Business Development Manager - Remote - West Coast

What We Do At Inland

Join our dynamic team at Inland Packaging, a leading local label and packaging manufacturer. We are currently seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic Business Development Manager to be part of our growing family. As a global supplier, Inland proudly produces 25 billion labels annually for renowned brands such as Kraft Heinz, New Glarus Brewing, Purina, AriZona, Coors Light, and many more.

At Inland, we are a family-owned business committed to innovation and excellence. We invest in state-of-the-art technology and offer comprehensive on-the-job training, ensuring endless opportunities for career advancement.

Job Summary:

Inland’s Business Development Manager plays a key role in filling the sales funnel and driving new business opportunities, with a focus on selling label and packaging types to both Small to Medium Businesses (SMB’s) and CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) companies within their assigned territory. This position will need to gain a strong understanding of Inland’s products, processes and target audiences to effectively penetrate priority segments, and aggressively close new business to achieve success. The Business Development Manager will identify sales opportunities through research, contact generation, prospecting, cold-calling, networking, lead qualification, lead generation and customer referrals. This role will also serve as a mentor to junior sales team members, sharing best practices and contributing to the overall sales strategy.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This list of essential functions is not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary.

• Ownership of a defined US continental geographic territory with responsibility to attain sales goals within that specific area.
• Delivers a minimum of $1MM+ per year of net profit growth by securing new business beyond the existing customer base. Tracks activity and pipeline metrics to achieve and exceed monthly targets.
• Deliver a minimum of $1MM+ per year of net profit growth through growth with existing customers.
• Understands Inland’s value propositions, products and services to effectively communicate with prospects and current customers, which will result in closing new business.
• Builds relationships with key decision makers through direct communication outlets such as telephone, e-mail and various virtual meeting platforms.
• Managed and expands relationships with key accounts, driving upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
• Overcomes prospective customer objections and/or obstacles with a solution-based approach.
• Develops and delivers presentations and solution ideas to customers.
• Proven ability to move the sales process forward quickly through active listening and needs identification questioning.
• Navigates complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles with procurement, marketing, and operations teams.
• Negotiates contracts, service-level agreements, and pricing with a focus on profitability.
• Ensures smooth customer onboarding and nurtures strong relationships to support retention and growth.
• Monitors closely all activity at each customer and prospective customer location and reports on expansions, closings, business trends, and all other factors impacting volume levels.
• Stay informed about competitor offerings and market trends.
• Develops and fosters internal relationships by working cross-functionally within the organization to increase awareness of Inland’s products and/or services in the marketplace.
• Works closely with Marketing and Inside Sales on campaigns and strategy to generate customer prospects.
• Proficient with technology and management of remote meetings, Microsoft platforms, CRM, LinkedIn, Salesforce, and other internal systems.
• Provides guidance and coaching to Sales Development Representatives.
• Shares insights, strategies, and market knowledge with the sales team.
• Represents the sales function in cross-departmental projects and initiatives.
• Represents Inland at industry events and trade shows to gain new business leads and contacts.
• Prepares and submits expense reports, meeting summaries, itineraries, along with all other required reports on time and accurately. Adheres to all company travel and entertainment policies.
• Represents the company positively and maintains proper, business-based relationships with customers and prospective customers.
• Ensures confidential and proprietary data and information remain secure when interacting with outside parties.

Core Competencies

• Building Partnerships
• Developing and leveraging relationships within and across workgroups, as well as outside the organization, to achieve results.
• Earning Trust
• Gaining others’ confidence by acting with integrity and following through on commitments while disclosing own positions; treating others and their ideas with respect and supporting them in the face of challenges.
• Customer Focus
• Ensuring that the internal or external customer’s perspective is a driving force behind strategic priorities, business decisions, organizational processes, and individual activities; crafting and implementing service practices that meet customers’ and own organization’s needs; promoting and operationalizing customer service as a value.
• Financial Acumen
• Utilizing financial data to diagnose business strengths and weaknesses and identify the implications for potential strategies; keeping a financial perspective in the forefront when making strategic decisions.

Essential skills and experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree in sales, marketing business, or related field with 8 years of experience in the printing and packaging field, and/or a combination of previous sales experience and education required.
• Proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales goals in B2B environments.
• Product & Industry Knowledge – Understands printing/packaging solutions and can communicate technical and business value.
• Demonstrated understanding of key printing technologies including offset, gravure, flexo, and digital, with the understanding and ability to guide customers to  the best-fit printing method based on quality, volume, cost, and turnaround requirements.
• Excellent communication skills—confident on the phone, strong written/email presence, and effective interpersonal skills.
• Resilient, energetic, and goal-oriented with a passion for building relationships.
• Must be able to conduct professional prospect meetings both in person and virtually.
• Pipeline Management – Proficient in using CRM systems to track leads, opportunities, and activities.
• Receptive to constructive criticism.
• Self-motivated and can learn independently.
• Ability to sell and position multiple product offerings.
• Valid driver’s license and excellent driving record.
• Proficient with Microsoft Suite programs and CRM tools and must possess the ability and willingness to learn new systems and technology.

Nonessential skills and experience:

• Advanced degree in Business, Finance or another related field.

Work Environment:

• Operates in a demanding, fast-paced, people-oriented manufacturing environment with frequent changes and interruptions, and multiple project assignments
• Works with a variety of people including vendors, customers, employees, team members, and managers

Required Work Schedule:

• Flexible work schedule and hours to ensure customer and business requirements are met.  Working more than 40 hours a week may be required.
• Must be available for occasional meetings and responsibilities outside of standard business hours including weekends
• Travel and overnight trips are required
• Travel upwards of 60% of work schedule

Physical Requirements:

• Position is generally sedentary. Must have 20/40 corrected vision and be able to sit/stand frequently. No unusual physical requirements are necessary