Director of Sales - Western US

The Gem Group, Inc. is one of the largest and most respected suppliers in the $25 billion Promotional Products marketplace. Founded in 1958, and headquartered 25 minutes north of Boston in Lawrence, Massachusetts, we go to market under the brand name Gemline. We are a multi award-winning supplier, differentiated in a very competitive market with our product design, quality, and brands, as well as the quality of our team. Our product line consists of a wide range of bags, luggage, business accessories, drinkware, electronics, stationery, writing instruments, gourmet foods and gifts. Gemline employs almost 450 employees worldwide with a 60-person supply chain and technical center in Southern China, and proudly celebrated 60 years in business in 2018. You can see our complete line of products at www.Gemline.com.

Gemline is ranked as one of the industry's largest suppliers by the Advertising Specialty Institute. In addition to its strong portfolio of house brands and Gemline-branded products, the Company offers high-quality retail brands such as American Tourister, Corkcicle, Igloo, MiiR, Modern Sprout, Moleskine, Osprey, RuMe, Samsonite and Zebra.

Impressively, in March 2020, Gemline launched a Personal Productive Equipment (PPE) business nationally, which continues to grow rapidly.  The Company’s initial focus was bulk PPE, which was sold primarily to senior living centers, institutions and businesses. Today, Gemline concentrates its PPE business on custom-printed reusable masks for businesses and institutions. 

Gemline’s culture is filled with collaboration, initiative, engagement, continuous problem solving, strong value for safety and respect for people.  We proudly support our local community through a variety of efforts focused on health and education.  We are looking for the right executive to lead our Field Sales West team, continuing to focus on providing the exceptional customer experience that our distributors expect from us.  Importantly, this role is considered one of the highest impact senior sales leadership positions at Gemline and will have a strong influence on our future.  The position reports to the Vice President of Sales.

Summary:

The Director of Sales – Western US will be responsible for establishing the Division’s go-to-market strategy, communicating that strategy to the West team, and driving flawless sales execution across the marketplace with our customer partners at both headquarter and regional levels. The Director will select and manage the sales organization, and drive key Company initiatives across the Division, while also collaborating with the VP of Account Management to drive initiatives sponsored by the Company’s largest national accounts.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Develop market specific strategies that encompass key customers, product category development, channels of distribution, sales representation and differentiation within the competitive set.
• Communicate, champion and manage field associates within the Gemline organization.
• Work with marketing and merchandising to develop region/ account specific marketing plans to optimize the opportunities in market.
• Select and manage regional sales managers and other sales personnel.
• Develop/manage relationships with HQ personnel and regional sales leadership at the key territory accounts. Leverage those relationships to help define strategy and sales opportunities.
• Collaborate with VP of Account Management to drive national account initiatives at the territory level.
• Negotiate yearly key account rebates.
• Manage customer escalations.
• Communicate market intel on distributor partners and competitive suppliers.
• Lead all activities requiring national focus at key territory accounts (national sales meetings, customer websites, regional shows, etc.)
• Provide coaching/mentoring and leadership for the West sales team.
• Plan and lead in annual Gemline sales events.
• Participate in product planning and initiations for each launch.
• Develop and manage revenue and expense budget.
• Strive to attain Exceptional Customer Experience (XCX) with all customers.
• Participate in Continuous Improvement Activities to include Idea Generation System.
• Provide Sales inspiration and help execute On Trend/On Time/On Budget strategy.
• Other duties as assigned