Now Hiring - Director of Sales in New Hope, MN

The Director of Sales at Safco is accountable for leading the sales team and go-to-market strategies for Consumer, Contract, and Commercial Solutions that position Safco to be a world-class, mid-market sourced and manufactured workspace products and solutions business. This role is responsible for effectively collaborating with business unit leaders, sales team members, marketing and product, and support functions to craft sales strategies and maximize strategic account opportunities, adding value for both customers and the business.

This position reports to the VP & General Manager of Safco and is located at Safco Products Co. headquarters in New Hope, Minnesota.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Builds the sales go-to-market strategy for the organization.

• Build sales plans, forecasts and models that align to the organizational strategy balancing short and long-term priorities to drive growth and exceed revenue and profitability goals.
• Clearly define and communicate go-to-market strategy throughout the organization, including identification of products and services to deliver solutions to customers to meet and secure market share, track key metrics, and communicate results and opportunities.
• Define and execute channel and customer strategies while providing proactive business decision support by building a Sales team capable and accountable of driving customer and market growth.
• Direct all aspects of Safco’s sales and customer operations, overseeing all activities related in these areas.

Builds and leads a talented team.

• Build and develop a winning, high-performing team with the capability to deliver growth and results.
• Design effective sales compensation and incentive structures to drive necessary behaviors.
• Proactively drive talent development and succession strategies to ensure the team is equipped with the right tools, content, resources, technology, and change management skills and processes to continue to evolve and adapt to the changes within the market and industry.
• Serve as a strong executive leader who inspires, mentors, motivates, and partners across the organization.
• Create and manage a department structure, operating standards, and practices that are responsive and adaptable to evolving needs from both internal and external customers.
• Manage employee performance by establishing clear goals and expectations, tracking progress against goals, ensuring timely feedback, and addressing performance challenged in a prompt and professional manner.
• Foster a culture that promotes innovation, customer focus, and exceptional service while driving individual accountability and integrity.

Measures results and performance.

• Responsible for budgeting, analysis, and reporting to the executive leadership team to evaluate results in terms of revenue, trends, and increased profit opportunities.
• Constantly seek out cost reduction opportunities as well as areas of productivity and process improvement.
• Ensure the company is meeting customer service expectations, cost and quality considerations.
• Responsible for sales and customer service management processes, metrics and issue identification, resolution, and/or escalation of matters as necessary.
• Ensure the company operates in strict compliance with federal/state regulations and requirements as well as corporate policies.

Drives Continuous Improvement.

• Drive Safco Sales team to continuously improve process efficiency and effectiveness.
• Build technology roadmap and plan with the supporting tools to assist sales team and reps to effectively sell
• Actively collaborate with other departments to improve effectiveness, efficiency, data reporting quality and service delivery
• Other duties as assigned.

REQUIRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, or related field OR equivalent combination of education and experience
• 10+ years’ experience leading and developing sales teams
• 5+ years’ experience developing and executing customer-centric Go To Market Sales Strategies, including leveraging direct, outside sales, channel and eCommerce strategies
• 5+ years’ experience successfully developing and maintaining strategic customer relationships
• Experience translating customer-specific priorities into company success utilizing problem solving, critical thinking, and commercialization skills
• Excellent communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, and decision-making skills
• Ability to recognize and recruit sales representatives and managers who will be successful
• Demonstrated experience with Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Demonstrated experience with sales tools and processes definition and execution, like pipeline management
• Ability to travel up to 60% of the time

PREFERRED EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE, AND SKILLS:

• Previous experience in office products and furniture sales leadership experience
• Previous experience with advanced Microsoft Excel functions (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, Conditional Formatting, etc.)

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

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. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

• Regular sitting, standing, and walking throughout the day to accomplish tasks
• Manual and finger dexterity used regularly with some repetitive finger motions
• Ability to work in front of a computer screen for long periods of time
• Specific vision abilities include close and distance vision; able to identify colors, small letters, and numbers; hand/eye coordination, depth perception and able to adjust focus
• Hearing and speaking
• Other conditions may include frequent reaching, stretching, pushing, pulling, pinching, grasping, and gripping.

ABOUT OUR COMPANY:

Comprised of multiple companies with headquarters in New Hope, Minnesota, Liberty Diversified International (LDI) is a privately held company employing more than 1,900 individuals across our manufacturing facilities, production facilities and core business operations in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, California, and Mexico. With deep roots in the corrugated box manufacturing industry, we operate in the core markets of paper, packaging, workplace products, corrugated plastics and building products.

Since 1918, our values – Caring, Innovation, Trust and Excellence – have guided our day-to-day activities. We believe that when our employees are aligned with these values, we create superior solutions and service for our customers. The LDI family of companies includes Liberty Packaging, Liberty Paper, Liberty Plastics (Custom Solutions and Quarrix Building Products) and Safco.

Safco® offers an array of furniture solutions to create top-notch spaces everyone will be talking about. The team delivers a memorable experience because they truly care about how and where people work. To create work spaces that energize and inspire people, they use market knowledge and employee know-how to spread workspace product innovation. Safco® is committed to excellence in serving our customers for the long-term and building strong relationships.

As part of the Liberty Diversified International (LDI) family of companies, Safco's headquarters are based in Minneapolis, Minnesota with manufacturing and distribution centers in Iowa, Virginia, California and Georgia. The LDI family of companies includes Liberty Packaging, Liberty Paper, Liberty Plastics (Custom Solutions and Quarrix Building Products) and Safco.

Liberty Diversified International is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions without regard to race, color, sex, religion, age, creed, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, disability, or any other protected class