Associate Sales Manager, Natural Channel Category Strategy

Job Type Full-time Description

Lactalis US Yogurt is currently seeking candidates to join our Sales Team. 

Lactalis Group, the world leader in dairy, is a family-owned business with more than 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals worldwide, committed to providing healthy and delicious dairy products that bring people together every day. At Lactalis, our core values of AMBITION, ENGAGEMENT, and SIMPLICITY are at the heart of everything we do.

If you’re looking for a unique experience with a company that offers strong brands, professional expertise, and a dynamic work environment that champions entrepreneurial spirit, hands-on responsibility, and real opportunity for career development, we want to hear from you!

At Lactalis US Yogurt, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace and we know that our candidates come from many different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job posting, we still encourage you to apply and share with us your STORY, your PASSION, and your EXPERTISE!  You may be just the perfect candidate for this or other roles within our company. 

From your PASSION to ours

Lactalis US Yogurt is the #1 Yogurt manufacturer in the Natural Channel with top brands siggi’s, Stonyfield and specialty brands Brown Cow and Green Mountain Creamery. As such, the Natural Channel is a top strategic priority for the company. Despite our #1 position, tremendous growth potential still exists across the channel and our brands The Associate Manager, Natural Channel Category Strategy will contribute to the strategic development, selling stories, commercialization, and execution of Lactalis US Yogurt retail initiatives in the channel. This function is the go-to HQ partner for the Natural Field Sales team. This person is also the “Natural Channel Expert” on the HQ team and will work closely with the Sales Strategy team and Brand teams, providing insight into the channel trends as well as our opportunities & challenges. 

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

Category Strategy

• Contribute to the overall Natural Channel Yogurt Category strategy, providing insights that can be leveraged to grow the category across customers in the channel
• Develop natural-channel specific recommendations across the 4 P’s for the Lactalis US Yogurt brands that drive both category growth and brand growth
• Own the Natural Channel data, analysis, and reporting

Sales Strategy

• Contribute to the development of the Natural Channel Sales Strategy, utilizing POS data, shopper insights and trends
• Partner with the Natural Sales Director and Sales Managers to tailor strategy across customers – prioritizing innovation based on assortment gaps, regional trends, and internal capabilities
• Help Field Sales build customized selling stories and deliver comprehensive selling tools to ensure successful sell-in into the Natural Channel
• Knowledgeable of brand/category business trends, marketing strategies, competitive landscape, and regional/channel risks and opportunities; help develop the strategy that ties brand, category and customer plans together
• Identify gaps in overall selling stories and potential data needs specific to the natural channel sell-in

General Management & Executional Excellence

• Enable connectivity between natural channel team and HQ team, ensuring appropriate focus on priorities
• Provide weekly/monthly natural channel reporting to the sales team and the Executive Team
• Be the expert in a variety of syndicated and retailer specific data tools via SPINS, Nielsen, etc
• Engage independently in problem-solving by leveraging available data, tools and other resources available 
• Create / manage scorecards / tools to track business and key initiatives in the natural channel

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

• Bachelor’s Degree required
• Minimum of 3-5 years’ experience in CPG sales or marketing, Natural channel experience strongly preferred  
• Sales Strategy experience a plus
• Team player with a “can do” attitude
• Proven knowledge of analytical and presentation development techniques
• Experience with decision data/tools (Nielsen (Scan + Panel), SPINs, Circana/IRI, WFM Vendor Portal)
• Ability to advance multiple projects concurrently, work under pressure, meet deadlines and identify potential issues before they evolve into