Technical Sales Manager

Position Title: Technical Sales Manager

Department: Sales

Location: Remote (Central and Northern Minnesota Region)

This company is a global food-based infrastructure company publicly traded in Canada. With over 3,800 employees and over 30 global manufacturing brands, they are a leading provider of equipment and technology solutions for agricultural commodities including seed, fertilizer, grain and feed systems and an expanding platform for food processing facilities.

Today, their product portfolio also includes cutting edge solutions that leverage IoT enabled devices, sensor technology and cloud computing. Their product is an independent hardware and software platform that brings together data across the farm, in real time, and provides customers with the ability to manage their crop production, manage their overall business, and market their grain based on content and robust traceability.

Responsibilities

• Builds and implements a strategy to grow the company’s Digital Ag dealer/direct partnerships while supporting the platforms and profitability.
• Responsible for strategically achieving sales targets and objectives.
• Delivers technical support on integrated solutions to dealers and end-users.
• Responsible for first-level dealer staff training on the company’s Digital solutions.
• Aligns sales objectives with the company’s Digital Ag dealer business strategy.
• Optimizes new and existing revenue opportunities across this company’s Digital Ag and all the company’s product lines.
• Grows and strengthens company’s Digital Ag relationships with dealer and Industry partners.
• Engages dealers proactively with regular strategy calls to cultivate a deep awareness of their needs, challenges, and goals.
• Coordinates efforts between company’s Digital Ag dealers, GSS partners and internal partners such as engineering, sales, training and production teams.
• Liaison and advocate for interfacing partnerships ensuring exposure and support is focused on dealers & end users.
• Coordinates third party activity to maximize the effectiveness for company’s digital Ag systems.
• Assists in coordinating dealer support for training, conferences, grain schools, trade shows, and team activities.
• Fosters meaningful relationships across all partnership networks.
• Develop solutions that best addresses the needs of the dealer & direct network.
• Develop and deliver frequent communication to key stakeholders to garner support and drive adoption on any product or platform enhancements.
• Supports the GSS Manager with their dealer network to hit assigned targets for profitable sales volume, market share, and other key financial performance objectives.
• Manages market aligned to performance metrics through the sales management system.
• Manages performance through KPI’s; assists in ensuring dealer activity meets objectives.
• Recommends to the company’s senior team new sales and marketing programs.
• Enforces the terms and conditions of sales and marketing programs.
• Recommends to and assists the company’s senior team with the analysis of new product lines.
• Controls relevant expenses to the extent of approved budget.
• Recommends acceptable levels of exposure on individual dealer & direct accounts.

Other Essential Responsibilities:

• Collaborates across dealer & partnership networks to conduct seminars, grain schools, and prepare presentations for dealership teams.
• Works with dealers & partners to display company’s Digital Ag products at trade shows.
• Organizes and executes field demos, promotional activities, trade shows, and other marketing activities.
• Collects market information on dealers & partners through sales management system.
• Negotiates terms and conditions of marketing and conference support agreements.
• Ensures End User and Dealer development and growth for company’s Digital Ag products.
• Achieve sales goals by product and region as set out in the annual budget.
• Maintain positive and productive relations with potential and existing customers.
• Compiles, analyzes, and communicates dealer, direct and partnership statistics.
• Monitors dealer accounts and assists with collections.
• Assists with company’s trade shows, coordinating with all business units.
• Evaluates dealer effectiveness by product lines, accounts and recommends improvements.
• Gathers competitive intelligence for strategic analysis.
• Fosters a culture of accountability, high-performance, and ethical behavior.
• Stays informed of current industry trends and new business development opportunities.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Education: Post Secondary Degree preferred in business, engineering, agriculture or ag related field or equivalent commensurate experience.

Experience: 5+ years relevant experience in agriculture sales, dealer sales, or technical account management.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Ability to travel as required in meeting essential duties and responsibilities. 60%-70%.
• Valid state Driver’s License required.
• A high level of personal initiative, setting and achieving challenging goals.
• Ability to manage and develop the business relationships of existing and new company’s dealer accounts.
• A proven track record that shows a strong ability to work with dealer channels.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong understanding of CMC/ company’s Suretrack products.
• Experience with meeting revenue goals.
• Demonstrated ability to grow relationships and expand product platform footprints.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to administer multiple projects.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to communicate technical product information to dealers, customers, growers, and agronomists.
• Some evening or weekend work as required by dealer demands.
• Demonstrated analytical and organizational skills.
• Fluent in English; additional language skills are advantageous.
• Strong Leadership and Interpersonal Skills.

Technical Aptitude

• Superior Business Analysis and Project Management Capabilities.
• Experience operating within a matrix organization.
• Effective collaborator across functional disciplines.
• Ability to enforce, within the context of reasonableness, the terms and conditions of dealer sales and marketing programs.
• Ability to recommend to and assist the company’s team with the analysis of new product lines.
• Ability to control relevant expenses to the extent of approved budget.
• Ability to recommend acceptable levels of exposure on dealer accounts.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with tactical execution.
• Ability to thrive & grow in a continuously evolving environment.

Software Application and Technical Knowledge:

• Proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite.
• Preferred understanding of Salesforce data system and other IT systems.