What are the responsibilities and job description for the Hybrid Rye Sales Manager position at KWS Group?
KWS Cereals USA is looking for a Hybrid Rye Sales Manager to join our team starting 1 January 2025. The Sales Manager will ensure that KWS hybrid rye and connected services are successfully introduced and established in the US for a long-term viability while developing and coaching a sales team. To ensure this success, the Sales Manager will work with new and existing stakeholders, internally and externally. Additionally, they will optimize sales of KWS hybrid rye varieties in terms of value and volume through various independent and collaborative business tasks.
Essential Job Functions:
- Build and maintain relationships with seed dealers, distributors, and end-use customers
- Lead the collection and analysis of relevant business and industry data for use in strategy and business development cases for hybrid rye and other relating crops
- Build, lead, and coach to further develop and motivate the sales team to become a top-performing team in the seed industry
- Meet annual sales targets and collect market intel to drive further growth
- Record and process complaints in alignment with Country Manager, Production and Logistics Manager, or relevant personnel
- Work cross-functionally with production, logistics, product management, and sales support for overall business development and fluidity
- Acquire and determine distributor and business sales goals and establish annual and midterm pricing with the Country Manager
- Work with KWS pricing tools to support and optimize CM1 of hybrid rye
- Host and actively participate in field days, training sessions and other special events to build brand recognition
- Give agronomic and other crop specific support to growers
- Generate and execute distributor agreements, customer audits, and additional compliance tools
- Maintain and optimize customer data in customer relationship management software (CRM tool – Salesforce)
- Invoice and debtor management
- Ensure company handbook, rules, guidelines and procedures, and safety policies are followed, and personal protective equipment is used correctly
- Regularly travel and/or drive on behalf of the business (35% of the time)
- Meet attendance requirements
- Other duties as assigned
Required Qualifications:
- BA/BS or equivalent industry experience in Agriculture or Agriculture Business related fields
- 5 years of relevant agriculture or agriculture business work experience
- Sales professional with experience driving new products and developing markets
- Critical and logical thinking abilities
- Excelled and proven experience in teamwork, communication, negotiations, and presentation skills
- Basic computer skills (Microsoft Office, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
- Valid driver’s license
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced Degree in related field with related experience
- Technical understanding of the cultivation of small grains
- 5 years of leading and/or developing a sales team
- Previously completed sales or business development education trainings
- Customer relationship management education
- Experience using CRM/Salesforce
- Experience using SAP
What We Offer:
- Health, dental, vision benefits
- Pension plan and 401(k) with employer match
- Company vehicle
- Flexible paid time off (PTO)
- Tuition reimbursement
- Professional training and development opportunities
- An international and diverse team
Working Environment:
Typical office setting. Travel with an occasionally untraditional work schedule.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and move objects up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
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About KWS
KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. Over 5,000 employees in more than 70 countries generated net sales of around €1.8 billion in the fiscal year 2022/2023. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for 165 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugar beet, cereals, vegetables, oilseed rape and sunflower. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plants’ resistance to diseases, pests, and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested more than €300 million last fiscal year in research and development.
Our data privacy policy for candidates is available on www.kws.com/dataprotection. Please select the country where the job you applied for is posted in and, if applicable, the specific business unit.
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