KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER

COMPANY INFORMATION:

Melissa & Doug is company on a mission: to inspire creativity and imagination in children throughout the world with thoughtfully designed toys that spark free play. After almost 30 years of consistent growth, over the past year they have recruited a strong group of senior leaders to help further accelerate the company’s growth. A specific focus of this plan is Europe.

    One of just 2 global toy companies to show significant growth in the past 5 years

    Melissa & Doug is now a global top-15 toy company

COMPANY STORY:

Like many great stories, this one involved a girl, a boy, and a dream.  Melissa and Doug (yes, they’re real people!) longed to make toys for kids that would open up a world of discovery.  Melissa brought her passion, creativity, and focus.  Doug brought his playful energy, vision, and leadership.  
Before long, they introduced their first hit toy: the wooden Fuzzy Farm Puzzle.  It was a simple idea, really.  Take a sleepy toy category and add a twist – in this case, texture.  Eventually, they would expand beyond puzzles, bringing their unique perspective to dozens of toy categories and play experiences all at a price parents could afford.
The approach of adding a little something extra to classic play patterns  and creating toys based on improving upon the past, has led to the creation of more than 2,000 toys, games, and crafts. Today, Melissa & Doug is available in 100+ countries, consistently delivering products with an uncompromising commitment to quality, safety, service, and value – all while remaining true to the original goal of inspiring kids to use their imaginations and be creative.
Due to continual growth within the UK market we are looking add a new Key Account Manager to the UK team to manage key/national retail accounts.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Key Account Manager role at Melissa & Doug is responsible for:

    Business planning – Developing account growth plans to grow existing accounts and build new accounts while investing for growth via targeted trade investments to deliver profitable growth and meet revenue and margin targets.
    Relationship management – Establish, build, and maintain strong relationships with a wide variety of retail partners.
    Active trade development – Identify, research, and develop well considered plans for new target accounts and proactively pursue these opportunities to bring incremental and sustainable revenue to the company.
    Customer marketing – Develop Customer Trade Marketing strategies to yield positive returns on investment.
    Customer influence – Influence customers to grow sales through joint business planning of win-win solutions - improved ranges, better merchandising, efficient and effective trade support, and managing stock levels
    Account compliance – Track account execution of planograms, in-stock levels, shelf pricing, promotion execution, and work with accounts to correct any issues.
    Team collaboration – Be an active and integral part of the broader European sales team, sharing learnings, collaborating on cross-country accounts, and strive for continuous improvement in approaches.
    Forecasting – provide accurate and timely forecasts while considering account trends, seasonality, and promotion windows.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

    Education – Degree level preferable
    Experience – needs to demonstrate relevant experience in consumer sales, account management or business development; toy industry experience and/or CPG industry experience a plus.
    Track record – successful and demonstrable track record of sales achievement
    Highly Analytical – needs to have good analytical & computer skills.
    Full clean driving license
    Autonomous – must be self motivated and detail oriented.
    Communication – excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, including the ability to influence people with strong presentation skills.
    Flexibility – the ability to think flexibly, pro-actively solve problems and find solutions is critical.
    Time management – must be able to work at a fast pace to manage existing accounts and develop new accounts at the same time.

REPORTS TO:      Country Manager - UK

LOCATION:       Commutable distance to Watford​ 

Please send your CV with current package details