Account Manager: Inside Sales

An Inside Sales (Account Manager) role is available for a Chicago Loop global HQ office 4 days/week. A base salary & quarterly commissions aligned the market for realistic 1st-year OTE in the 79-$97K range for someone with 1-2 years of customer service, operations, or sales experience.

The Role: You're assigned a portfolio of existing customers whom are distributors in the packaging industry. If we lose touch, recurring revenues begin 'leaking' out of your portfolios bucket at about 4% per year. The essence of this role? It's about being present for them--slowing that leak through retention efforts, and making the bucket bigger with sales efforts by meeting new users--adding new revenue so the leak is less impactful.

This role is rooted in fundamentals: The blocking and tackling of sales. No fancy AI ----or digital tech ---or social media manuevers needed in this mfg/distributor space. Another goal: Evolving from reactionary order-taking to pro-active relationship builder. Done succesfully, you'll get 'first dibs' on potential orders. Success is linked to real human outreach, being "curious" about your customer's business, and suggesting they consider other products. Then, they can pursue new clients & markets for their success....which then becomes YOUR success.

You're mainly working "IN" your business; which is all about responsive communication. Loads of requests come in all week long; organizing and prioritizing behaviors rule. You'll create quotes for them to use. They take them and try to win their end-user customers --which helps them succeed. Regional pockets of smaller competitors are there calling on these distributors. It can be fierce; so flexibility is needed and is given.

The other part is working "ON" your business......i.e. having a regular discipline to quiet the noise above-- and choose where to expand. Ranking your accounts. Deliberately investing time in the ones with most potential to grow. This isn't a "cold call" job, but it IS a sales job requiring you to expand our footprint. This means leveraging your relationships for referrals and introductions, trying to assemble group presentations to distributors who sell, and influencing purchasing executives to consider the benefit of using our product on a larger scale.

First 30 days have you onboarding and supporting the team with transactional tasks. Second month has you learning how to price, manage lead times, and quoting. Third month has you meeting accounts and establishing new relationships in an assigned region.

The ISR supports field sellers whom you can partner with to engage deeper. Half of your portfolio buys other product lines in addition to the one you sell. You'll go on 2-3 days of travel per quarter to put the face with the name. Otherwise, this is 4 full days-per-week in a downtown loop office (3 blocks from the train.)

What are the Challenges?

Tempo: Your customer's Inquries for quotes come in fast and everybody needs them "ASAP". The cliche of "fast- paced environment" is very accurate. If you can handle a constant inbound workflow; let's talk..

Organization: Muliple inquiries are opportunities that start as as emails;Prioritizing and following up are key. CRM Entry: The Larger opportunities go intoCRM as a crucial and mandatory. Nobody 'remembesr' to follow up when there's 68 sales to investigate. So--embracing technology tools and documenting things is vital. This helps us from asking people in this role to make up reports (that are a time-suck). If you use home-made excel spreadsheets and note-taking in your 'own way,' this role is NOT for you.

Collaboration: To keep revenue flowing...the Inside Sales Rep interacts with our production plants, our Customer Service Representatives, freight dept. and our Subject Matter Experts on the products. Then, there's the sales team in the field to keep the product and the relationships moving out and up! Consider us a just-in-time manufacturing environment whose products are made-to-order. Very little warehousing. So an awareness of plant production, lead-times, shipping and logistics considerations are part of the big picture. If you like to ask for internal favors and last minute Hail-Mary plays for quick-fixes -- side-stepping the established process?...This role is NOT for you. Our internal peer relationships are just as important as our customer relationships.

Some our most elite performers came from having 1-2 years in customer service, warehouse management and operations-type roles. Not a "first job out of college" role: maybe the 2nd.

Autonomy of learningSure, there's product training. Videos you can watch. Quizzes and extensive onboarding that are done.BUT: 75% of this learning really occurs by getting into your chair and using our freight, product, pricing and CRM systems and diving in: We've prepared loads of guided training from a VERY close-knit team of sellers who share and communicate their knowledge and lessons learned. There's tons of tribal knowledge that will be your 'actual' OJT.

What are the benefits?Solid income. If you stand by your customers with good or bad news, you will earn the right to their business .Thus your odds of hitting and surpassing your quarterly bonus is high. Internal team spirit: This team is small but very close knit. If you are more of a lone-wolf and like to do your 'own thing' this role isn't for you. True team environment.

Incredible Office Environment: The CEO will pass by to say 'hello'. Snacks and keg full of drinks for socializing.Full medical, dental, vision package and a competitive compensation for the role. We work in a high-performance big company where 'siloes' do NOT exist. Everyone knows the mission-- and there is a palpable sense of purpose and culture here that is quite unique from most companies.

Culture is REAL: Company actually has "No A_ _-Hole Rule" imparted by our CEO. Our employee tenure and career-pathing within the company is, in a word, unbelievable. Really. Despite the competition and current economic climate, the company, its innovation and cost controls in this market permit our continued growth!

Our interview process takes awhile-- and will involve multiple steps & team members. FYI. Because tenure here is unusually long...We aren't in a rush to find that one best fit.

If your background and skills are a reasonable match, we PROMISE that we'll actually READ your resume and comprehend what you have to offer. NO Algorythms, NO keyword-finder. You're better than that. Conversely please don't 'spray and pray' your resume if you got this far and don't align with the above?

Let us know if you've had experience in the skills and setting above......

We'd love to hear from you!