What are the responsibilities and job description for the Foodservice Customer Account Specialist - Atlanta, GA position at General Mills and Careers?
Job Description:
The Region of Georgia, Middle Tennessee, and East Tennessee is seeking a determined and energetic Customer Account Specialist to join our team to cover South Atlanta and surrounding areas of South Atlanta/South Georgia. As a Customer Account Specialist (CAS) you will drive incremental sales and volume growth and sustain existing business by owning relationships with foodservice operators. You will be selling company product lines across multiple channels including K-12, Colleges & Universities, Healthcare, Commercial Restaurant, Lodging, and other Non-Commercial channels. This role is not specific to a certain distributor.
In this role, you will:
Overview
The Region of Georgia, Middle Tennessee, and East Tennessee is seeking a determined and energetic Customer Account Specialist to join our team to cover South Atlanta and surrounding areas of South Atlanta/South Georgia. As a Customer Account Specialist (CAS) you will drive incremental sales and volume growth and sustain existing business by owning relationships with foodservice operators. You will be selling company product lines across multiple channels including K-12, Colleges & Universities, Healthcare, Commercial Restaurant, Lodging, and other Non-Commercial channels. This role is not specific to a certain distributor.
In this role, you will:
- Sell a broad portfolio of front-of-house and back-of-house products, including Frozen Baked Goods, Flour, Mixes, Cereal, Snacks, and K-12 Items/Frozen Meals.
- Develop mutually beneficial partnerships with foodservice operators across channels: Lodging, Sr Living, Other Healthcare, Commercial Restaurants, Caterers, Colleges & Universities, K-12, and more.
- Execute in-person sales calls (minimum of 16/week) with foodservice operators and distributor sales representatives. Record sales activity in Salesforce daily.
- Collaborate closely with the Foodservice Account Executives (Distributor Managers) and communicate regularly with CAS peers and manager while providing expertise to your foodservice customers regarding our products, competitors, and other industry knowledge.
- Leverage sales tools and analyze internal reporting to strategically plan daily activities to identify new business opportunities. You will support critical distributor and industry events (i.e. Food Shows, Distributor Sales Meetings, Targeted Blitzes, District Huddles, etc.…)
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES
Sustain existing business and drive new, incremental sales volume.
- Identify and sell General Mills foodservice products to key operators in our focus channels across territory to grow volume of Region.
- Execute strong relationship building skills with the ability to connect and develop relationships with key distributor sales team members to drive growth and establish General Mills as a go to partner.
- Collaborate with the General Mills Region Account Executive to effectively create operator demand for new items through distributors (USF Atlanta, Sysco Atlanta, GFS Atlanta, PFS Atlanta) and other cross region Account Executives to create pull through demand for core gaps and innovation.
- Partner with distributor sales teams and distributor sales representatives to educate and train on our products, empowering them to sell on your behalf to their customers.
- Leverage resources such as Salesforce, Firefly, customer purchase data, Google, Yelp, customer websites and social media, etc. to properly inform yourself about customers’ operations and prepare for sales calls accordingly.
- Leverage a broad portfolio of marketing and trade resources to overcome customer objections and close sales.
- Utilize analytics (i.e. Salesforce, Excel-based reporting…) combined with local expertise to identify new sales opportunities.
- Develop and execute a strategic call pattern that maximizes your sales call coverage (minimum of 16-20 operator sales calls per week to sell approximately 750 – 1,000 cases of incremental volume per month). Record all activity in Salesforce daily.
- Demonstrate product knowledge to operators through at-home and on-site sample preparation across all product platforms.
- Support critical distributor and industry events, (i.e. Industry Expos, Distributor Food Shows, Distributor Sales Meetings, etc.)
Other Accountabilities
- Although a culinary background is not necessary, it is important to note that baking and preparing plate presentations is part of the job requirement.
- This role is not a “work from home” role as it is required to leave your home office to make field sales calls/attend distributor and industry events. There will be some overnight travel required for occasional team meetings and/or other pertinent business needs.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- 2 years of foodservice industry sales experience
- Experience selling to or working within Non-Commercial and Commercial Restaurant Operators in the S. Atlanta/S.GA Market
- High School Diploma
- Strong interpersonal, communication and problem-solving skills
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate and win as part of a team
- Self-motivated with ability to maintain workload from remote office
- Proficiency with Microsoft Applications (i.e. Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook)
- Valid driver's license with a good driving record
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Working knowledge of the industry & territory
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
- Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the U.S. General Mills will not sponsor applicants for a U.S. work visa.
- International relocation or international remote working arrangements (outside of the US) will not be considered.
- This role covers South Atlanta and surrounding areas of South Atlanta and South Georgia. The role requires residence in or near South Atlanta.
We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best — bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what’s next.
Salary : $16