Do you thrive on launching new products into established retail environments?
Are you energized by opening new accounts, expanding distribution, and leveraging deep relationships across grocery, mass, and club?
A fast-growing coffee company is hiring a Head of Retail Sales to lead national expansion and redefine how the category shows up on shelf.
Role Overview
The Head of Retail Sales will own and lead the strategic growth of the company’s retail coffee business across all major channels, including food, drug, mass, club, and liquor. This role is responsible for building and executing winning go-to-market strategies, expanding the retail footprint, accelerating revenue growth, and developing a high-performing sales organization.
This is a true player-coach role—combining strategic leadership with hands-on customer engagement. The ideal candidate brings strong top-to-top relationships with major retailers and is comfortable leading high-stakes customer presentations while building and mentoring a sales team that reflects the company’s culture and values.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and execute comprehensive retail sales strategies to drive national growth across all key channels
- Lead day-to-day sales operations and business development efforts, including expansion into new customers and markets
- Own channel performance through defined scorecards, KPIs, and key results areas (KRAs)
- Build and execute customer growth pipelines, sales plans, and category management strategies
- Monitor market trends, competitive activity, and category dynamics to inform strategic decisions
- Manage channel budgeting, forecasting, and overall profitability
- Lead, coach, and motivate the sales team to exceed revenue goals and win new accounts
- Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, R&D, and Operations to ensure brand alignment, innovation, and execution excellence
- Negotiate and close distribution, display, promotion, and multi-location retail programs
- Ensure adherence to CRM best practices, company policies, and customer service standards
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required (Business, Marketing, or related field preferred)
- 10+ years of progressive sales and sales leadership experience in CPG food & beverage
- Proven track record of exceeding revenue targets and growing market share
- Established top-to-top relationships with major national retailers
- Demonstrated ability to build, coach, and scale high-performing sales teams
- Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making capabilities
- Willingness to travel extensively for customer engagement (50%+ initially)
Knowledge & Skills
- Exceptional negotiation, presentation, and relationship-building skills
- Experience with CRM systems, lead generation tools, and sales analytics platforms
- Strong strategic thinking with the ability to translate data into action
- Fluency in retail data tools such as Nielsen, Circana, or Numerator
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment while managing multiple priorities
- Curiosity and insight into competitive marketing activations and category trends
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Highly collaborative, solution-oriented mindset with a bias toward execution
BrainWorks, a Top 50 Hunt Scanlon executive search firm, has been delivering superior talent for over three decades to drive business performance. Our consultants are true experts in their fields, specializing in Consumer Products, Analytics, Accounting and Finance, Information Technology, Private Equity and Corporate Development, Sales and Marketing.
We pride ourselves on delivering quality, speed, and results through our proven recruitment process. When you partner with BrainWorks, you gain trusted consultants who combine industry expertise with a commitment to understanding your business needs. Visit us at brainworksinc.com.
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Industry 1: Consumer Goods
Industry 2: Food & Beverages
Industry 3: Food Production
Job ID: 54322383884
Category: Consumer Products
Location: Indianapolis, IN