SUMMARY 
The Edlong Business Development Manager (Southwest) is a sales professional with two main functions: 1) Business Growth and 2) Business Maintenance; ensuring that with the combination of the two functions, delivers the annual sales committed budget for the territory under his/her responsibility, and the expected profitability and growth, according to the Strategic Plan.
In the BDM role you will be responsible for driving sales growth and profit by developing and maintaining strong relationships with key clients in the food and beverage industry. You will leverage your extensive industry knowledge and consultative selling skills to identify client needs and provide tailored flavor solutions and build a culture of “customer obsessed” in the organization. Your role will involve strategic planning, market analysis, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to ensure customer satisfaction and achieve sales targets.
As Edlong’s BDM-Southwest, reporting directly to the VP US-Canada Business, you will be responsible for procuring, developing, and nurturing business relationships with existing and new customers to position Edlong as a vital resource for finding dairy and dairy-type flavor solutions. 
Working collaboratively across Edlong’s departments (i.e., Finance, Operations, Logistics, R&D, etc.), the BDM will also be responsible for developing and executing a business plan that meets or exceeds growth objectives and outpaces industry growth. The ideal candidate must be adaptable, have experience in time and territory management, and demonstrate a strong knowledge of sales processes relating to customers and prospects within a selling environment and be able to navigate our customer organization at multiple levels and across multiple functions. Education, Requirements, Certifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, or a related field, an MBA degree is an advantage.
• 5-7+ years of experience in B2B sales, preferably in the food and beverage industry.
• Strong understanding of flavor products and market dynamics. Prior experience with flavor sales highly desired.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• Proven track record of achieving sales targets and driving business growth.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Fluency and basic comprehension in multiple languages is a plus.

 
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 
To perform the job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential responsibilities. 
 
LANGUAGE SKILLS 
Ability to:  

• Fluency and basic comprehension in multiple languages is a plus. 
• Actively listen to customer needs and respond with appropriate product proposals to meet demands. 
• Deliver impactful presentations in person and via video-conference to customers, clients, or other employees
• Comply with procedures in completing written documentation and compile data into reports and summaries from sales or calls. 

 
MATHEMATICAL SKILLS 
Ability to:  

• Perform, compute mathematical operations with a calculator, and apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations. 
• Perform, compute mathematical operations, and apply concepts such as money, weight, volume, and distance to create and interpret graphs. 
• Calculate profit margins and prepare annual budgets. 
• Understand the impact of currency. 

 
REASONING ABILITY 
Ability to: 

• Work independently to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.  
• Develop positive customer relationships and respond to inquiries or complaints from customers in a proactive manner. 
• Interpret an extensive variety of technical instruction in mathematical or diagram form, deal with several abstract and concrete variables. 
• Handle confidential information in a professional manner. 

 
COMPUTER SKILLS 
Working knowledge of: 

• Microsoft Office (i.e., Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, and Outlook).  
• Corporate productivity and online meeting/web presentation tools.  
• CRM tools and internal business software (i.e., Salesforce, ZoomInfo, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator).  

 
PHYSICAL DEMANDS 
While performing the duties of this job: 

• The employee is regularly required to stand, walk and sit. 
• The employee is regularly required to operate a keyboard, calculator and telephone. 
• The employee is regularly required to lift and/or move up to 10 pounds of product or samples. 
• The employee will occasionally be required to assist in the assembly and taking down of display booths and equipment. 

 
WORK ENVIRONMENT 

• The work location for this position is within a home office setting and on occasion, from the offices in Elk Grove Village.  
• This position frequently requires up to 50% travel within sales territories both by air and automobile. 
• Typical workday attendance will require standard business hours with few unscheduled absences.  
• This position will also occasionally be involved with working at trade shows and other commercial meetings. 

