Area Sales Manager

Description
Sapporo brewed the first beer of Japan in 1876. It's now the number one selling Asian beer brand in the U.S. thanks to its best-selling Sapporo Premium. Sapporo acquired Stone Brewing in 2022 to brew all of Sapporo's beer for the U.S. market. Stone Brewing, established in 1996, pioneered the West Coast Style IPA helping to fuel the modern craft beer revolution. Now one company, Sapporo-Stone Brewing is among the 15 largest breweries in the U.S. and operates production facilities in Escondido, CA and Richmond, VA plus seven Stone Brewing taproom and bistro locations. We've enjoyed a rich history following our passion and are in search of people who take great pride in building our legacy for the future.

Summary
The Area Sales Manager leads our efforts with our distributor partners capitalizing on the overall sales potential of our brand portfolio typically across multiple distributors. This role reports to the Regional Sales Manager and may lead Area Sales Representatives of their designated territory. The Area Sales Manager is responsible for the achievement of key business objectives including sales, distribution, brand priorities, budget management, and market share growth as created through our annual business planning process for designated territory. This Area Sales Manager role is primarily focused on the Stone brand and the distributors in the home market of Southern California that support and distribute the Stone brand.

Responsibilities

• Work cross-functionally with Marketing, Operations, and Hospitality to determine and execute strategies to grow the Stone brand in its home market
• Provide regular feedback and input to the Stone innovation team in collaboration with our distributor partners to inform and collaborate on strategic growth initiatives
• Partner with Regional Sales Manager and Sales Director to develop volume, distribution, and execution targets for distributors in designated territory
• Lead distributor facing communication, strategy, and relationship within area in conjunction with Area Sales Representatives
• Manage distributor inventory and shipments to ensure appropriate in-stock rates of all Sapporo-Stone items
• Manage co-op budgets with distributors, ensuring that the budgets and spending are always updated
• Manage pricing along with the Regional Sales Manager and Sales Director throughout the specific region, including Freight on Board, recommended Price to Retail and Price to Consumer for every distributor within territory
• Build relationships with key wholesaler team members including General Manager, sales leadership, each channel manager, and other key personnel
• Ensure flawless execution of programs by distributor personnel and internal sales team
• Drive execution of all chain programs (i.e. distribution, promotions, programming) and authorizations through distributor execution and sales team support
• Build skills and capabilities of any team members by working with them on a weekly basis and providing coaching and development on sales core competencies
• Adhere to agreed-upon dollar budgets and all company policies as set by management and the company
• Stay current within the competitive landscape both in the retail and beer space, and seek out new opportunities to increase sales and penetration within territory
• Provide market insights to the Regional Director and other cross functional team members as needed
• Promote ongoing education for regional sales team on both our brand portfolio as well as the broader beer industry
• Work with distributors approximately 70-80% of the time, with the remaining 20-30% of the time focused on getting out in the market , approximately 5-10 retail