Inside Sales Associate

About Down East Seafood

For over 30 years, Down East Seafood has been a go-to source for the freshest, highest-quality seafood among New York’s most celebrated chefs. What began as a single van sourcing clams from Maine has grown into a full-line seafood operation, delivering sustainably sourced selections six days a week across the Tri-State area. Based in a 17,000-square-foot facility in the heart of Hunt’s Point, the Bronx, Down East combines local expertise with coastal reach—providing premium seafood to restaurants in NYC, Westchester, Long Island, Southern Connecticut, and Northern New Jersey. With a commitment to freshness, traceability, and chef-focused service, Down East continues to bring the ocean’s bounty straight to the back of house.

Position Summary:  

The Inside Sales & Sales Support Associate plays a critical role in supporting Outside Sales Representatives while directly contributing to customer satisfaction, sales growth, and account profitability. This hybrid position serves as an extension of the outside sales team by managing day-to-day customer needs, assisting with account setup and maintenance, analyzing sales and profitability data, and identifying growth opportunities within assigned accounts.

This role requires strong communication skills, analytical capability, attention to detail, and a proactive, customer-centric mindset. The associate will support 2–4 Outside Sales Representatives and maintain responsibility for select key accounts.

What you’ll do:

• Support 2–4 Outside Sales Representatives as a primary point of contact for assigned customers
• Assist with new account setup, onboarding, and ongoing account maintenance
• Manage customer orders, order add-ons, credits, adjustments, and special requests
• Communicate out-of-stock items, substitutions, and order changes proactively to customers and sales reps
• Review incoming orders (phone, email, fax, voicemail) for accuracy and completeness
• Ensure accuracy of entered and outgoing orders
• Suggest and sell additional or complementary items when appropriate
• Run and analyze reports related to:
• Account profitability
• Gross profit per drop
• Penetration and line growth opportunities
• Identify trends, risks, and opportunities within assigned accounts and share insights with the outside sales team
• Maintain responsibility for select key accounts, ensuring service levels, pricing accuracy, and issue resolution
• Work closely with sales, operations, purchasing, and customer service to deliver a seamless customer experience
• Escalate issues, irregularities, or customer concerns to the appropriate team members
• Document and track customer complaints and assist with quarterly reporting
• Assist with special orders, customer price lists, and program maintenance
• Provide backup coverage for Outside Sales Representatives during vacations or absences
• Attend inside and outside sales meetings and participate in sales initiatives as needed
• Maintain a professional attitude and sense of urgency in a fast-paced environment
• Other duties and projects as assigned by management
  
  

About you:

• Minimum education: High School Diploma (college coursework a plus)
• Prior experience in foodservice distribution, inside sales, customer service, or sales support preferred
• Strong understanding of foodservice products, categories, and customer dynamics preferred
• Comfortable working with reports, data analysis, and profitability metrics
• Strong verbal, written, and telephone communication skills
• High attention to detail with strong follow-through
• Self-motivated, organized, and able to manage multiple priorities
• Team-oriented with the ability to collaborate across departments
• Able to work under pressure with a sense of urgency
• Data entry and 10-key experience required
• Bilingual (Spanish/English) a plus
  
  

The above job description is not an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.

Perks & Benefits:

• Paid Vacations, Paid Holidays
• Health, Dental and Medical Benefits
• Weekly pay
• Life Insurance
• 5% above cost for our high-quality food products
• Employee discounts for travel and events
• 401k
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
  
  

The Chefs' Warehouse is an Equal Opportunity Employer that does not discriminate based on actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Our management team is dedicated to this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities and general treatment during employment. We are dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce.