Major Responsibilities

• Drive joint business planning initiatives with assigned supplier/s to create yearly and long-range objectives for growth.
• Manage and maintain relationship/s with assigned supplier/s by leading quarterly business reviews focusing on the following areas: identification and assessment of commercial opportunities (both sales and marketing), negotiations around assortment, inventory, supplier performance, and pricing, develop plans around new product success and report out on the state of the business.
• Develop and refine go to market techniques and strategies to drive sales growth opportunities by closely working with Essendant and manufacturer’s sales teams. Maintain regular reports to track performance and identify impact of activities on assigned supplier/s performance against established metrics.
• Develop and facilitate all marketing activities throughout the year for assigned supplier/s including negotiation of supplier/s spend, communication to all necessary parties on campaign/s, implementation of all campaigns and post roll out analysis of campaigns and proof of performance to supplier partner/s.
• Manage and provide detailed analysis of assigned supplier/s performance to category leaders with areas of focus around product assortment, pricing, promotions, new product introductions, excess and overstock, commercial growth and more.
• Conduct product assortment review and analysis, identifying top-performing SKUs by district/ region. Identify areas for potential growth and analyze impact of proposed assortment changes. Recommend changes and actions to the Category Manager, aimed at enhancing category effectiveness and performance.
• Review supplier/s pricing on a regular basis, identifying potential pricing issues and opportunities. Conduct a detailed analysis on the impact of pricing and assortment changes and provide findings and recommendations to the Category Manager.
• Support assigned supplier/s by developing category specific communications and product launch packages, conduct trainings, live meetings, webinars, or on-site trainings to educate our sales partners on assigned assortment and attending tradeshows when applicable.
• Identify and report on trends, changes, and opportunities and provide recommendations aimed at increasing supplier or category performance to category owner.
• Form effective cross-functional relationships with a broad cross-section of Essendant personnel and be responsible for working effectively with all product planning functions within assigned category.
• Understands and demonstrates Essendant’s Core Values.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Skills/Knowledge Required

• Strong business acumen with the ability to perform analytics that drive decision making
• Flexible and agile, able to prioritize for impact in a highly demanding environment
• Results oriented, self-starting with exceptional interpersonal and communication skills
• Track record of taking ownership, driving results and self-motivated
• Experience in different business functions (finance, operations, marketing, customer care or sales)
• Ability to create innovative solutions
• Detail oriented, results oriented, excellent verbal, excellent oral and written communication skills, and time management skills
• Strong computer skills: MS Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Strong ability to work on a national level cross functionally with warehouses, Customer Service, Credit, etc, to exceed customers’ expectations in a timely manner

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in a Business Discipline
• Minimum 2-5 years of administrative, merchandising, inventory, or vendor management experience

Benefits

• Health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision)
• 401k with matching
• Company Holidays
• Overtime Pay for hourly employees
• Paid Vacation, Floating Holidays, and Sick Time
• Maternity and Parental leave benefits
• Employee discount
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Employee Assistance Program

ESSENDANT Inc. is a leading national distributor that fuels its customers growth with a vast product assortment, world-class fulfillment network and a full suite of advanced sales and marketing tools. We strive for more than just success – we believe in building partnerships with our customers and our employees. Our business wouldn’t be thriving without our hardworking team members. We value all they bring to our company and offer a work environment that fosters training, mentoring and personal growth. We are one team with endless possibilities. We are Essendant.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)