Sales Development Manager- NE, KS, W. MO

About OstaraOstara is passionate about changing the way the Agriculture, Turf, and Ornamental industry thinks about phosphate management. Our continuing mission is, and will remain, “Feeding the World While Protecting It.”

We believe that enthusiastic people make an impactful difference, and we are building a culture around innovation, sustainability, efficiency, nimbleness, honesty, compliance, and a sense of urgency to make a positive difference and create real value. Ostara’s CG P2X fertilizers are the first granular phosphate fertilizers to release nutrients in response to plant demand. Using Crop Driven Release™, CG P2X is proven to maximize plant available phosphorous, increase yields, enhance soil health and significantly reduce phosphate tie-up and runoff, thereby improving food security while protecting local waterways from nutrient pollution.

Position summary

Ostara’s Sales Development Manager role is the driving force in launching its next generation CG P2X fertilizer technology into the agricultural marketplace. This role will manage building the business through generating demand with early adopter agricultural retail partners and farmers. The role will use entrepreneurial mindset and passion for providing innovative and profitable solutions to farmers and retailers while aggressively improving environmental impacts.

Essential functions

• Business \& Sales Leadership

+ Meet or exceed individual annual sales and profitability targets

+ Ensure assigned customers are fully trained to sell Ostara products to meet sales targets

+ Build strong relationships with assigned customers retail sales team and their key grower customers

+ Maximize profitability through developing a clear understanding of business dynamics in a target marketplace. This will include development of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, compiling and effectively utilizing competitive intelligence, and assessing requirements for aggressive growth.

+ Establish trusting relationships and influence demand with highly influential, early adopter farmers.

+ Thoroughly understand challenges and opportunities with farmer customers to influence beneficial outcomes with retailer partners and in Ostara.

+ Develop, grow, and maintain highly collaborative, trusting partnerships with target retail partners at all leadership levels and willingness to cultivate relationships.

+ Develop, manage, and support relationships to ensure all financial and operational goals are met.

+ In partnership with strategic retailers, provide reliable, monthly demand plan signals to enable manufacturing and supply chain to be a highly reliable supplier.

+ Serve as a role model, teacher, coach, and champion for the retail partner sales teams

+ Set sales targets and create tactical plans with each strategic partner, track, and report key performance indicators (KPI’s) at the executive level both with retail partners and Ostara leadership.

+ Identify and target new partnership opportunities to secure long term demand as Ostara commercial production continues to grow.

+ Contribute to the overall success of Ostara through highly collaborative working relationships with all Ostara support functions.

• Technical skills / product understanding

+ Maintain a thorough agronomic and technical knowledge of soil fertility and Ostara products and services.

+ Possess and continue to build on a strong understanding of the crops grown in the geography.

+ Collaborate with retail partner agronomy teams to best understand positioning strategies.

+ Research, source, and provide agronomic support to retail partners, farmer customers, and prospects.

+ Provide necessary skills and knowledge training to meet performance objectives.

Required Skills / Abilities

• Highly competitive and thrive in a fast paced and high growth environment
• Self-starting drive to do what it takes to effectively introduce a game changing technology into the agricultural marketplace
• Must be able to sell, negotiate, influence, resolve conflict, and coach
• Ability to quickly establish strong industry relationships
• Refined strategic thinking skills with the ability to assess, plan, and enable a quality action plan in complex situations
• Confidently define and sell value added concepts while addressing client barriers
• Must be passionate about promoting a sustainable fertilizer and passionate about making the sale by overcoming all obstacles
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical product attributes to all organization levels
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite or related software
• Willingness to travel and work in a rural environment
• Other duties as assigned

Education/experience

• Bachelor’s Degree Required; agronomy/agricultural business or business focus a plus
• Must have 5-10 years of successful Ag inputs selling and demand creation in the region
• Ability to meet sales goals

Physical requirements and work environment

While performing the duties of this job, the employee must regularly talk on the phone, speak with the public, hear on the phone, hear in person, and use hands and fingers. This job requires the employee to sit for prolonged periods with minimal exposure to hot and cold temperature extremes that could be met at Ostara’s job sites. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. This job requires close vision and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the office environment is typically low.

Location and travel

This position is remote with a preferred location within driving distance of strategic retail partners. A minimum 60-70% travel requirement is expected. (Candidates must be located within Nebraska, Kansas, or Western Missouri)

Benefits

• You will be a key member of the Ostara team with dynamic coworkers
• Ostara offers competitive premiums on medical, dental, vision, life and voluntary life benefits, FSA options available for healthcare and daycare, STD, LTD benefits
• We recognize that exercise is important to the health and wellness of everyone; employees are eligible for a health \& wellness benefit enhancement
• Prepare for retirement with Ostara’s 401(k) plan with a match
• Take time to rest and recharge using your paid vacation days or recover from illness with your sick days
• Ostara observes eleven holidays during a calendar year

EEO statement

Ostara is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion or belief, age, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, parental status, gender identity or national origin.