Director - Business Development

Description

Holmen Cheese is looking for a seasoned and growth-motivated sales leader. This individual will be out hunting new business, leading our Customer Service team, and overseeing the Sales marketing activities.  

Requirements

The person we seek has extensive experience (5+ years) in technical, scientifically-driven sales, preferably in the processed cheese industry. They will be highly capable of interacting and working effectively with customers’ R&D and purchasing team members, having successfully closed and implemented new products into customers’ food ingredients and/or production lines. They will need to know the basics of dairy science and the functionalities of cheese so as to better solve customer needs and opportunities. Better yet, they must demonstrate a passion for learning the science and having demonstrated collaboration on projects with R&D teams (their own and their customers’) in their career.

The vision for this person’s onboarding is to spend 3-6 months learning Holmen’s internal capabilities, products, team members, and customers. The BDM will spend the first 60 days of their employment at the home office in Holmen, WI, with the objectives of learning the company, the team, the products, and beginning to participate in phone and video interactions with current customers. Once the BDM has established themselves, in coordination with the Customer Service team, they will be expected to lead specific existing customer relationships and begin scouting for new business opportunities.

The BDM will collaborate with the CEO, CTO, and customer service leader on key items such as product pricing, MOQs, sales forecasting, and customer prioritization. 

Naturally, this person will be the external face of Holmen Cheese, with the ability and capability to travel for industry conferences/food shows and see customers. However, this role is not a “Sales and Entertainment” role. It is not about face time and entertainment of customers. This is a Hunter role. To be effective, this person must be technically-savvy while being able to apply Holmen’s R&D-expertise to marketplace-relevant and practical food product solutions that help customers grow.

The BDM will have a base salary range of $120,000 - $160,000 while also participating in Holmen’s Short Term Incentive Plan at 15% of base salary as a target. After their 60-day onboarding, it is expected that the BDM will be required to visit the home office frequently (likely spending a minimum of one week per month) and live within a 3 hours drive from Holmen, ideally in the Twin Cities, Madison, Milwaukee, Rochester, or La Crosse areas.