sales position.
A new type of testing Nova will be offering in PFAS requires a complete sales plan and initiative. This position will be responsible for studying the sector and breaking into the market.
Responsibilities and Duties:
- Assist Sales Leadership on developing a strategic plan for the laboratory with the management team implementing this plan.
- Provide the highest level of customer service always. This is a relationship business.
- Partner with cannabis professionals to educate them regarding testing requirements and benefits that Nova delivers.
- Deliver market research to industry professionals.
- Implement industry knowledge to strengthen our existing customer relationships and broaden our lead pipeline.
- Serve as a subject matter expert in our offerings, including, but not limited to, pricing, differentiation, and what we provide that our competitors do not.
- Take sales orders and submit for processing per our internal SOP.
- Educate customers on our process and ensure appropriate expectations are established and maintained regarding order timing and outcomes.
- Deliver sales presentations to customers and for internal training purposes.
- Network at industry events to gain key updates. Inform the team accordingly.
- Perform heavy cold calling to schedule in-person appointments. This may require creative sourcing methods, such as leveraging social media.
- Meet our minimum number of in-person and remote customer check-in meetings each week. These are focused on growing existing relationships and expanding services.
- Hit and surpass other quotas as defined by the CEO.
- Regularly maintain accurate, detailed, and current notes in CRM. This includes notes for existing and potential contacts.
- Partner with all levels of employees to ensure communication is seamless at all times regarding updates to customer orders.
- Generate and regularly deliver a variety of reports to the Leadership team.
- Foster a success-oriented, accountable, and ethical environment.
- Build strong internal, external, and cross-functional relationships.
- Perform other related duties as needed.
Knowledge & Skill
This position needs a high degree of self-motivation, initiative, sales acumen, analytical/technical ability, and decisive judgment. A working knowledge of chemistry and microbiology is necessary to manage the customer journey. A general knowledge of the business disciplines of finance, budgeting, sales, and marketing practices are necessary to gain new business and maintain current customers successfully. A strong knowledge of personal computers is necessary to track laboratory information and produce documents to support the management functions. A very strong understanding of CRMs and other analytics software to track sales and forecast is a must. General knowledge of the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is needed to review analysis results and provide general customer support. Analytical skills are needed to problem solve and fulfill customer's analysis needs. Strong oral and written communication skills are essential to this position for effective customer contact. Customer relation skills are needed to obtain and provide information to the customer. Strong portfolio management skills, obtained from previous sales experience, are necessary to ensure that the laboratory exceeds its growth expectations. Planning skills are essential to maintain efficient laboratory operations.
Job Complexity
This position requires individual analysis of each problem to determine the optimal solution. Problems can occur when the customer requests a test not currently used in the laboratory or when a new product requires a modification of current methods. The incumbent uses previous experience, federal (FDA, USDA, and APHA) publications, field texts, and current journal articles as resources to provide necessary information to solve a problem. Solutions may require innovative alternatives to modify current analysis methods to improve productivity or for solving unique employee relation difficulties. Customer problems are often unique and require the incumbent to select among several different alternatives to maintain customer business. The incumbent is responsible for financial and operational activities of the microbiology and chemistry laboratories. This position uses previous experience, guidance from other laboratory leaders and relevant literature to obtain a solution to the problem. The incumbent must prioritize the difficulties with little factual information to maintain profitability.
Decision Making or Recommendations
This position requires decisions to be made regarding laboratory needs and difficulties. Information is available from standard operating procedures, position precedents, federal and state regulations and written company procedures and policies. All of the incumbent's decision making and recommendations must be based on ethics and integrity.
Accountability
The incumbent receives general direction from the CEO. This position works toward broad long-term objectives established with the CEO. The incumbent, with the authorization of the CEO, determines intermediate sequences. Review of work occurs on a monthly basis to ensure that procedures are followed and budget parameters are exceeded. The incumbent is responsible for maintaining revenue by expanding the customer base or increasing laboratory service offerings to the customer. This position is responsible for maintaining a work environment that promotes a productive workforce and accurate results for the customer. The Unique or unusual problems may result in consulting the CEO or corporate personnel to suggest possible solutions.
Qualifications
Physical Requirements
These physical demands are representative of the physical requirements necessary for an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodation can be made to enable people with disabilities to perform the described essential functions. While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee is regularly required to communicate and converse with employees, clients and the public at work, trade shows, sales calls, business trips, and in the media. The employee is also expected to communicate via telephone and email 50% of the work day. The employee is required to sit 75% of most work days. Vision abilities required by this job include close vision while viewing a computer terminal or portable communication device. The employee is occasionally required to lift up to 50lbs and pull up to 150lbs.
Requirements
- Working knowledge of a broad range of plant medicine products, processes, and cultivation preferred (e.g. Cannabis, Hemp, CBD and Fungi).
- Working knowledge of regulations (local and federal), Good Laboratory Practices, and current official methods with at least 3 years experience working in an accredited laboratory.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills. Demonstrated expertise in plant medicine safety, quality and value.
- Must have strong organizational, leadership, and customer service skills. Excellent interpersonal, communications, public speaking, and presentation skills.
- Solid working knowledge of budgeting, sales, business development, and strategic planning.
- Ability to generate respect and trust from staff and external constituencies.
- Proven work experience as sales representative in Cannabis Sales/lab Services.
- Proficient in computer/software use, email, Microsoft, CRM systems, etc.
- A high school diploma (or GED) and at least three (3) years of related sales experience. BS/BA degree preferred.
- Must be at least 21 years of age and pass required background check.
Health, dental and vision plans available