Account Manager - Western Region

Position Location: Central/Northern California

Reports To: Sales Manager, Western Region, Systems and Ingredient Solutions (SIS)

Company Background:

Ingredion is a Fortune 500 provider of ingredient solutions that helps nourish, comfort, sustain, and delight people around the world. Ingredion’s wide range of ingredient solutions is strategically designed to address changing consumer trends and preferences. Our specialty portfolio includes starch-based texturizers, clean and simple ingredients, plant-based proteins, sugar reduction and specialty sweeteners, and food systems. Our innovative ingredient solutions are used by consumers in everyday products, from foods and beverages to paper and pharmaceuticals. And we do it all in a planet-friendly sustainable manner.

The Account Manager will be responsible to develop and maximize sales volume and margins through detailed planned sales coverage at existing and prospective accounts.  The Account Manager will call on medium to large accounts with a focus on key strategic customers.  As a member of the Go-to-Market team, the Account Manager will optimize profitability and grow sales of Ingredion’s diverse and expanding specialty products.  

As Account Manager, Western Region your responsibilities will include:

Strategic Account Management - Develop strategic account plans to create long term value for customers. Plans are to include account strategies, defined objectives, milestones and specific opportunities.  Establishes strategic relationships with key accounts to sell products, services and alternative solutions to create competitive advantage for the customer.

Relationship Building - Develop strong multi-level relationships between Ingredion and our important customers to drive growth and effectively address challenges that may arise.

Sales Strategy Development - Work with management to develop a business plan, demand forecast and sales strategy. Utilize technical understanding of food ingredients to introduce value selling or value price concepts.

Go to Market - Work with Technical Service, Marketing, Growth Platforms and other key stake holders to develop and close new opportunities.  Conduct market analysis of customers, understanding market trends and competitive pricing.

Product and Application Development - Advise and work with customers to create innovative solutions. Designs trial plans utilizing the breadth of technical resources available to create innovation solutions.

Customer Value Creation - Creates solutions based on implicit customer needs.  Apply deep understanding of customer strategy and an understanding of explicit and implicit customer needs to create value.  Quantify and articulate the current and potential value created for the customer.  Identify opportunities to solve customer problems with existing products or innovation.

Contract Negotiations – Create and conduct proposal presentations and RFPs.  Negotiate contracts with customers and manage the development, accuracy and delivery of those contracts.

Financial & Budget Responsibilities - Develop and achieve budget and control expenses for sales territory.

Reporting – Maintain accurate records of all sales activity, including customer call reports, territory sales analysis, quarterly updates, and salesforce.com data, etc.

Market Analysis - Conduct market analysis of customers, understanding market trends and competitive pricing.

Communication - Develop and maintain effective channels of communication within the Ingredion organization in order to better communicate all issues related to pricing, market trends, sales initiatives, technical requirements, new product development applications, customer requests and overall market direction. Understand the competitive landscape, monitor competitive developments and activities of competitors in the marketplace. Maintain communication with customer service and credit to assure both customer needs and contract obligations are being met. Communicate with demand planning team for timely and accurate forecasting. Effectively communicate this information to management and sales team members.

Qualified Candidates will have:

Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline (Food Science, Chemical Engineering) or business.  MBA a plus. 

3+ years of direct sales or technical sales experience with focus in the food and beverage industry a plus. 

Proven track record managing and penetrating complex accounts at multiple touch points and delivering results; preferably in the food industry.

Motivated, self-starting professional with excellent communication skills both written and oral.  Skilled at preparing and delivering both technical and business presentations.

Demonstrated ability to organize a sales operating strategy which permits the identification of business opportunities and variables effecting the customer and market.

Knowledgeable in financial dealings with customer accounts and proven negotiation skills.

Demonstrated ability to engage in functional problem-solving conversations with customers and internal stakeholders.

Strong computer skills (Word, Excel and Power Point), salesforce.com or other CRM experience is preferred.

Strong organizational and time management skills.

Willing to travel up to 50% of the time

Ingredion provides accommodations to job applicants with disabilities throughout the hiring process. If a job applicant requires an accommodation during the application process or through the selection process, we will work with the applicant to meet the job applicant's accommodation needs.

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We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company.  We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, military status, or disability status.