Functional Beverage / Cramping

Overview:

The Vice President of Sales will lead the commercial growth strategy for a high-growth CPG company operating in the functional sports, hydration, and cramping segments. The company has a differentiated product platform, strong consumer relevance, and significant white-space opportunity across existing and emerging channels.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the VP of Sales will be responsible for accelerating revenue growth, expanding distribution, building strategic customer relationships, improving sales execution, and developing a high-performing commercial organization.

As a valued member of our team, we ask that you exemplify and uphold our Company’s core values in your daily work. These values—Collaboration, Accountability, Solution Driven, Integrity, and Champion Mindset—are central to our company culture and guide how we interact with each other, our customers, and our community.

This is a hands-on leadership role. The successful candidate must be equally comfortable developing a multi-year channel strategy, presenting to a major national retailer, coaching a Sales Team, analyzing customer profitability, setting & reviewing forecasts, removing barriers to facilitate team efficiency and personally helping close high-value opportunities.

The VP of Sales will inherit a lean commercial team and will be expected to create the structure, accountability, processes, and urgency necessary to support aggressive growth expectations.

As a valued member of our team, we ask that you exemplify and uphold our Company’s core values in your daily work. These values—Collaboration, Accountability, Solution Driven, Integrity, and Champion Mindset—are central to our company culture and guide how we interact with each other, our customers, and our community.

Direct Reports

The VP of Sales will lead a team consisting of:

• VP, E-Commerce, Strategic & Emerging Channels – responsible for e-commerce, mass, digital commerce, and development of emerging/nontraditional channels.
• Sales Director – Grocery – responsible for grocery channel strategy, customer development, distribution expansion, and execution.
• Sales Director – Convenience – responsible for the C-store and impulse channel, including national, regional, and distributor relationships.
• AE, Sales Planning & Support – responsible for sales analytics, forecasting, customer planning, reporting, sales administration, and commercial support.

The VP of Sales will also work closely with the CEO and leaders across Marketing, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, Product Development, and other functional areas.

Key Responsibilities

1. Deliver Aggressive Revenue Growth

   Own the company’s overall sales plan and deliver annual revenue, distribution, and profitability objectives. Translate company growth expectations into clear channel, customer, and individual sales objectives. Develop a balanced growth strategy incorporating:

   • Same-store/customer growth
   • New item placement
   • New customer acquisition
   • Increased points of distribution
   • Geographic expansion
   • New channel development
   • E-commerce and emerging channels
   • Strategic partnerships and distribution opportunities

   Maintain a strong pipeline of opportunities capable of delivering both near-term results and sustainable long-term growth.

2. Attack the White Space

   A critical responsibility of this position is identifying where the company is not currently doing business and determining how to win there. Develop a comprehensive white-space strategy across channels, customers, geographies, occasions, and consumer segments. Identify and prioritize the highest-potential opportunities based on revenue potential, probability of success, strategic value, profitability, and required resources. Build actionable plans to convert white-space opportunities into distribution and revenue. The VP of Sales should continually challenge the organization with the question: “Where is the next meaningful source of growth, and what do we need to do to capture it?”

3. Lead Channel Strategy

   Develop distinct strategies for each major commercial channel, including:

   • Grocery
   • Convenience
   • Mass, E-Commerce & Emerging Channels

   Partner closely with the VP, E-Commerce & Emerging Channels to accelerate digital growth while identifying new routes to market. Evaluate additional white-space opportunities such as:

   • Mass
   • Drug
   • Club
   • Sporting goods
   • Fitness and gyms
   • Travel
   • Military
   • Foodservice
   • Healthcare
   • Colleges and universities
   • Professional and amateur athletics
   • Industrial/workplace hydration
   • Outdoor and endurance sports
   • Specialty retail
   • Other emerging channels
4. Personally Engage Strategic Customers

   Maintain direct relationships with the company’s most important customers, prospects, distributors, and strategic partners. Participate personally in high-value selling situations and major customer presentations. Build relationships beyond the buyer level where appropriate, including senior merchandising, category management, operations, and executive leadership. The VP of Sales should be viewed by major customers as a strategic business partner—not simply a vendor representative.

5. Build a High-Performance Sales Organization

   Establish clear expectations, goals, and accountability for each member of the commercial organization. Coach and develop the sales leadership team while creating a culture characterized by:

   • Speed
   • Accountability
   • Preparation
   • Follow-through
   • Customer focus
   • Winning

   Establish clear performance metrics and conduct regular individual business reviews with direct reports covering:

   • Revenue versus plan
   • Distribution gains/losses
   • Key account performance
   • New business pipeline
   • Forecast accuracy
   • Upcoming customer decisions
   • Risks and opportunities
   • Required executive support
   • Specific next actions

   Ensure sales leaders spend their time against the opportunities capable of materially impacting company growth.

6. Create a Disciplined Sales Pipeline

   Develop and maintain a company-wide sales funnel identifying major opportunities by customer, channel, estimated revenue, probability, timing, next action, and owner. Separate true opportunities from activity. Establish clear stages for major opportunities from initial identification through customer engagement, presentation, testing, authorization, distribution, and launch. Regularly review the pipeline with the CEO and sales leadership team. The VP of Sales should always be able to clearly answer:

   • What are our largest growth opportunities?
   • What is the probability of winning each?
   • What is preventing us from closing them?
   • What happens next, and who owns it?

