Position Summary:
The Director of Sales Operations is a member of the senior sales leadership team. This position will be included in all strategic planning, decisions, and execution as it pertains to region sales. The senior sales leadership team will consist of the region VP of Region Sales, Director, Local Sales, Director, New Business Developers, Director, Contract Sales, Director, Sales Strategy and Operations, and Director, Business Specialist.
Through the senior sales leadership team, this position will provide strategic thought leadership for the Regional Sales organization with tight linkage to Regional and Market leadership teams. Overall, this position will capture center-led strategies, tailor them for the region, and strategize with other senior sales leaders on how to effectively execute it to achieve the region’s financial plan.
As noted in Sysco's Leadership Framework; On-target performance includes exhibiting the following framework components: Core Qualities, Shaping the Future, Delivering Business Results, and Leading People.
Up to 10% Region Travel Required.
Responsibilities:
Under the direction of the VP, Region Sales, this position will lead and support the coordination and execution of corporate, market, or region initiatives among regional associates:
- Translates center-led strategies into best in class regional strategic initiatives to maximize growth.
- Influential in senior sales leadership discussions to ensure we are positioning Sysco to meet and exceed planned objectives.
- Proactively identifies opportunities to improve strategic initiatives, and constantly provides critical feedback to center-led teams.
- Manages the regional execution of key priorities and strategic initiatives, including but not limited to sales forecasting, sales planning processes, pipeline management, customer retention planning, deployment of go-to-market strategies, and performance management tools/processes.
- Partners with Finance and Regional Sales Leadership to develop the region’s financial plan, optimize sales resource coverage, and set clear sales targets.
- Leverages advanced analytics from Center to identify growth and sales targets.
- Leads sales forecasting, planning, and processes used within the sales organization. Proactively monitors and strives to maintain high levels of quality, accuracy, and process consistency in the sales organization’s planning efforts.
- Provides insights and data that allows regional sales leadership to properly allocate resources for all territory sales roles in the organization.
- Understands key metrics to include outside data, year over year performance, and run rates in relationship to overall company goals with a bottom-up approach.
- Leads and is accountable for standard bottom-up forecasts based on current pipeline, win information, and historical sales and customer information.
- Leads the execution of strategic projects and ensures that results are carried through the regional sales organization.
- Deploys standardized sales process and sales practices team to ensure consistency and effectiveness.
- Reports and leads discussion concerning regular process tracking, standardized KPIs, and team and executive dashboards.
- Manages execution of customer retention process and action plan.
- Interprets and harnesses data insights to provide feedback to the team, and align priorities on focus areas.
- Ensures that the best tools, training, and resources are available to the sales organization (across disciplines – local sales, contract sales, business development, and specialists).
- Drives and manages special events, including but not limited to food shows, customer events, product showcases, general sales meetings, etc.
- Stays current with Sysco’s value-added offerings and technology solutions, including but not limited to customer-facing reporting tools.
- Gathers information on regional marketplace and foodservice industry trends to understand the competitive landscape and to position Sysco as the partner-of-choice.
- Attends industry functions, such as association events and conferences, and provides feedback and information on market and creative trends.
- Stays current with development in the field through participation in seminars, workshops, and reading publications.
- Develops strong working relationships with the regional sales organization, finance, merchandising, brokers, distributors, and foodservice industry peers.
- Offers consistent communication and feedback that gain the trust of team, peers, and leadership.
- Learns quickly when facing new challenges; thrives in a fast-paced environment.
- Adapts well to change and views new experiences as growth opportunities.
- Recognizes the impact of change on the team and supports them through it.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Education and / or Experience:
- Minimum: Bachelor's degree in a related field or 10 years of sales experience, and 5+ years leading a B2B sales team in a professional sales environment or equivalent experience, with demonstrated success in sales planning, performance management, and insights-driven strategy.
Professional Skills:
- Solid analytical problem-solving skills, including familiarity with analyzing reports & deriving insights from data.
- Demonstrated ability to partner with senior leaders to develop unified sales strategies.
- Ability to express information in terms of profit and loss, food cost, and expense ratio.
- Strong financial acumen and ability to properly plan and execute business plans.
- Embraces change and champions corporate initiatives.
- Demonstrated ability to coach and mentor peers and associates.
- Demonstrated ability to apply business financial knowledge to support growth and to provide meaningful analytics.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work with and influence a variety of key stakeholders.
- Strong communication skills; ability to effectively communicate with internal and external teams.
- Ability to learn the use of proprietary CRM tools for planning and forecasting sales growth.
- Lead a team of high-performing associates to deliver against deadlines and produce high-quality results (accuracy, thoroughness in the deliverables they are producing).
- Proficient in Microsoft Applications Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
- Excellent organizational and project management skills, including the ability to execute multiple initiatives at the same time.
- Business and restaurant operations acumen.
- Demonstrated skills in the area of consultative selling, networking, and negotiations.
- Proactive, self-directed, with the ability to structure a weekly schedule to be successful.
- Understanding of marketing principles, product lines, ordering procedures, and Sysco’s credit terms.