Director, Retail Business Unit
United States
Sales – Sales /
Full Time /
Remote
About Smartwyre
Smartwyre delivers commercial software (SaaS) to agricultural input businesses - the manufacturers and distributors of seeds, chemicals and fertilizer. These companies, which range from multinational enterprises to smaller, family-owned retailers, are based in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Our solutions help them manage pricing, incentives and transactional information in order to improve their business performance and better serve the world's farmers.
Today, Smartwyre consists of a team of approximately 100 full-time professionals organized across our Product, Engineering, Customer Success, Data Operations, Marketing, Sales, and Corporate functions.
We’re a "remote-first" company with core teams in Denver, CO; Raleigh-Durham, NC; and London, United Kingdom. Come join us!
About the role
We are looking for an individual to join as Director for our Retail Business Unit reporting to Mark Seaton our SVP of Sales. The role will build strategic relationships within a set of key accounts of US Ag Retailers, defining and executing partnership strategies, and identifying opportunities to create value for customers.
We have built and maintain a detailed target list of companies and decision-maker contacts. The Business Unit Director will cultivate strategic relationships over months - and sometimes years - with these accounts and their individual owners and executives. When a customer account has identified a particular business performance improvement opportunity for their operation, the Business Unit Director will then involve a Smartwyre Solutions Consultant, who will then work with the customer to quantify the specific value opportunity, design and scope a Smartwyre solution, present and implementation plan and close a contract. Continuing to maintain relationships, the Business Unit Director will also work closely with Smartwyre's Customer Success teams to identify account expansion opportunities.
This is not a cold-calling role, nor is it a classic software "hunter/closer" sales position. The position is accountable for Smartwyre's commercial performance in the Retail segment, helping us to achieve and surpass our revenue goals.
The role is remote, and we will expect you to travel extensively to visit and build trust with prospective customers and colleagues.
Your Responsibilities
- Use your network and experience with US Ag Distributors and Retailers to build relationships with decision makers.
- Own the account base of large retailers and build and execute account development plans.
- Assess target markets and accounts, identify prospects and conduct intelligence gathering to identify the best possible communication strategy to maximize chances to attract prospects’ interest and create an early sales relationship with them.
- Engage with prospects via phone, email, and web chat to analyze their needs, answer their questions, and handle any objections.
- Secure and lead senior meetings with retailers and other stakeholders.
- Use your commercial experience to uncover business needs in a consultative manner.
- Conduct discovery sessions and workshops to gain insight into their business needs and share an innovative point of view.
- Politely challenge them to think differently about a recurring problem.
- Build trust at an executive level to evaluate a new solution.
- Use your experience and gravitas in the industry to lead execs to formally consider Smartwyre.
- Communicate the risks of their current operational approach and potential business impact of working with Smartwyre.
- Position Smartwyre as a thought leader.
- Cultivate a following of customers through direct interaction, social media and personal contacts you grow your nationwide influence.
- Speak at industry events, cooperative meetings, and regional associations to raise the profile of Smartwyre.
Our Ideal Candidate
You will have experience working within the Agriculture industry and be someone who understand the challenges that come within the industry. Understanding of ag input business models across manufacturing, wholesale, and retail is essential.
We need someone who has commercial or marketing experience, with the ability to interact with senior leaders.
You will be passionate about building meaningful, trusting, relationships with potential customers of diverse backgrounds. You will be capable of simplifying complexity to communicate effectively in both technical and non-technical conversations.
You will have a natural ability to relate to our customers, provide and translate business vision into a crafted solution using our products and services.
You are comfortable with business processes and commercial concepts like pricing, rebate management, channel strategies, procurement issues and financial performance. More importantly, you are comfortable with complexity and can succinctly distill it to a clear solution. You have the talent for aligning with multiple stakeholders and building relationships across roles. You are willing to travel as needed to be successful (travel ~50%).
What we offer
Competitive salary
Healthcare
401k contribution match
Remote working culture
Generous and flexible paid-time-off policy
Please not we are currently not hiring candidates that reside in any of the following US states: CA, OR, WA, NV, AZ, NY, MA, IL, MI, NJ, CT, OH. However if you are open to relocation the please still apply and include that in your application.
