Director of Wholesale Sales
Squishable is a close-knit team of designers, artists, pop culture-fanatics, and lovers of all things adorable. Together we create the cutest, cuddliest, (and sometimes downright unusual) plush and lifestyle products in the world. With the millions-strong Squishable fan community cheering us on (and a lot of cupcakes, coffee, and karaoke) we make people say "awww." Our offices are in a sunny Soho loft in NYC, and downtown Washington DC.
Job Summary: The Director of Wholesale Sales is responsible for managing and growing Squishable ’s wholesale sales channel. Their concentration will be on creating and executing a strategic plan for growing existing accounts as well as finding, securing, and growing new accounts.
Responsibilities
- Expanding Squishable ’s core business lines while developing and executing strategies to support the new product line launches
- Managing and developing the internal sales team, which consists of six to eight sales professionals who handle house account sales, trade show operations, and national and key account management
- Building Squishable 's inside sales strategy, including developing outreach programs, training sales staff, and determining incentive programs
- Managing and training Squishable ’s independent sales representative teams
- Developing and growing the existing domestic customer base by building specialty, national, and mid-tier retailers, catalog, and buying group relationships
- Managing 10-15 national and international trade shows annually, including attending and representing the company at high-profile shows
- Soliciting feedback and implementing suggestions from Squishable ’s most important wholesale customers through semi-annual meetings of our retailer boards
Growing Squishable ’s European subsidiary by:
- Working with the executive team to formulate and execute our European growth strategy;
- Recruiting and training independent European sales representative teams or distributors
- Coordinating with the production and sourcing team to determine the optimal product selection for the European market
- Growing Squishable ’s international market share by working with existing international distributors outside of Europe and generating leads for new distributors
- Working directly with customers in our custom/white-label production business
- Working in tandem with the product development team to develop new lines and product concepts
- Other duties as assigned
Skills
- Wholesale sales experience with specialty toys/gifts is required
- CRM/ERP—Comfortable with using CRM systems to manage leads and existing customer relationships. Experience with NetSuite is a plus, but not a requirement
- Reporting—Experience building actionable reports and presenting KPIs and recommendations to the executive team
- Microsoft Office Suite—Intermediate Excel and Word
- Communication—Excellent presentation and communication skills, both written and verbal
- Flexibility—Ability to adapt to a continually changing market and rapid launch of new products. Willingness to listen to and consider the opinions of stakeholders
- Merchandising—Experience with in-store merchandising including end-caps, feature areas, POP materials, shelf signage, and Plan-o-gram
- Self-motivated—Must be able to effectively manage one’s own schedule and workload and balance numerous projects at the same time
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required, preferably with a concentration in business, sales, and/or marketing. Advanced degree preferred
- At least eight years of successful toy/consumer products sales experience managing and selling across all types of accounts
- Experience operating either internationally directly or through international distribution agreements is preferred, but not required
Salary Range: $130k-150k, plus bonus potential
Location: Remote
Travel: Requires up to 50% travel
Benefits/ Perks:
- 100% employer-paid health insurance
- 100% employer-paid short-