Why you should join us:

At Sound Agriculture, we believe our food system can nourish consumers while benefiting farming communities and the planet. Through a deeper understanding of plant and microbial biology, we are leveraging the natural power of plants to make agriculture more agile and resilient. Our work focuses on developing nutrient efficiency products and modernizing plant breeding to improve the way we farm and the food we eat.

Sound is a Series D startup funded by leading investors in food and agriculture including Leaps by Bayer, Syngenta Group Ventures, S2G Ventures, BMO Impact Investment Fund, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Fall Line Capital, Cavallo Ventures, FootPrint Coalition and Northpond Ventures.

What you'll do:

We are hiring a Regional Sales Manager for Northern Illinois to develop and maintain a Dealer network to achieve maximum sales growth within an assigned territory. This role is responsible for all activities to build and maintain an effective Dealer Sales channel to sell Sound's flagship nutrient efficiency product line, SOURCE.

Successful Regional Sales Managers have experience doing deep levels of discovery and objection handling at every level. They are engaged with their customers at every level of the sales cycle, from account planning, through prospecting to co-selling, to the close of business, and beyond. They are trusted advisors to our dealer network and their staff. This person won't simply focus on selling SOURCE, they will also upsell and be responsible for retention of customers.

Our goal is to build an organization of smart, ambitious Regional Sales Managers, committed to our mission and focused on winning, but able to balance this with a respectful, healthy environment and lifestyle. At Sound, integrity and ownership are as important as talent and effort.

This position is based remotely within Northern Illinois. This role expects 40% travel. The Regional Sales Manager reports to the Director, Field Sales.

Compensation

We offer a competitive base compensation dependent on experience with an additionaluncapped commission of $30-40K measured by sales against quota. Commission earnings are paid three times annually.

Sound reserves the ability to adjust the compensation range based on the final candidate's experience, skillset, and geography. In addition to on target earnings, we offer above average equity grants for the industry as we believe that every employee should have a stake in the company's growth. If you're above this compensation target, we encourage you to reach out and discuss the entire package and opportunity before deciding not to pursue this position.
Responsibilities

• Build and execute plans to achieve sales goals in assigned territory
• Work with existing dealers in your territory to retain SOURCE customers (ie farmers) and grow those accounts year-over-year
• Creatively break into net new dealer accounts in your assigned territory, introducing them to SOURCE
• Seek to uncover sales opportunities with tenacity and connect customers to a value-added solution
• Work with sales leadership to build and maintain accurate forecasts and account planning
• Train Dealers on new products and programs
• Drive Grower awareness through co-selling, trade shows, and meetings
• Manage selling expenses, operational budget, and marketing funds within guidelines
• Use Salesforce to track activities and capture customer and dealer sentiment
• Work cross-functionally to resolve customer complaints

Target Skills & Experience

• Track record of exceeding quota at top of sales leaderboard
• Experience selling new product lines that create a new market, vs. established categories that are mostly stealing market share
• Demonstrated success in Retail, B2B or Field sales experience, including Account Management and direct agronomic experience
• Strong business development skills with experience prospecting and bringing in new business
• Ability to build and deliver presentations to your customers
• Ability to orchestrate multiple internal resources and extended team members including: Account Executives, Business Development, Sales Agronomy, and Customer Experience/Service.
• Passionate for Agriculture and understanding of the agriculture inputs market
• Ability to understand business financials and price/volume relationships
• Ability to build strong relationships in person, over the phone, and by video conferencing
• Strong working knowledge of Google Suite, Salesforce and/or other CRM systems. Experience in customer support increasing customer satisfaction, adoption, and retention

This role demonstrates our core values by:

• Tenacity: Keep going! You don't stop working towards your goals, even in the face of adversity. You are the kind of person who'll find a way.
• Creativity: Using time-tested sales approaches mixed with innovation and personalization to understand the need and align to a value-added solution.
• Ownership: Driving self and motivating others to achieve hard things; it's more than taking initiative, it's celebrating each win, and pushing for more.
• Boldness: Building credibility in the marketplace as a trusted partner and thought-leader.

What we offer:

• Opportunity to work in a disruptive startup with a talented, experienced, and growing team of dedicated individuals
• Competitive total rewards package, including equity
• Performance bonus structure or uncapped commission plan for sales positions
• Comprehensive health care plans that include Medical, Dental and Vision coverage
• Flex Spending Account (Healthcare, Dependent Care & Commuter Benefit)
• 401(k) with company match
• Generous flexible paid time off
• Paid parental leave
• Mental health and wellbeing benefits
• In-person and virtual events and engagement activities (we actually like hanging out with each other!) (e.g. First Fridays, Meditation, Potlucks, Cultural Events, Running and Climbing groups, Photo Contests, weekly Team lunch, etc.)

Equal Employment Opportunity

We seek a diverse pool of applicants and consider all qualified candidates regardless of race, ancestry, color, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, citizenship, disability, Veteran status, marital status, or any other protected status.

Sound participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the United States. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, Sound is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before Sound takes any action, including terminating your employment.