Director of Sales en Inland Packaging

What We Do At Inland

Join our dynamic team at Inland Packaging, a leading local label and packaging manufacturer. We are currently seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic Director of Sales Development to be part of our growing family. As a global supplier, Inland proudly produces 25  billion labels annually for renowned brands such as Kraft Heinz, New Glarus Brewing, Purina, AriZona, Coors Light, and many more.

At Inland, we are a family-owned business committed to innovation and excellence. We invest in state-of-the-art technology and offer comprehensive on-the-job training, ensuring endless opportunities for career advancement.

Job Summary:

The Director of Sales Development is responsible for leading Inland’s business development functions and driving enterprise-level growth. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on key account management, particularly with high profile customers. The Director will oversee the sales development team, refine Inland’s go-to-market strategy, and personally manage critical accounts, ensuring the company’s solutions in print and packaging technologies align with customer needs and long-term objectives. This role is strategic and must be results-oriented with a focus on driving culture, increasing sales and profit, and improving customer satisfaction and retention. This role will report directly to the Chief Operating Officer and manages a team of managers and sales professionals. As a key member of the leadership team, the Director of Sales Development must be a data-driven decision maker with a deep understanding of the industry and market trends.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities: 
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This list of essential functions is not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary.

• Oversees all business development and sales development functions, ensuring consistent pipeline growth and new business acquisition.
• Develops and executes a strategic sales plan that supports company growth goals, including expansion into new markets and verticals.
• Establish KPIs, monitor performance, and ensure accountability across the sales organization.
• Provides leadership to the day-to-day operations of the Sales function, while maintaining focus and execution on Inland’s strategic goals.
• Evaluates market potentials, trends and competitive position. Assists in developing changes in marketing strategies to adjust to changes in market conditions or to capitalize on market opportunities.
• Directly manages and grows relationships with high-value CPG accounts, serving as the executive sponsor.
• Collaborates with senior-level client stakeholders (procurement, marketing, operations, supply chain) to deliver tailored customer and business solutions.
• Drives account expansion through consultative selling, cross-selling, and upselling opportunities.
• Identifies and performs necessary training of sales personnel. Offers new selling techniques and strategies to groups on a continuing basis. Assists personnel with current or prospective customers when needed.

• Carries out management responsibilities in accordance with Inland’s policies and applicable laws by interviewing, hiring, and training employees, planning, assigning, and directing work, assisting employees with career advancement, maintaining the employee journal, administering the performance appraisal process, administering the disciplinary process, and addressing complaints and resolving issues.  Responsible for ensuring that company policies are understood and observed in the department. Uses good judgment in enforcing company policies in a fair and consistent manner. Explains company policies, procedures and work rules to new employees.

• Develops and maintains prospect database for use as sales leads based on information available. Ensures all sales opportunities to Inland are aggressively explored, captured and a pipeline of potential business is maintained through Salesforce CRM tool.
• Manages business with customers to ensure Inland receives the best possible financial return while maintaining a competitive balance.
• Manages the sales budget and ensures responsible resource allocation. Prepares reports of business transactions and manages expense account so as to get the most value from money spent on entertainment and travel.

Core Competencies:

• Emotional Intelligence Essentials
• Establishing and sustaining trusting relationships by accurately perceiving and interpreting own and others’ emotions and behavior; leveraging insights to effectively manage own responses so that one’s behavior matches one’s values and delivers intended results.
• Financial Acumen
• Utilizing financial data to diagnose business strengths and weaknesses and identify the implications for potential strategies, keeping a financial perspective in the forefront when making strategic decisions.
• Leading Change
• Driving organizational and cultural changes needed to achieve strategic objectives; catalyzing new approaches to improve results by transforming organizational culture, systems, or products/services; helping others overcome resistance to change.
• Coaching and Developing Others 
• Providing feedback, instruction, and development guidance to help others excel in their current and future job responsibilities; planning and supporting the development of individual skills and abilities.

Essential skills and experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Sales, Marketing, Communications or related field with a minimum 10 years of sales experience in a manufacturing and service-oriented environment and/or a combination of education and experience required. 
• Assertive personality, high energy level, resilient character, and ability to manage change.
• Experience managing large, complex CPG accounts with multi-stakeholder relationships.
• Strong understanding of printing and packaging technologies and ability to translate technical solutions into business outcomes.
• Demonstrated understanding of key printing technologies including offset, gravure, flexo, and digital, with the understanding and ability to guide customers to the best-fit printing method based on quality, volume, cost, and turnaround requirements. 
• Exceptional leadership, coaching, and organizational development skills.
• Financial acumen, including the ability to manage budgets, forecast revenue, and protect margins.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and executive relationship-building skills.
• Strategic thinker that is comfortable challenging supplied inputs and questioning existing processes. 
• Ability to think quickly, solve problems, and work under pressure while remaining calm and collected.
• Receptive to constructive criticism

• Experience with training, developing, and managing remote employees across multiple facilities.

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook) and possess a general understanding of business operating systems. Must possess a competency to learn new systems and technology.  

Nonessential skills and experience:

• Advanced degree in business, sales, communications, management, or a related field.
• Experience with CRM and sales forecasting tools preferred.
• Experience with international sales and/or global markets.

Work Environment:

• Operates in a demanding, fast-paced, people-oriented manufacturing environment with frequent changes and interruptions, and multiple project assignments
• Works with a variety of people including vendors, customers, employees, team members, and managers

Required Work Schedule:

• Typically works standard business hours
• Must be flexible for occasional meetings and responsibilities outside of standard business hours including weekends.
• Travel and overnight trips will be necessary in this role. Must be able to accommodate overnight travel on short notice. Travel upwards of 60% annually. 

Physical Requirements:

• Position is generally sedentary; 20/40 corrected vision; no unusual physical requirements are necessary.