General Summary
The Vice President of Sales is responsible for providing enterprise-wide leadership, strategic direction, and execution of Southern States Cooperative's sales initiatives, with primary emphasis on Agronomy. This role drives profitable revenue growth through the development and implementation of sales strategies, market expansion plans, pricing strategies, incentive compensation programs, and customer-focused go-to-market initiatives. The position leads sales and agronomy teams while fostering cross-functional collaboration, strengthening customer relationships, identifying new market opportunities, and ensuring organizational alignment with the company's strategic objectives.
Essential Job Functions
Qualifications
Education: Bachelors (BA) degree in business administration or a related field with a preference for a post-graduate degree. An appropriate combination of an education and related experience will be considered.
Experience: A deep understanding of the agricultural supply industry (crop inputs, plant nutrition, food ingredients, etc.) Proven track record of leading effective sales strategies. Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and staff to create a results-driven, team oriented environment. Strong strategic planning, budgeting and analysis skills in sales, marketing and competitor analysis. Possess a strong implementation skillset with a process mindset
Key Leadership Competencies
Strategic Leadership
Enterprise thinking
Business acumen
Vision and strategy development
Market expansion planning
Change leadership
Sales & Commercial Excellence
Revenue growth management
Sales force effectiveness
Incentive compensation design
Pricing strategy
Customer relationship management
Agronomy & Industry Expertise
Agronomy business leadership
Product portfolio management
Precision agriculture technologies
Agricultural market knowledge
Competitive market analysis
People Leadership
Talent development
Coaching and succession planning
Performance management
Team building and collaboration
Operational & Financial Management
Budget management
Profit and loss accountability
Resource optimization
KPI development and reporting
Continuous improvement
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Sales revenue growth
Gross margin improvement
Agronomy market share growth
Customer retention and acquisition
Sales force productivity
Adoption of strategic products and services
Achievement of budgeted profitability targets
Employee engagement and leadership development outcomes
Growth in key accounts and strategic partnerships
Work Environment
The VP Sales primarily performs essential job functions in an office environment. While traveling may have contact with hazardous materials. Drive/travel and work in adverse weather conditions. May require a valid driver's license. Regular travel will be required within the Southern States market and occasionally elsewhere within the United States.
Physical Activities & Requirements
While performing the essential job functions of this position, the VP Sales is required to:
Continuously sit, finger and handle, utilize eye/hand coordination, and utilize hands in repetitive motion.
Must be able to hear and speak to employees, customers and business partners regarding day-to-day operational issues and exchange detailed information and instructions accurately & quickly. When in production, distribution, and/or retail facilities, must be able to hear equipment sounds, pages, radio and speak to co-workers regarding safety issues. Specific vision abilities required by this job include: close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.
Tools & Equipment
Utilize telephone, computer, copier, printer, calculator, writing instrument, spreadsheets and forms.
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in business administration or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and related experience
- Deep understanding of the agricultural supply industry, including crop inputs, plant nutrition, or food ingredients
- Proven track record leading effective sales strategies
- Ability to collaborate with colleagues and staff in a results-driven, team-oriented environment
- Strong strategic planning, budgeting, sales analysis, and competitor analysis skills
- Strong implementation skills and a process-oriented mindset
- Postgraduate degree
- Valid driver’s license
Southern States Cooperative Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Southern States Cooperative and has not been reviewed or approved by Southern States Cooperative.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, and vision coverage sits alongside wellness, disability, life, AD&D, FSAs, and an EAP, forming a broad health and protection suite. Insurance quality is singled out positively in multiple roles.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off, company holidays, and a vacation buy-back option offer meaningful time-away flexibility. PTO is characterized as better than average in several accounts.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match and a long-standing savings and retirement plan for certain employees support long-term financial security. These programs are regularly highlighted as core elements of total rewards.
Southern States Cooperative Insights
What We Do
Welcome to Southern States Cooperative's Company Page! You can also visit www.southernstates.com for special updates, our library of articles and more! Ask us for expert advice on farming, raising livestock, gardening and more. Our Mission Our mission is to be customer-focused and the best at providing products, services and growing solutions for farms and around the home...Farmer owned since 1923. Our Values Embrace our agricultural heritage. We recognize the deep roots we share with the farming communities in which we operate. As such, we will continue to embrace the people, the rural way of life, and the leadership opportunity we've been given for the stewardship and preservation of farming, the environment and our rural communities. Do our best, no matter what. Determination. Initiative. Reliability. The cornerstones of a good day's work. We recognize the trust our customers place in us and we realize there will always be challenges. With this in mind, we never let obstacles get in our way and we hold ourselves accountable as we strive to do our best every single day. Always be neighborly. We are committed to honor and practice the values we share with our farming communities: integrity, high ethical and moral standards, and respect for the land, patrons and for our associates. -- Southern States Cooperative reserves the right to collect User Generated Content such as submitted photos and videos to use in marketing materials where appropriate and to remove any and all inappropriate post content. Our team strives to answer your questions as quickly and accurately as possible through all of our social networks.
