Sales Product Specialist

Description:

Welcome to Gordon Food Service! We are excited that you are thinking about opportunities with us, and we have an amazing story to share. Here's a quick glance of who we are and the impact you could have on the food service industry. There's a seat at our table for you...

Position Summary:

Product Specialist - for Fruits, Vegetables and Dairy category, is responsible for:

• Providing sales support, product knowledge, guidance and training to the sales group while constantly improving their understanding of the produce and dairy industries.

• Identify customer needs and provide options that meet their requirements to create additional sales.

This position is located in Winnipeg, MB

Minimum Education and Experience:

• Culinary, Sales, Marketing, Business - Preferred

• Certification or License - Must maintain a valid, unrestricted provincial driver’s license and safe driving record per GFS policy. - Required

• Certification or License - Culinary certification (such as Red Seal) -Preferred

• Two years previous product, marketing, or internal sales experience -or- six years previous product, marketing, or internal sales experience in lieu of a bachelor degree.

Essential Functions:

• The Product Specialist - FVD works with the sales team driving sales with existing customers and identifying new opportunities.

• Provide relevant business solutions to complement the initiatives of our Sales and Marketing teams, with an ultimate goal of increasing the overall market share of Gordon Food Service.

• Must be aware and stay current with the commodity market and market trends.

• Consults with key customers to provide menu analysis and development with assistance from the divisional Culinary Team.

• Provide problem analysis and resolution to customers and DSR on product related concerns.

• Supports customer menu engineering by developing and testing recipes for customers as requested by Divisional Leadership and customizes existing Gordon Food Service deck recipes to specific customer needs.

• Researches local trends and provides guidance to support customer relationship management.

• Provides insights to divisional Marketing and Sales teams, and ensures the success of customer events and activities result in business metric improvement for both customer and company.

• Ensures consistent and relevant product and culinary training for sales teams, in collaboration with other divisional marketing team members.

• Provides local culinary support, insights, division and customer relationship management training, and engagement (extension of Category and Product Brands) to help support business growth (for both customers and company).

• Leverages Home Office content, insights to be used in the Division and direct to customers, support adoption and leverage of tools.

• Participates in the execution of food shows, other related shows and activities in support of strategic divisional events.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:

• Strong culinary knowledge and skill; safe food handling practices

• Strong product category experience and knowledge

• Ability to develop creative food solutions

• Exceptional customer service skills

• Proficient communication skills ‐ both written and verbal ‐ to communicate effectively with a broad‐based team including diverse internal stakeholders and vendors.

• Proficient skill in presentation creation and delivery

• Time management and organizational skills to manage multiple projects

• Strong business acumen and understanding of restaurant operations

• Proven ability to deliver results and facilitate a collaborative environment

• Must be able to travel at 50% of the time