Position Description Summary

This a new role created to grow business across the Central Plains. This individual will manage all aspects of our commercial activities in the Central Plains North Region and will be responsible for sales activity, customer relationship management, and working cross-functionally with research and marketing teams to meet annual revenue targets. This position will be the key Limagrain Cereal Seeds (LCS) commercial expert in this region and responsible for managing all components of a complex balance sheet. This position offers a unique opportunity to oversee and optimize all control points in a commercial environment that is both highly technical and highly relationship driven. The region is defined as Western Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. The ideal candidate will be based in Western Kansas or Eastern Colorado. Other locations will be considered for the right candidate.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Sales Management

• Planning and implementation of sales strategies to gain market share and increase LCS profitability in the region.
• Interface directly with current accounts to maintain positive and profitable relationships.
• Identify and develop new accounts within the region to promote new revenue opportunities for the LCS brand.
• Work with the Product Development Team to position Foundation seed of all varieties in the LCS portfolio
• Support the LCS customer network with wholesale transactions of Registered and Certified seed.
• Represent LCS at regional trade shows, field days and customer events throughout the year.
• Work with LCS admin and accounting teams to collect royalties and audit annual reports from customers.
• Plan and organize entries for state variety testing to support marketing and technical data creation.

Marketing (A&P, Technical, Strategic)

• Play a key role in the development and planning of annual campaigns including print, digital, direct mail, etc.
• Collaborate with Marketing, PR and Research teams to plan, design and distribute annual seed guides.
• Collaborate with Marketing, PR and Research teams to ensure website information is current and accurate.
• Organize all efforts to support dealer network with LCS sponsored regional retail level advertising projects.
• Organize collection and compilation of regional technical data and statistics from LCS and public trials.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret data and information that will create competitive advantage for LCS in the Central Plains North marketplace. Being able to evaluate large data sets is a must.
• Work with National Sales Manager and Research team to create technical data packages for licensing partners.
• Understand the principals of wheat breeding and agronomy at a high level, enabling them to work with our research team to develop and select products.
• Study wheat trials with Research team each year to maintain a current and functional knowledge of all products in the marketplace and all advanced experimental LCS material progressing towards commercialization.
• Work with National Sales Manager to maintain a comprehensive regional intelligence platform capable of delivering product targets to the Research team.

Budget Management

• Responsible for managing the following P&L components to achieve annual revenue targets and maintain positive bottom line growth:
• Maximizing sales volumes
• Maximizing royalty levels
• Minimizing cost of goods
• Optimizing commercial operating expenses
• Assisting with the optimization of research expenditures
• Responsible for forecasting:
  • Commercial operating expenditures
  • Royalty and sales revenue
  • Regional marketing expenditures
  • Regional promotional expenditures
  • Regional sales event expenditures
  • Annual investment in commercial testing of varieties

Competencies

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Interpersonal Skills: Strong interpersonal communication skills. Able to work across all levels of the organization, as well as with outside agencies and customers.
• Teamwork: Team player with a positive attitude. Able to facilitate cooperation, as a function of coordinating and providing information for various areas within the company.
• Judgment: Exhibit sound and accurate judgment. Accountable for decisions made. Attention to detail and accuracy/integrity of data provided. Able to prioritize workload in order to meet the needs of the organization, and to meet designated timelines.
• Professionalism: Highly self-motivated individual, possessing strong organizational skills. Comfortable taking direction, work cross-functionally and independently.
• Adaptability: Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events. Able to handle multiple projects simultaneously. Able to identify and troubleshoot problems in order to affect a complete resolution.
• Attendance/Punctuality: Ensure work responsibilities are completed in a timely fashion.
• Dependability: Able to perform and maintain the functions of the job in a reliable and consistent manner.

Desired Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Business, Agricultural Economics or Agronomy; Master’s degree preferred
• At least 5 year’s Agricultural experience with small grains, specifically wheat and barley
• Advanced skills in MS business suite – MS Excel & MS PowerPoint proficiency is very important
• Experience with development and maintenance of customer accounts

Miscellaneous:

• Reports to: National Sales and Marketing Manager
• Supervisory responsibilities: none
• FLSA Status: Exempt
• Internal relations: All employees of LCS and LFS BU
• External relations: dealers, distributors, farmers, universities, licensing partners
• Travel requirements: internationally and domestically as required for business (total travel between 25-50%)

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk and reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 60 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision and ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Approximately 50% of duties are in an office setting. Position will require occasional physical labor to pack for, set up and tear down trade show events. Physical labor will also be required 6-10 times annually while setting up for field days across the US. Multiple times during the year, time will be spent walking nursery trials and attending field days in potentially heat stressed environments.