Regional Sales Manager (Central) at Open Farm in Chicago, IL

Executive Summary

Open Farm’s continued growth within strategic retail partnerships requires disciplined in-store execution, structured education, and consistent operational follow-through at scale. The Regional Sales Manager plays a critical role in supporting growth by ensuring national account strategies are executed effectively across assigned regions.

At a national level, strategic direction and account priorities are set by the Vice President, National Accounts. The Regional Sales Manager is responsible for executing those priorities in the field by driving successful launches, managing merchandising elements, strengthening district and store-level relationships, ensuring reset and promotional compliance and delivering structured training within the designated strategic retail chain.

This role is field-driven and execution-focused, partnering closely with both Director, National Accounts and Territory Sales Managers to support sales performance while maintaining clear alignment with national objectives. Success in this position directly impacts sales growth, brand representation, operational consistency and disciplined capital deployment across the retail network. The role carries direct accountability not only for execution performance but also for responsible trade and expense management, ensuring regional investments generate measurable and profitable growth.

Role Description

Reporting to the Vice President, National Accounts, the Regional Sales Manager plays a key role in driving sales performance, accelerating brand adoption and ensuring disciplined in-store execution within a designated strategic retail chain.

This role is responsible for executing launch and growth strategies that expand Open Farm’s presence within the assigned strategic partner, strengthening relationships at the district and store level and ensuring products are consistently represented with excellence across all locations.

The Regional Sales Manager contributes directly to company growth by leading in-store execution, driving structured education initiatives, optimizing retail compliance, and partnering closely with Territory Sales Managers to support successful activation across 1,500+ stores. This role also serves as a brand ambassador, reinforcing Open Farm’s mission and positioning in every store interaction.

Account assignments and strategic priorities may evolve over time based on business needs, and this role is expected to adapt accordingly while maintaining consistent execution standards.

Responsibilities

Sales Optimization

• Drive Regional Chain Growth: Meet and exceed regional sales targets within the designated strategic chain by driving disciplined launch execution, strong store-level adoption and effective training penetration.
• Launch Execution Leadership: Lead the rollout and sustained activation of Open Farm across assigned stores, ensuring reset accuracy, merchandising compliance and promotional execution standards are consistently met.
• Performance Accountability: Monitor store-level sales trends and execution quality, proactively identify opportunities to strengthen sell-through, correct gaps, and improve overall chain performance.
• KPI Discipline: Maintain accountability to defined performance metrics including store coverage, training frequency, reset compliance, sales growth targets and timely CRM documentation.
• Strategic Alignment: Execute consistently in alignment with Open Farm’s national priorities and the strategic objectives of the designated retail partner.

Customer Focus

• Strengthen Regional Partnerships: Build and maintain productive relationships with district managers, store manager and retail teams to support sales growth, execution consistency and long-term partnership alignment.
• Education as a Sales Lever: Develop and deliver structured training programs, including full-store trainings, district presentations, lunch-and-learns and launch sessions, designed to improve product knowledge, drive advocacy and increase sell-through.
• In-Store Execution Excellence: Ensure planogram compliance, promotional integrity, and merchandising standards are consistently upheld across assigned locations.
• Proactive Problem Solving: Identify and address in-store execution challenges, partnering with Territory Sales Managers and cross-functional teams to resolve issues quickly and protect sales performance.

Business Development & Operations

• Event Participation & Execution: Support grand openings, district meetings, in-store activations and promotional initiatives through disciplined on-site execution aligned with national account strategy.
• Field Intelligence & Reporting: Provide structured post-visit and post-event reporting to National Accounts leadership, highlighting execution trends, competitive activity, store feedback, and actionable growth opportunities while maintaining disciplined CRM documentation.
• Collaborative Partnership: Partner closely with Director, National Accounts and Territory Sales Managers to align travel plans, share store insights, and ensure cohesive execution across the market.
• Operational Accountability: Ensure all field activity reflects Open Farm’s standards for professionalism, accuracy, and alignment with company initiatives
• Trade Management: Manage regional trade and travel budgets with accountability to ROI and margin objectives.

Required Experience and Skills

• Demonstrates ability to drive measurable sales growth within a retail account or defined region, with clear accountability to performance targets and execution standards.
• Strong background in field execution, merchandising compliance and retail operations within structured retail environments.
• Proven experience delivering structured trainings and presenting to district and store level leadership with confidence and clarity.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to build productive relationships across multiple levels of retail leadership.
• Strong organizational discipline and ability to manage extensive travel, high store volume, competing priorities, and field execution schedules effectively.
• Demonstrates ability to anticipate execution gaps, surface field insights proactively, and operate with limited direction in a fast-paced launch environment.
• Competence in Excel, PowerPoint and CRM systems to support disciplined reporting, structured communication, and data-driven decision-making.
• Previous experience within the pet industry and/or supporting strategic retail chains is considered a strong asset.
• Demonstrates ownership of trade and field activation budgets with measurable ROI accountability.
• Strong financial acumen, including experience prioritizing investments, evaluating effectiveness, and making disciplined allocation decisions that protect margin.
• Experience building structured trade programs within defined budget parameters to drive retail engagement and sell-through.
• Proven stewardship of travel and expense budgets with disciplined cost management.

Territory and Travel Requirements

This role requires a high level of mobility, flexibility and commitment to consistent in-person engagement. The Regional Sales Manager operates primarily in the field, maintaining a proactive, hands-on approach to driving results through disciplined in-store execution and relationship development.

• Minimum of 20+ in-person store visits per week, with flexibility to adjust based on training sessions, district meetings and launch priorities.
• Up to 60% overnight travel depending on geographic concentration and account needs.
• Valid driver’s license, reliable transportation and the ability to travel extensively are required.
• This is a remote, field-based position. Candidates must reside within assigned region, be able to travel consistently in the region and ideally live near a major airport hub. Territory assignments may evolve based on business needs.