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 downtown Washington DC.

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

Need someone to hit the ground running sooner rather than later.

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.

• Growing Squishable’s European subsidiary by:

  • Working with the executive team to formulate and execute our European growth strategy;
  • Recruiting and training independent European sales representative teams or distributors; and
  • Coordinating with the production and sourcing team to determine the optimal product selection for the European market.

• Growing Squishable’s international market share by working with existing international distributors outside of Europe and generating leads for new distributors.

• 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

• Need someone with Specialty Toys / Gifts experience
• 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.
• Merchandising—Experience with in-store merchandising including end-caps, feature areas, POP materials, shelf signage, and Plan-o-gram
• 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 de…