Careers

Vice President, Key Accounts

Build a custom B2B beverage business with the Midwest’s leading co-packer!

Red Boot Beverage is a 5-year-old co-manufacturer with $25 million in annual sales. We are looking for a customer-focused business leader to cultivate our current customers and bring in the next great prospects for our plant. Leverage your relationship-driven sales skills to help brands take advantage of our strengths in Research & Development, flexible production, and responsive customer service. If you love selling custom food & beverage products and/or developing key grocery and c-store retail chain accounts but don’t see a long runway for your professional growth, come work with our small, nimble team of passionate makers.

Objective

• Develop profitable customer relationships for custom non-alcoholic beverages

Customers and prospects

• Fit into three segments:
  • Retailers, including grocery and c-stores, buying Red Boot private label brands and formulations or creating their own custom beverages
  • Distributors and wholesalers buying Red Boot private label brands and formulations or creating their own custom beverages
  • Manufacturers or brand developers (including celebrities and influencers) that may already have a brand and need custom beverage formulations as well as production
• With a focus on matching customer needs to production capabilities:
  • Interested in customer quality over quantity – we wish to develop long-lasting cross-functional partnerships, not just drive transactional sales
  • Committed to customer centricity – we aim to be the most collaborative and flexible, not the cheapest
  • While optimizing our expanding capabilities – to ensure a positive experience externally and internally

Responsibilities

• Business/account development – develop the current book of business and identify a targeted group of new prospects for outreach, design the sales funnel, build sales and service processes, handle incoming leads, generate quality sales as an individual contributor
• Project management – supervise customer service manager and contribute to developing effective systems for tracking business and building relationships
• Operations integration – bring insights about the beverage category, customers, consumers, and competitors to enhance the work done by our R&D/Quality, Manufacturing, and Logistics teams
• External marketing partner management – to meet customer needs for branding and design support, as well as company needs for promotional support and RBB-owned brand development

Skills and qualifications

• 5-10 years of experience selling custom food and beverage formulations or private label products to our target customers or servicing key account sales within those customer segments
• Relationship-driven approach to selling, developing, and servicing customers
• Strong business acumen – self-starter with good time management and self-discipline
• Effective written and personal communication skills

Resources to leverage

• 97,000 square-foot facility dedicated to the bottling, canning and formulation of carbonated and non-carbonated beverages
• 88-person team of experts in sourcing, formulation, blending, packing and packaging, warehousing and logistics
• Dedicated onsite customer service manager, with the ability to influence project management processes
• Strong network of preferred vendors for ingredients, packaging, and design
• Portfolio of private label brands and formulations to sell or use as proof of capabilities
• Marketing support from external agency partners for sales tool development and brand building
  • Capabilities collateral, presentations, customer brand development, RFP response templates, custom design support for packaging
  • RBB awareness building through focused direct mail campaigns, trade advertising, and event participation

Work requirements

• Remote position with good airport and internet access to allow connectivity with office and plant based in Des Moines, IA
• Midwest presence is preferred to align with location of best business prospects (due to freight cost considerations) and simplify travel to the plant for customer visits and project check-ins
• Travel estimated up to 25%

Compensation & Benefits

• Base pay from $125K to $150K + discretionary bonus
• Opportunities for stock ownership
• Benefits include health, dental, and vision; retirement match; PTO

Contact information

Please send inquiries or cover letter and resume to: Stuart Oxer, Owner at stuart@redbootdistillery.com