Grain Sales Leader at Land O'Lakes, Inc. in SHAWANO, Wisconsin

Job Description:

As part of an ever-growing ag community, we are uniquely positioned to address the challenges and seize the opportunities of a growing global population. We are dedicated to finding the most talented people to support the businesses of our member owners, local ag retails and cooperatives across North America. We strive to match people that share our passion for agriculture with sustainable careers in the communities in which our member owners operate. There is no better time to be part of the growing, dynamic world of agriculture - let's help you find your fit.

Grain Sales Leader

Summary:

We are looking for a Grain Sales Leader to drive business growth by leading the grain marketing team and origination of grain from our producers. This includes the selling of risk management programs and prospecting for new business with area farmers. This is an integral role that ensures business planning around team objectives are in place and managed seasonally throughout the year. This individual determines account assignments, team selling opportunities, and cross-divisional sales efforts. The ideal candidate takes pride in their work and always goes the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction.

Location: Cottage Grove, WI

Essential Responsibilities:

• Planning and Budgeting
  
  
  • Write annual business plan for grain marketing specialist team to drive growth and increase local net profit.
  
  
  • Drive and administer the business planning process with the grain marketing specialists.
  
  
  • Take ownership in the delivery of the revenue, gross margin, and local net of the budget.
  
  
  
  


• Leadership
  
  
  • Provide the overall sales leadership for the division.
  
  
  • Collaborate with merchandising to introduce new points of value to the grain marketing specialist team.
  
  
  • Help recruit and hire staff and support career fair and other candidate networking events.
  
  
  
  


• Supervision
  
  
  • Direct supervision of grain marketing specialists.
  
  
  • Monitor performance with Tableau and Salesforce and use to drive performance.
  
  
  • Review business plans and stay informed of business development and trends with current and prospective customers.
  
  
  • Perform annual and mid-year reviews.
  
  
  • Ensure that all company policies are being followed.
  
  
  
  


• Profitability
  
  
  • Responsible for bottom-line profitability in the division.
  
  
  • Work with merchandising to set and enforce margin structure.
  
  
  
  


• Value
  
  
  • Develop and drive the value created by cooperative's Grain Division.
  
  
  • Focus on the service and technology brought to the farm beyond the price we offer.
  
  
  • Work with marketing to organize and promote group farmer meetings
  
  
  
  


• Customer Assignments
  
  
  • Manage the assignment of customers.
  
  
  • Ensure customer segmentation and capability of the grain marketing specialists are properly aligned.
  
  
  • Make changes in account assignment as necessary to maximize sales.
  
  
  
  


• Assists and participates with the Grain Division in the planning and execution of strategies, business plans, and marketing efforts that assist the producer with marketing decisions.


• Communicates effectively with customers to; originate grain, introduce cooperative programs, and risk management tools.


• Develops long-term relationships with targeted customers by making regular farm calls.


• Utilizes the cooperative pipeline as a tool to prospect, and measures results.


• Collaborates with other cooperative divisions to gain new business.


• Promotes Grain Programs and tools matching the individual customer's needs with cooperative programs and risk management tools.


• Maintains and utilizes detailed records on the targeted customers to enhance the understanding of customer's problems and needs.


• Help out other areas of the business as bandwidth allows.


• Other duties as assigned.

Required Skills:

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.


• Excellent internal and external relationship building skills.


• Strong business acumen.


• Ability to coach employees and provide timely feedback.


• Proven track record developing employees.


• Ability to effectively lead and delegate a team of employees.


• Understand business financials and make decisions to positively effective bottom line.


• Advanced problem-solving ability.


• Strong ethical and moral compass and confidence to confront questionable situations.


• Open to continuous learning and improvement opportunities.


• Strong computer skills.


• Strong written and verbal communication skills.


• Strong relationship driven customer service skills.


• Ability to develop new business and be willing to make cold calls/visits in the country.


• Ability to support and communicate the cooperative mission statement and our core competency in all daily functions.

Education and Experience

• Associates degree in Agricultural related field or Business.


• Bachelor's degree in Agricultural field or Business preferred.


• Minimum 5 years grain origination or similar agricultural background experience required.


• Minimum five years of people management and business planning or equivalent.

If you have questions about how to apply, please call the HR Solution Center at 844-LOL-HR4U (844-565-4748) M-F 8:00am-4:30pm CT.