 
The responsibilities described above are intended as a guideline for a particular position with Edlong.  Edlong, in its discretion, may assign any employee new or substituted responsibilities as it sees fit without providing prior notice to any employee.  ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Develop and execute strategic sales plans to achieve revenue, profit and growth targets.
• Build and maintain long-term relationships with key clients and stakeholders at multiple levels.
• Conduct market research to identify new business opportunities and trends.
• Provide consultative sales support to clients, understanding their needs and offering customized flavor solutions and promote a culture of “customer obsessed” internally.
• Collaborate with R&D, Product Development, Marketing, Customer Service, Pricing, Logistics, Regulatory and Operations teams to ensure alignment with client requirements.
• Prepare and deliver compelling sales presentations and proposals.
• Monitor and report on sales performance, market conditions, and competitor activities to contribute to Edlong’s long-term success, using dashboards and analyzing key metrics (i.e., pipeline progression, win rates, product launch KPIs, and new business developments, etc.) 
• Generate interest in Edlong’s capabilities by providing best in class support and service while leveraging the company’s expertise. 
• Develop a strong pipeline of opportunities in salesforce.com or CRM system in key categories (i.e., prospecting, technical events, and international trade shows) and deliver the target win rate.  
• Translate customer requirements to Edlong’s marketing, applications, and technical team to best deliver solutions and exceed customer expectations. 
• Expand utilization of Edlong flavors across multiple applications and product categories by developing and nurturing enterprising business with both existing and new customers. 
• Maintain and organize file documentation related to assigned work to ensure easy access for self- and team. 
• Develop account plans and drive the execution of them for the top customers, and deliver the sales metrics.

 
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES 

• This position has no supervisory responsibilities. 

 
ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Contribute to team efforts, collaboration, and results by following Edlong’s guidelines, supporting departmental objectives, and aligning with the Corporate Mission, Vision, and Strategic goals. 
• Understand all major business processes within Edlong and work with all levels of the organization. 
• Maintain and enhance professional and technical knowledge base of Edlong personnel by sponsoring or attending educational workshops, reviewing professional publications, and establishing personal networks to stay up to date on current trends. 
• Engage in and contribute to Edlong’s marketing campaigns, as requested (LinkedIn, webinars, blog posts, etc.) and execute other duties, as assigned. 

Salary Expectations: $125,000 to $150,000 plus generous sales commission bonus plan.

We provide a comprehensive insurance package, including:

• Health, dental, vision, life and company-paid global travel medical insurance
• Generous PTO, with addition time to give back and celebrate your birthday
• 401(k) matching and profit-sharing
• Paid parental leave and time to celebrate the arrival of grandbabies
• 529 college savings match
• Annual performance-based bonus program
• Tuition reimbursement
• Matching charitable donations

OUR FORMULA 

• We are fully committed to growth - We take ownership. You are here because you are needed. What you do matters to customers, colleagues and the company. Do your job to the utmost of your ability and realize your impact. Be your best self. Owners’ vs operators, lead by example, dedicated to Edlong, be accountable, calm, strong work ethic. We earn our keep. 
• We are all in this together - You do not work alone. Understand how you are connected to customers and colleagues. Quickly and freely offer and accept support. At the end of the day, we will rise or fall together. Relationship building, effective listener, warmth, comfort, loving care, likes customers (internal and external), thrives in team environment, not about ego, I got you, highly collaborative, share it all - good, bad and ugly, dependable, loyal, communicates honestly and with respect. 
• We look for a better way - You can improve anything in your pursuit to create value for our customers and company. Look for waste and ways to do things faster, simpler and better. We act proactively and with a sense of urgency when a better way is found. Organizers, thoughtful, teachers-learners, holistic business mind, can do, is there anything I can do, don't wait to be asked, get it done, closers, steps up, will be done before you need it, problem solvers, hard but smart workers, act with a sense of urgency, always curious. 
• We enjoy victory and grow from defeat - Freely share the joy of success. When things go wrong, reflect, learn and grow from the experience. Apply the valuable lesson to future opportunities. Never stop learning. Passionate, optimistic outlook, winning, be passionate, driven. We are resilient.