Director of Wholesale Sales

Squishable is a close-knit team of designers, artists, pop-culture fanatics, and lovers of all things adorable. Together we create the cutest, cuddliest (and sometimes downright unusual) plush and lifestyle products in the world. With the millions-strong Squishable fan community cheering us on (and a lot of cupcakes, coffee, and karaoke) we make people say “awww.” Our offices are in a sunny SoHo loft in NYC and in downtown Washington, DC.

Job Summary:

The Director of Wholesale Sales is responsible for managing and growing Squishable’s wholesale sales channel. Their focus will be on creating and executing a strategic plan for growing existing accounts as well as finding, securing, and growing new accounts.

Responsibilities

• Expanding Squishable’s core business lines while developing and executing strategies to support the new product line launches
• Managing and developing the internal sales team, which consists of six to eight sales professionals who handle house account sales, trade show operations, and national and key account management
• Building Squishable’s inside sales strategy, including developing outreach programs, training sales staff, and determining incentive programs
• Managing and training Squishable’s independent sales representative teams
• Developing and growing the existing domestic customer base by building specialty, national, and mid-tier retailers, catalog, and buying group relationships
• Managing 10–15 national and international trade shows annually, including attending and representing the company at high-profile shows
• Soliciting feedback and implementing suggestions from Squishable’s most important wholesale customers through semi-annual meetings of our retailer boards
• Partnering with the executive team to shape Squishable’s international growth strategy and managing the team responsible for executing that strategy, including sales and distribution partnerships, product selection, and global market expansion
• Working directly with customers in our custom/white-label production business
• Working in tandem with the product development team to develop new lines and product concepts
• Other duties as assigned
• Skills
• Wholesale sales experience with specialty toys/gifts or other similar consumer products is required
• CRM/ERP—Comfortable with using CRM systems to manage leads and existing customer relationships. Experience with NetSuite is a plus, but not a requirement
• Reporting—Experience building actionable reports and presenting KPIs and recommendations to the executive team
• Microsoft Office Suite—Intermediate Excel and Word
• Communication—Excellent presentation and communication skills, both written and verbal
• Flexibility—Ability to adapt to a continually changing market and rapid launch of new products. Willingness to listen to and consider the opinions of stakeholders
• Self-motivated—Must be able to effectively manage one’s own schedule and workload and balance numerous projects at the same time

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably with a concentration in business, sales, and/or marketing. Advanced degree preferred
• A minimum of 6-9 years of successful toy/consumer products sales experience managing and selling across all types of accounts
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing growth strategies, setting measurable goals, and translating strategic objectives into actionable plans that drive business results.
• Experience operating either internationally directly or through international distribution agreements is preferred, but not required

Travel:

Requires up to 50% travel