Sales Manager

About Smurfit Westrock:

Smurfit Westrock partners with our customers to provide differentiated paper and packaging solutions that help them win in the marketplace. Smurfit Westrock’s 100,000 team members support customers around the world from more than 500 + operating and business locations spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. Learn more at www.westrock.com. Smurfit Westrock is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer committed to creating and maintaining a diverse workforce: Minorities/Females/Disabled/Veterans.

The Opportunity:

As the Sales Manager, you will manage and lead the sales team to generate revenue and volume growth by providing differentiated consultative service and strategic value to customers. Additionally, you will be responsible for leading and managing the Sales organization to maintain and grow profitable revenue streams for the Business Unit.

The Sales Manager is responsible for managing the productivity of the sales team and ensuring that all representatives arefocused on customers’ needs and bring to bear broad market knowledge of corrugated packaging, technical savvy, and consumer insights. In this capacity, you will be responsible for understanding the profitability of your Business Unit relating to base, growth, attrition analysis, and year over year account progress. In addition, you will work closely with the Business Unit manufacturing teams to understand and sell open machine capacity and value-added capabilities. The Sales Manager also trains and coaches sales representatives, supports the Area Vice President, General Manager to establish goals, direction, and standards of contact with customers for the business unit, and provides continuous support to the customers, plants, Sales Representatives, and leadership.

How You Will Impact Smurfit Westrock:

• Lead the sales team to exceed volume and profit goals through new account development, growth in existing accounts, and margin improvement initiatives
• Develop the sales strategy for the business unit to articulate the strategic goals and direction of the business unit
• Drive Commercial Excellence to exceed regional volume and profit goals through new account development within targeted market segments, growth in existing accounts, margin improvement plans and enterprise sales support
• Develop working relationships with other Smurfit Westrock facilities to create opportunities for additional revenue streams across the enterprise capabilities
• Develop processes, people, training, and tools to implement the business unit strategy, aligning activities and KPIs to strategic goals and objectives
• Manage the sales team to develop and maintain a sufficient prospect pipeline to meet volume growth objectives and drive results
• Lead the sales team to identify, close, develop, and grow strategic accounts
• Develop pricing and sales strategies for each target account in partnership with Sales Representatives and Pre-Pricing Specialists by analyzing data to ensure that strategic pricing recommendations align with the requirements of the business unit, profitability goals, and plant production capabilities
• Negotiate large customer contracts and support the development of formal agreements in partnership with Sales Representatives, Management, and Legal
• Manage pipeline through monthly sales meetings and cadence calls with Sales Representatives
• Support Business Unit Leadership in developing the annual budget targets for each account contributing forecasted revenue based upon yearly sales trends and current pipeline
• Understand market dynamics and business drivers that define long-term commercial strategies and have an impact on their region and develop strategies to reach company objectives
• Monitor profitability levels to track progress against budgeted targets and analyze monthly financial summaries for business unit
• Conduct regular performance review meetings with direct reports to assess performance, identify and remove obstacles, and discuss opportunities for growth and development
• Mentor and train sales team to develop capability around industry knowledge, relationship development, systems, tools and processes
• Onboard, train, and coach new team members to enable them to quickly become productive and effective
• Conduct performance reviews and career development plans for Sales team members and Business Resource Managers
• Retain top talent and keep them motivated, engaged, and continuously building their capability

What you Need to Succeed:

• Bachelor’s degree preferred

• Preference of minimum of 5 years of sales experience, manufacturing industry or corrugated industry preferred; 5 years of sales leadership is preferred

• Preference of documented history of achieving and exceeding sales/financial objectives

• Proven track record of leadership and decision-making skills to achieve goals and objectives

• Strong written and verbal communication skills

• Demonstrated ability leveraging order entry systems, CRM tools (e.g. Salesforce), and reporting systems

• Ability to drive results through others and adjust coaching methods, as needed

• Ability to create and deliver engaging presentations to internal and external audiences

• Demonstrated sales competence and financial acumen

• Ability to provide clarity to complex problems and develop long-term solutions

• Ability to manage multiple accounts and deadlines and interact effectively with people from varying functions and levels

• Possess a broad understanding of different types of equipment, and technical and packaging capabilities related to the packaging industry

• Possess effective leadership qualities and insightful business judgment

• Excellent computer skills including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Salesforce applications

• Effective problem-solving and decision-making skills

• Possess safety mindset

What We Offer:

• Corporate culture is based on integrity, respect, accountability, and excellence.
• Comprehensive training with numerous learning and development opportunities.
• A career with a global packaging company where Sustainability, Safety and Inclusion are business drivers and foundational elements of the daily work.

Smurfit Westrock Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating and maintaining a diverse workforce.