Associate, Business Development Manager

Job Title: Associate, Business Development Manager

Location: Hamburg, Germany

Summary: 

We are seeking an Associate Business Development Manager to join our fast-growing Hershey’s team in Europe.

The Associate Business Development Manager will work on delivering the key retailer goals for the region. Working across internal teams such as finance, customer marketing & category planning in addition to helping to manage external distributor & retailer relationships.

Focuses on achieving market financial goals which includes but is not limited to: revenue in terms of net sales, gross profit, category/market share (where applicable)  and operating income by developing and executing sales and trade marketing plans, working closely with Marketing, Finance and Supply Chain and ensuring effective coverage of sales territories and execution of agreed marketing strategies. This role is responsible for achieving channel and customer profitability as well as market share goals vis a vis identified customers or channels. The delivery of Europe’s topline is the key delivery of the role.

The role requires developing and implementing an effective and coordinated trade marketing and sales plan in support of organizational and regional/ business unit strategies and other globally or regionally driven efforts. The role is also a customer-facing role representing the corporation with recognized distributors, retail customers, relevant organizations, partners and suppliers within the market/s.

The role is ultimately responsible for the development and training of key distributor personnel for markets under his or her business unit.  The candidate must be abreast of current trade trends, market conditions and marketing, finance, supply chain and sales enablers through continued education and training.

The role is expected to leverage and grow partnerships with key customers both in modern and traditional trade for the markets under the business unit. The candidate is the main liaison with the Marketing, Finance and Supply Chain regional or sub-regional support teams.

Major Duties/Responsibilities: 

MARKET STRATEGIES:

Working with Business Development Managers, this role will:

• Drive business growth through targeted customer marketing and sales plans, focusing on channel, category, and key customer strategies at the trade level.
• Set clear trade, customer, category, and shopper programs with defined marketing, sales, and financial objectives to ensure outcomes.
• Manage customer marketing, field sales, and supply chain activities to deliver profitable growth for key customers via distributor partnerships.
• Identify and communicate strategic priorities across geographies, channels, customers, and categories, detailing required actions and serving as lead spokesperson.
• Monitor and report on strategic initiative implementation with all stakeholders.
• Create joint business plans with distributor partners and key customers in target markets.
• Establish and track metrics throughout to measure progress and increase transparency in meeting business goals.

SALES AND CUSTOMER/TRADE MARKETING EXECUTION

• Manages the trade spend budget, plans yearly activities, tracks budget vs actuals, and adjusts as needed.
• Supports market strategies in-store, delivering insights for optimal product, price, and promotion.
• Develops and tracks KPIs for sales and trade marketing execution via distributors.
• KPIs include sales, speed to shelves, inventory, retail standards, in-store activation, channel and category plans.
• Delivers sales training to distributor teams.
• Oversees internal support for marketing, promotions, merchandising, analysis, and admin.
• Drives the distributor relationship and joint business performance.

FINANCE, SUPPLY CHAIN    

• Co-owns and co-leads the execution of a healthy profit and loss statement (P&L) for the market, covering business, brands, channels, and customer P&Ls.
• Executes control and audit processes within the sales organization and with distributor partners.
• Coordinates financial reporting and funding requirements with internal and external partners across the region.
• Understands distributor financials and influences distributor decisions to meet Hershey Company’s financial expectations.
• Co-plans and executes optimal inbound supply chain solutions in partnership with internal stakeholders.
• Ensures delivery of the right stock at the right time and price within the market.
• Shares responsibility for product freshness at both market and trade levels, collaborating with internal supply chain partners.
• Constantly seeks improvements in Supply Chain KPIs, such as fill rates and product quality.

Competencies: 

Effective Communicator and Collaborator

Strong communicator across multiple stakeholders within the business, both internal and external, and in various levels of seniority.  Demonstrates an ability and enjoyment in working within a close team and liaising with colleagues on decision making and analysis.

Strategic Agility

Thinks strategically by clearly anticipating future trends, challenges, and consequences, creating breakthrough strategies and plans to achieve a competitive advantage, and proactively adjusting strategies and plans in order to sustain competitive advantage.

Business & Financial Acumen

Financially savvy, maintains strong financial awareness of the overall P&L, and understands how trade spend impacts top-line revenue and bottom-line profitability. Ability to own and manage total trade spend budget.

Understands how businesses work, including how strategies and tactics work in the marketplace. Maintains working knowledge of competitors as well as current and possible future policies, practices, trends and information affecting his/ her business and organization.

Own and manage the total trade spend budget with a focus on maximizing ROI. This includes being a financial co-leader for the market's profit and loss statement (P&L), collaborating on strategy and execution to ensure healthy financial performance across brands, channels, and customer segments.

Drive for Results

Pushes self and others to exceed goals and achieve breakthrough results. Recognizes the key actions necessary to achieve results; establishes and communicates the priorities to others; and maintains own and others focus on achieving the important goals. Demonstrates persistence in overcoming roadblocks to achieving results and encourages others to do the same.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

Uses a systematic process to solve difficult problems including gathering and examining information from a variety of sources; identifying the root cause of problems; drawing appropriate conclusions; generating viable solutions; and weighing the pros and cons to arrive at a final decision. Makes decisions in a timely manner, sometimes with incomplete information and under tight deadlines and pressure.

Process Management  

Identifies the processes required to accomplish work tasks; simplifies and integrates processes and work tasks to enable efficient workflow; utilizes best practices to organize people and activities; measures results against key metrics; uses resources efficiently.

Organization Skills

Takes control of a project or a process and identifies improvements.  Manages and organizes tracking of budgets, forecasts and sales to enable more efficient decision making and information gathering across the team.

Minimum knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities: 

• Experience in Europe retail markets as mandatory with indirect distribution models.
• Strong Sales & negotiation skills
• Self-starting mentality
• Track record of Project management.
• Strong results orientation
• Excellent people leadership skills
• Strong team player
• Excellent verbal/written communication skills
• Clear understanding of financial analysis principles
• Strong persuasion skills
• Excellent analytical skills
• Overall profile/track record around innovation and creativity to solve business problems and drive growth.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements: 

Education:

The candidate must know and understand current trade trends, market conditions and sales enablers through continued education and training. Bachelor Degree is a must. Candidates with MBA is a plus. 

Experience:

Minimum of 7 years solid work experience in CPG and in customer/trade marketing (in store activations, channel and category strategy and plans, shopper insights) and sales (key account management, distributor management). Demonstrated ability in key functional tasks and a clear progression or expansion in terms of areas of responsibility or increase in business size and complexity. Multi market past management is a must.