Job Purpose:

To be commercially responsible for a number of national accounts to ensure they exceed planned sales & marketing expectations within agreed revenue and margin parameters.

Duties & Responsibilities:

To ensure that sales and profit from the account portfolio are delivered in line with company & customer expectations.

To negotiate Hozelock margins & promotional costs.

To understand the business objectives & strategies of your customers to ensure the development of relevant categories.

To negotiate NPD listings and promotional activity on an on-going basis.

To ensure exceptional customer service (specific targets by account) is achieved at all times by communicating effectively with both internal & external customers.

To liaise with all key internal departments & functions to ensure customer needs are met in a timely & efficient manner.

To drive best practise to ensure that all account activities are clearly communicated within the business to ensure a professional & timely output.

To be responsible for accurate sales forecasts for all listed products - both standard and promotional lines.

Produce monthly performance summary reports on portfolio for presentation both internally and to customers.

To actively review and assess all promotional activity to ensure relevance and effectiveness and make recommendations on future activity.

To drive category management & category development initiatives within accounts to ensure overall growth & margin objectives are achieved.

To develop exceptional relationships at all levels within accounts to ensure that Hozelock are regarded as the number one, category-leading supplier.

To meet required Standards and Procedures

Comply with the Health and Safety responsibilities as defined in the company health and safety policy and ensure that any specific responsibilities are adequately delegated in their absence.

Occasional Tasks

Attend trade shows, Trade Award events as required/requested by account contact or Head of UK Sales to represent Hozelock and develop current customer relationships.

Spend time in other parts of the business - e.g., marketing, manufacturing, (manufacturing & distribution included as part of initial induction program - to ensure on-going understanding of these key areas.

Customer entertainment and any other duties required to assist in supporting the achievement of Company objectives

Person Profile:

Excellent interpersonal skills

Good communication skills - verbal & written

Robust negotiation skills

Excellent planning & organisation skills

Ability to work alone, sometimes under pressure and to tight deadlines

Self-motivated and results driven

Computer literate

Excellent analytical skills

Good presentation skills

Effective influencer

Able to get things done

Tenacity

Rounded commercial understanding

Team player

Not afraid to challenge the status quo

Attention to detail

Ability to think out of the box

Education and/or Experience

Graduate preferred

Non-graduate considered with robust work experience, can demonstrate a professional approach both verbally & written, and have a proven track record of successful account management and development.

Must have at least 3 years' experience of managing national retail accounts -within the gardening sector or FMCG

Must be able to demonstrate the desire to get things done in a professional manner.

Must be able to demonstrate that they can effectively influence both internal & external contacts to work with them in order to achieve results

Must be able to clearly demonstrate a successful track record in working with customers to achieve targets and deliver growth.

Must have a good understanding of the classical category management principles and be able to demonstrate how they have used them effectively in previous roles