National Account Manager - Away from Home (AFH)

📋 Description

• • Drive significant sales growth and brand expansion within the Away from Home (AFH) sector by managing and developing strategic national account partnerships, with a primary focus on the Top 50 Technomic national restaurant operators (QSR, FSR, casual dining, etc.). This role is crucial for achieving Clorox’s aggressive multi-year AFH growth targets by FY28.
• • Spearhead end-to-end new business development for national foodservice operators, encompassing prospecting, targeting, closing deals, and ensuring successful execution. This involves building and meticulously managing a national new-business pipeline, emphasizing disciplined funnel management, conversion rates, and velocity.
• • Secure new branded wins by strategically expanding operator portfolios through innovative menu solutions, collaborative branded partnerships, and the development of differentiated value propositions that resonate with target audiences.
• • Lead the creation and execution of comprehensive Joint Business Plans (JBPs) with key priority operators. These plans will align growth targets, innovation roadmaps, and commercialization strategies to foster mutual success and drive market penetration.
• • Orchestrate and lead cross-functional internal teams, including Marketing, Culinary, Research & Development (R&D), Supply Chain, and Finance, to co-create bespoke operator-specific solutions. This collaborative approach is designed to unlock incremental new business opportunities and accelerate the sales cycle.
• • Take ownership of AFH strategic national account partnerships, defining and managing customer strategy, growth targets, objectives, and national execution frameworks to ensure consistent performance and alignment with company goals.
• • Establish and manage annual growth plans for all assigned national accounts. This includes setting ambitious sales targets, developing national programs, and prioritizing activation initiatives to maximize impact and ROI.
• • Act as the primary owner of the customer relationship for national accounts, leading senior stakeholder engagement, fostering open communication, and driving collaborative joint planning sessions to build strong, long-term partnerships.
• • Direct all customer-facing sales strategy and execution at the national level. This requires ensuring seamless alignment and effective activation across the broader Clorox Sales organization, Zone Sales Managers, and manufacturing partners to achieve unified objectives.
• • Coordinate and lead cross-functional teams (Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain) to ensure consistent national execution of sales strategies, rigorous performance tracking, and clear accountability across all relevant regions and partners.
• • Lead the business planning process in close collaboration with national account partnerships. This involves developing complete and actionable execution plans that drive sales within specific geographies and achieve desired results while adhering to trade spending budgets.
• • Apply a strong profitability lens to all negotiations, trade funding decisions, and pipeline prioritization. This ensures that all commercial activities are financially sound and contribute positively to the bottom line.
• • Own the demand forecast inputs for national account partnerships. Collaborate closely with the Supply Chain team to guarantee forecast accuracy, maintain high customer service levels, and ensure service resilience, even in dynamic market conditions.
• • Develop and implement business plans that are fully aligned with the overarching AFH business goals and objectives, ensuring the delivery of Sales, Profit, Margin, and Trade targets.
• • Provide critical feedback and strategic thought leadership to internal teams and Business Unit (BU) leadership regarding customer needs, AFH channel dynamics, and competitive insights. This input is vital for organizing resources effectively and driving sustainable growth.
• • Deliver assigned Net Consumption Sales (NCS), profit contribution, forecast accuracy, and trade ROI targets across all managed accounts and partnerships.
• • Manage account-level and partner trade investments with utmost discipline, ensuring strict compliance with enterprise guardrails and policies to maintain financial integrity.
• • Oversee trade funds associated with assigned accounts, ensuring no overspending occurs and maximizing the efficiency of promotional investments.
• • Ensure that account plans are not only clearly communicated but also effectively executed through ongoing collaboration with Clorox’s extended sales broker or manufacturing partners, fostering a unified approach to market execution.
• • Provide leadership and strategic direction to the Zone Managers team, modeling best-in-class selling techniques, elevating the importance of branded partnerships, and strengthening overall account management capabilities.
• • Share valuable frameworks, tools, and best practices with the sales team to enable stronger pipeline development and more effective execution at the zone level, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• • Travel requirement of 30-40% of the time, with potentially more travel initially to build relationships with partners and key operator accounts.