Vice President of Sales

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
Expand distribution within national and regional grocery customers while improving assortment, shelf position, promotional productivity, and velocity. Convenience
Build a scalable C-store strategy encompassing major chains, distributors, wholesalers, regional operators, and independent distribution networks. 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