This position will manage all aspects of our commercial activities in the Pacific Northwest Region and will be responsible for sales activity, customer relationship management and working cross-functionally with research and marketing teams to meet annual revenue targets. This position will be the key Limagrain Cereal Seeds (LCS) commercial expert in this region and responsible for managing all components of a complex balance sheet. This position offers a unique opportunity to oversee and optimize all control points in a commercial environment that is both highly technical and highly relationship driven. This position is based in Walla Walla, Washington.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Sales Management

• Planning and implementation of sales strategies to gain market share and increase LCS profitability in the region


• Interface directly with current accounts to maintain positive and profitable relationships


• Identify and develop new accounts within the region to promote new revenue opportunities for the LCS brand


• Work with the Product Development Team to position Foundation seed of all varieties in the LCS portfolio


• Support the LCS customer network with wholesale transactions of Registered and Certified seed


• Represent LCS at regional trade shows, field days and customer events throughout the year


• Work with LCS admin and accounting teams to collect royalties and audit annual reports from customers


• Plan and organize entries for state variety testing to support marketing and technical data creation

Marketing (A&P, Technical, Strategic)

• Play a key role in the development and planning of annual campaigns including print, digital, direct mail, etc.


• Collaborate with Marketing, PR and Research teams to plan, design and distribute annual seed guides


• Collaborate with Marketing, PR and Research teams to ensure website information is current and accurate


• Organize all efforts to support dealer network with LCS sponsored regional retail level advertising projects


• Organize collection and compilation of regional technical data and statistics from LCS and public trials


• Collect and interpret data and information that will create competitive advantage for LCS in the PNW marketplace and use statistical methods for interpreting and analyzing complex data sets is important.


• Work with National Sales Manager and Research team to create technical data packages for licensing partners


• Understand the principals of wheat breeding and agronomy at a high level, enabling them to work with our research team to develop and select products.


• Study wheat trials with Research team each year to maintain a current and functional knowledge of all products in the marketplace and all advanced experimental LCS material progressing towards commercialization


• Work with National Sales Manager to maintain a comprehensive regional intelligence platform capable of delivering product targets to the Research team

Budget Management

• Responsible for managing the following P&L statement components to achieve annual revenue targets and maintain positive bottom line growth:
  
  
  
  • Maximizing sales volumes
  
  
  • Maximizing royalty levels
  
  
  • Minimizing cost of goods
  
  
  • Optimizing commercial operating expenses
  
  
  • Assisting with the optimization of research expenditures
  
  
  
  


• Responsible for forecasting:
  
  
  
  
  • Commercial operating expenditures
  
  
  • Royalty and sales revenue
  
  
  • Regional marketing expenditures
  
  
  • Regional promotional expenditures
  
  
  • Regional sales event expenditures
  
  
  • Annual investment in commercial testing of varieties
  
  
  
  

Competencies

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Interpersonal Skills: Strong interpersonal communication skills. Able to work across all levels of the organization, as well as with outside agencies and customers.


• Teamwork: Team player with a positive attitude. Able to facilitate cooperation, as a function of coordinating and providing information for various areas within the company.


• Judgment: Exhibit sound and accurate judgment. Accountable for decisions made. Attention to detail and accuracy/integrity of data provided. Able to prioritize workload in order to meet the needs of the organization, and to meet designated timelines.


• Professionalism: Highly self-motivated individual, possessing strong organizational skills. Comfortable taking direction, work cross-functionally and independently.


• Adaptability: Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events. Able to handle multiple projects simultaneously. Able to identify and troubleshoot problems in order to affect a complete resolution.


• Attendance/Punctuality: Ensure work responsibilities are completed in a timely fashion.


• Dependability: Able to perform and maintain the functions of the job in a reliable and consistent manner.

Desired Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business, Agricultural Economics or Agronomy; Master’s degree preferred


• 3 – 5 year’s Agricultural experience with small grains, specifically wheat and barley


• Advanced skills in MS business suite – MS Excel & MS PowerPoint proficiency is very important


• Experience with development and maintenance of customer accounts

Miscellaneous:
- Reports to: National Sales and Marketing Manager
- Supervisory responsibilities: none
- FLSA Status: Exempt
- Internal relations: All employees of LCS and LFS BU
- External relations: dealers, distributors, farmers, universities, licensing partners
- Travel requirements: internationally and domestically as required for business (total travel between 25-50%)