7. Improve Forecasting and Commercial Planning

   Partner with Sales Planning, Operations, and Finance to improve forecasting accuracy and visibility. Establish disciplined forecasting by customer, item, channel, and timing. Ensure significant new distribution gains, promotions, customer changes, and potential losses are communicated early enough for Operations and Supply Chain to respond. Develop rolling forecasts that clearly distinguish between:

   • Base business
   • Confirmed incremental business
   • High-probability opportunities
   • Longer-term pipeline opportunities

8. Drive Profitable Growth

   Own revenue growth while maintaining strong awareness of profitability. Evaluate customer and channel opportunities based on total economics, including:

   • Gross margin
   • Trade spending
   • Promotional investment
   • Freight
   • Broker/distributor costs
   • Slotting and customer fees
   • Returns/allowances
   • Customer-specific requirements
   • Cost-to-serve

   Partner with the CEO and Finance to ensure the company is pursuing profitable, sustainable growth—not simply volume.

9. Optimize our current Broker network and Distributor Performance

   Evaluate the effectiveness of brokers, distributors, and other external sales partners. Establish measurable expectations for external partners including distribution objectives, account penetration, pipeline development, reporting, and execution. Make changes when partners are not delivering appropriate results. Determine where direct selling versus broker/distributor representation provides the strongest return.

10. Build Commercial Discipline Without Creating Bureaucracy

    As a smaller growth company, the organization needs structure and accountability without unnecessary complexity. Implement simple, scalable commercial processes for:

    • Annual sales planning
    • Customer plans
    • Pipeline management
    • Forecasting
    • Pricing
    • Trade spending
    • New-item launches
    • Customer presentations
    • Performance measurement
    • Sales meetings
    • Broker management

    The VP of Sales should bring big-company commercial discipline with small-company speed, creativity, flexibility and entrepreneurial thinking.

Key Performance Indicators

Success will be measured through a combination of financial, distribution, team success and organizational metrics, including:

• Net sales growth
• Gross margin/profitability
• Actual results versus annual operating plan
• New distribution
• New customer wins
• New channel development
• Same-customer growth
• Points of distribution
• Sales velocity
• Pipeline value and conversion
• Forecast accuracy
• Trade-spend effectiveness
• Customer retention
• Successful new-item launches
• Broker/distributor productivity
• Performance and development of the sales organization

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will have significant sales leadership experience within CPG, preferably involving functional beverages, sports nutrition, hydration, wellness, food/beverage, or other high-growth consumer categories. Experience should include meaningful exposure to several major retail channels such as grocery, convenience, mass, club, e-commerce, drug, specialty, or emerging channels.

The candidate should have demonstrated success:

• Building businesses rather than simply maintaining established accounts
• Opening new customers and channels
• Developing national and regional retail relationships
• Leading and developing sales teams
• Managing brokers and distributors
• Building sales pipelines and forecasting processes
• Negotiating complex customer agreements
• Developing effective customer presentations
• Working cross-functionally with Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain
• Operating effectively in a smaller, entrepreneurial environment

Leadership Characteristics

The successful VP of Sales will be:

• Entrepreneurial – Sees opportunities others overlook and finds a way to pursue them.
• Growth Oriented – Is energized by aggressive targets and significant market white space.
• Hands-On – Will personally engage when an opportunity or problem requires senior-level involvement.
• Strategic and Tactical – Can develop a three-year growth strategy and then work through the details required to win next month’s customer presentation.
• Data Driven – Uses facts, analytics, customer economics, and market information to make decisions.
• Accountable – Takes ownership of results and expects the same from the team.
• Customer Focused – Understands how customers make money and develops solutions that create value for both the customer and the company.
• Competitive – Possesses a strong desire to win business and outperform competitors.
• Decisive – Makes informed decisions quickly and adjusts when circumstances change.
• Collaborative – Works effectively across functions and recognizes that sustainable sales growth requires alignment throughout the organization.
• Developer of People – Sets high expectations while actively coaching and developing team members.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 12–18 months, the VP of Sales should have:

• Established a clear commercial growth strategy by channel and customer.
• Created visibility into the company’s largest white-space opportunities and a disciplined plan for pursuing them.
• Built a measurable sales pipeline capable of supporting the company’s long-term growth objectives.
• Strengthened relationships with major existing customers while personally developing relationships with strategically important prospects.
• Improved sales forecasting, planning, and accountability.
• Established clear expectations and performance metrics for the four direct reports.
• Improved broker and distributor effectiveness.
• Won meaningful new distribution across existing and/or new channels.
• Created a commercial organization capable of scaling as the company grows.

Most importantly, the VP of Sales will have established a culture in which the sales organization is constantly focused on where the next significant source of profitable growth will come from—and what must happen to win it.

Qualifications:

Education and Experience minimum:

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Ten or more years of proven experience

Job Type: Full-time

Work model: Remote work or company Mesquite, Texas headquarters for local candidates

We offer a competitive salary, paid time off, 401k retirement plan, and medical benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision.