Customer Development Specialist

The Customer Development Specialist (CDS) provides customer level prioritization across all Winland Foods projects and activities for customers. The CDS will provide customer-facing sales support to the Customer Business Managers, Directors, and Sales Leads across the Commercial organization.

Employee Type:

Full time

Location:

IL Oak Brook

Job Type:

Sales Support

Job Posting Title:

Customer Development Specialist

Job Description:

Schedule: Remote Monday and Friday; In office Tuesday to Thursday

Work Location: Oak Brook, IL location preferred; other plant/office locations will be considered

Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k) with match, STD/LTD/AD&D/Life, HSA, FSA, EAP, Hospital indemnity, Accident Insurance, Identity and Fraud Protection Plan, Legal, and Critical Illness.

Salary, based on experience and other qualifications: $61k to $90k Annually with additional bonus potential

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Serves as the first line of customer contact for commercialization and customer project status as well as timeline reconciliation.
• Works with division commercialization teams to ensure shared timelines are met and responds to needs, solving for and communicating timelines and delays to projects.
• Works with internal functional subject matter experts to solve customer issues and ensures deliverables are met in consideration of customer specifications and processes.
• Coordinates first production samples and sales samples when required.
• Completes bid documents, and enters approved bid pricing into customer portal.
• Submits Data Management requests and acts as liaison between customer & Data Management Team to resolve issues.
• Manages customer trackers and timelines at all levels of the sales organization.
• Enters and submits trade spend requests per direction of Customer Business Manager.
• Investigates price discrepancies at the customer level and ensures accuracy in all pricing initiatives.
• Provides project management support.
• Provides troubleshooting to delayed projects and any additional follow up that arises.
• Supports Customer Business Manager in customer cost change execution.
• Supports execution of distressed (DDD) inventory sale to customer to include customer deal entry per process where applicable.
• Supports in-house and select direct sales responsibilities.

The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list of all tasks. Additional tasks and duties may be assigned from time to time as necessitated by business needs.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance or related field required
• Strong organizational and communication (oral, written, and interpersonal) skills required. Must be able to clearly articulate action plans, track progress against them and communicate status both internally and to the customer
• Minimum of 3 years experience in Customer Service, Supply Chain, Sales, or Business strongly preferred
• Excellent business analytical skills – use of data to drive solutions required
• Fluency in SAP/BI/IRI/UNIFY reporting preferred
• Application of project management skills required; ability to problem solve, manage and prioritize multiple projects as needed; track communicate and lead projects to completion effectively
• Strong cross-functional and team coordination skills required
• Creative problem solution abilities required, with demonstrated ability to be resourceful to improve long-term customer relationships
• Relationship building – internal and external to achieve desired customer outcomes
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), SharePoint, and PPM systems required
• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time to company locations, customer appointments, industry events, or other job related functions

EEO Statement:

Winland Foods seeks to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool, and as a global company we believe our success is enhanced by fostering equity and inclusion in the workplace. Therefore, Winland Foods is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and teammates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military or veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.