Position Title: Technical Sales Manager

Department: Sales

Location: Remote (Central and Northern Minnesota Region)

This company is a global food-based infrastructure company publicly traded in Canada. With over 3,800 employees and over 30 global manufacturing brands, they are a leading provider of equipment and technology solutions for agricultural commodities including seed, fertilizer, grain and feed systems and an expanding platform for food processing facilities.

Today, their product portfolio also includes cutting edge solutions that leverage IoT enabled devices, sensor technology and cloud computing. Their product is an independent hardware and software platform that brings together data across the farm, in real time, and provides customers with the ability to manage their crop production, manage their overall business, and market their grain based on content and robust traceability. With a customer base that includes Growers, Ag Retail, Grain Buyers and Food Processors, their custom software is an independent farm operating platform, with supply chain visibility and complete crop management.

Responsibilities

Builds and implements a strategy to grow the company’s Digital Ag dealer/direct partnerships while supporting the platforms and profitability.
Responsible for strategically achieving sales targets and objectives
Delivers technical support on integrated solutions to dealers and end-users. Delivers specific support on integrated crop solutions to key growers directly and/or indirectly through partnerships with dealers and other industry influencers.
Responsible for first-level dealer staff training on the company’s Digital solutions
Aligns sales objectives with the company’s Digital Ag dealer business strategy through active participation in dealer development, forecasting, sales resource planning, and budgeting
Optimizes new and existing revenue opportunities across this company’s Digital Ag and all the company’s product lines
Grows and strengthens company’s Digital Ag relationships with dealer and Industry partners
Engages dealers proactively with regular strategy calls to cultivate a deep awareness of their needs, challenges, and goals.
Coordinates efforts between company’s Digital Ag dealers, GSS partners and internal partners such as engineering, sales, training and production teams to improve and grow the business.
Liaison and advocate for interfacing partnerships ensuring exposure and support is focused on dealers & end users.
Coordinates third party activity to maximize the effectiveness for company’s digital Ag systems.
Assists in coordinating dealer support for training, conferences, grain schools, trade shows, and team activities.
Fosters meaningful relationships across all partnership networks, connecting and building rapport with key business executives and decision makers.
Develop solutions that best addresses the needs of the dealer & direct network, while coordinating the involvement of all necessary stakeholders.
Develop and deliver frequent communication to key stakeholders to garner support and drive adoption on any product or platform enhancements.
Supports the GSS Manager with their dealer network to hit assigned targets for profitable sales volume, market share, and other key financial performance objectives
Manages market aligned to performance metrics through the sales management system
Manages performance through KPI’s; assists in ensuring dealer activity meets objectives and is accountable to meeting sales goals.
Recommends to the company’s senior team new sales and marketing programs.
Enforces, within the context of reasonableness, the terms and conditions of sales and marketing programs.
Recommends to and assists the company’s senior team with the analysis of new product lines.
Controls relevant expenses to the extent of approved budget.
Recommends acceptable levels of exposure on individual dealer & direct accounts.

Other Essential Responsibilities:

Collaborates across dealer & partnership networks to conduct seminars, grain schools, and prepare presentations for dealership teams.
Works with dealers & partners to display company’s Digital Ag products at trade shows and other sponsor programs maximizing marketing and trade show revenue
Organizes and executes field demos, promotional activities, trade shows, and other marketing activities
Collects market information on dealers & partners, retail locations, growers, prices, trends, etc. through sales management system
Negotiates terms and conditions of marketing and conference support agreements and closes business deals.
Ensures End User and Dealer development and growth for company’s Digital Ag products.
Achieve sales goals by product and region as set out in the annual budget.
Maintain positive and productive relations with potential and existing customers and other industry contacts.
Compiles, analyzes, and communicates dealer, direct and partnership statistics.
Monitors dealer accounts and assists with collections.
Assists with company’s trade shows, coordinating with all business units and company’s Sales / Marketing
Evaluates dealer effectiveness by product lines, accounts and recommends improvements.
Gathers competitive intelligence for strategic analysis.
Fosters a culture of accountability, high-performance, and ethical behavior
Stays informed of current industry trends and new business development opportunities.
Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Education: Post Secondary Degree preferred in business, engineering, agriculture or ag related field or equivalent commensurate experience

Experience: 5+ years relevant experience in agriculture sales, dealer sales, or technical account management. Equivalent combination of education and experience considered.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

Ability to travel as required in meeting essential duties and responsibilities. 60%-70%
Valid state Driver’s License required.
A high level of personal initiative, setting and achieving challenging goals.
Ability to manage and develop the business relationships of existing and new company’s dealer accounts.
A proven track record that shows a strong ability to work with dealer channels to meet or exceed assigned objectives
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
Strong understanding of CMC/ company’s Suretrack products
Experience with meeting revenue goals
Demonstrated ability to grow relationships and expand product platform footprints.
Strong project management skills with the ability to administer multiple projects, prioritize workload and effectively manage resources.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including ability to prepare product presentation materials and articulate technical information in a polite, confident, relationship building way.
Ability to communicate technical product information to dealers, customers, growers, and agronomists.
Some evening or weekend work as required by dealer demands and/or seasonality typical to agriculture
Demonstrated analytical and organizational skills
Fluent in English, additional language skills are advantageous
Strong Leadership and Interpersonal Skills

Technical Aptitude

Superior Business Analysis and Project Management Capabilities
Experience operating within a matrix organization
Effective collaborator across functional disciplines
Ability to enforce, within the context of reasonableness, the terms and conditions of dealer sales and marketing programs.
Ability to recommend to and assist the company’s team with the analysis of new product lines and acquisition opportunities
Ability to control relevant expenses to the extent of approved budget.
Ability to recommend acceptable levels of exposure on dealer accounts.
Ability to balance strategic thinking with tactical execution
Ability to thrive & grow in a continuously evolving environment

Software Application and Technical Knowledge:

Proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite

Preferred understanding of Salesforce data system and other IT systems

Industry/Specialty
Agriculture/Sales

Job Type
Full-Time Regular

State
MN