Vice President of Retail Sales, US

About Us:

Dyson is a global technology enterprise. We’re growing fast and our ambition is huge – more categories, more locations and more people. Dyson launched in the US in 2002, and since then operations have grown exponentially. Our US headquarters is based in Chicago's Fulton Market neighborhood. We also have employees working in field sales, our service centers, and in our growing number of Dyson Demo Stores across the country.

We're committed to our campus culture and want to have people collaborating, developing, and learning from each other. By having everyone on campus together, we have been able to nurture a fantastic social and dynamic environment.  

About the Role:

The Vice President of Retail Sales US will be responsible for achieving Dyson’s ambitious sales targets.. This individual will lead a team of strategic national accounts, account management, field sales, education and sales operations. The business is complex, the challenges exciting and the growth prospects exhilarating. The successful candidate will provide direction to ensure attainment of sales and profit objectives and development of long-term business goals through leadership, vision, cooperative support and effective resource allocation. In addition to the broad challenges of leading the day-to-day business and developing top-to-top customer relationships, the company and its sales arm are at a critical inflection point in its evolution to the next stage of scale and performance.

Key Priorities-

Ensure the delivery of revenue and profit goals by directing the development and implementation of retail sales plans to meet those objectives. Develop the relationships and operating practices that will give the sales team a competitive advantage, that are differentiated by the ingenuity of their solutions and serve to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of programs and services.

• Customers and channels: Equally important is the integration of national account and channel objectives into a cohesive sales plan. Embedded in this accountability is the need to lead, build and activate executive and senior-level relationships with key strategic customers, grounded in trade strategy. This individual also will be responsible for managing the trade investment flow to allocate resources to drive brand and channel development opportunities, account and marketplace growth, while ensuring the company achieves profit targets.

• Managing growth: Leading the development, strategic prioritization and service alignment of the company’s strategic sales plans and initiatives; influencing and assimilating all constituents’ (marketing, finance, supply chain, customers, distributors, etc.) strategic plans and tactical priorities; and executing the channel and customer initiatives to achieve aggressive growth and deliver customer/consumer satisfaction.

• Talent: Build a leadership organization within sales that is capable of increased functional excellence and improved cross-functional integration.

Major Responsibilities-

Goal setting and attainment

• Ensure the establishment of aggressive sales and financial objectives and drive the organization to achieve those demanding goals through all retail trade channels. Ø Quickly assess strengths and weaknesses and provide leadership for the development of sales objectives and business strategies, as well as guide the organization to achieve desired results.

Strategy and Execution

• Clearly establish, communicate and align the organization behind a sales/customer strategy for the business and ensure that the alignment delivers commitment, enthusiasm and dedication for the company direction.

• Develop, gain commitment to, and guide the implementation of, strategic sales and channel plans, ensuring the integration of those plans throughout the organization, shaping channel strategy, sales fundamentals and merchandising plans, as well as integrating execution plans.

• Direct the development and implementation of trade marketing and sales strategies, with a clear return on investment parameters that attain volume growth targets at appropriate margins to achieve integrated sales/category objectives.

Customer Development

• Build and maintain strong top-to-top relationships with key customers.

• Enable customer teams to deliver innovative/winning solutions to key direct/strategic customers. Enable the selling organization with programs, tools and initiatives that best serve the customer base.

• Routinely evaluate spending for effectiveness and efficiency, identifying opportunities to enhance productivity of spending and excellence in field execution.

• Oversee category management initiatives designed to further leadership position within a strategic customer base.

Organization

• Build a winning team and create an environment that gives the individual/team the responsibility and the authority to achieve goals, as well as holding them accountable for attainment of those goals.

• Reinforce importance of ‘how’ team achieves success by connecting their work to Dyson’s spirit: perseverance, invention, perfectionist, wrong thinking, passion, and underdog.

About You:

The position requires an individual comfortable operating at pace in a demanding, entrepreneurial and high-profile organization which also values a fact-based and analytical approach to creating value and meeting growth objectives. The culture blends a growth mindset, results orientation, and a blend of strategic thought leadership and hands on ‘doers.’ It is expected that he/she will develop a cohesive leadership team and continue to advance innovative product ideas and programs that support rapid growth to the US market. Proven track-record in successfully driving growth, developing and executing trade and sales strategies in consumer products, beauty, branded consumer durables, consumer electronics/games or technology is required. He/she will have significant leadership experience with large customers and retailers as well as alternative retail channels (marketplaces, pure players, TV shopping, etc). Passion, energy and accountability are critical characteristics of the successful candidate. Passion for the product/technology, the team, is a must. The VP of Retail Sales, US will show hunger and desire to develop a highly successful sales organization that drives for results. This leader will demonstrate a strong sense of personal accountability for the business and the organization (comfortable with being answerable) and is wired to roll up his/her sleeves in order to accomplish the team’s goals. This is an entrepreneurial trait, as evidenced by personal and organizational ‘ownership’ of the business, customers and organizational relationships. This same passion is evident in the caliber of the team and their inspiration/motivation. The environment also requires excellent peer influencing and leadership, with credibility and interpersonal skills (good people motivator), planning and strategic ability and excellent communication skills.

• 15+ years of premium brand sales experience with a progressive company known for selling the value proposition. Experience with highly innovative products, challenger brands, and/or disruptors in the category are preferred.

• Undergraduate degree required; MBA preferred.

• Demonstrated outstanding leadership of a customer development organization of significant scale. Ideally, possesses experience within a smaller, more entrepreneurial environment.

• A general manager’s horizontal perspective with well-rounded business acumen. Has served as the “voice of the customer” in the strategic planning process, as well as in the annual business planning process.

• Successfully negotiated with senior leaders at major retailers.

• Experience at an international and/or global level.

• Succession caliber; the successful candidate will need to be capable of growing into increased responsibility as performance and circumstances allow.

• Integrity in action; does what is right; impeccable ethics.

• Superior communication skills; ability to connect with people at all levels both internally and externally.

• Strong collaborative and consensus-building skills; open.

• Low personal ego; high team ego to succeed; balanced, straightforward individual.

• Passion with personal pace and intensity.

• Inquisitive, hands-on and engaged; self-disciplined and analyzes ambiguous situations and digs deep to find solutions.

• Leadership gravitas.

• Courage – intestinal fortitude.

• Understands and thrives in an entrepreneurial environment.

• A proven record of expanding sales and market share through innovative programs and products.

• Strong ability to sell technology and justify a premium price.

• Pragmatic and disciplined approach to crafting and implementing plans, creative problem solving and priority setting skills.

• Financial acumen skills – ability to determine short- and long-term sustainable outcomes rooted in analysis.

• Possess a horizontal view of the value chain, with comfort in simplifying and leading upstream collaboration with manufacturing and distribution, and downstream leadership of trade spending strategy and tactics.

• Passion for the product/technology, the team, and shows a hunger and desire to develop a highly successful sales organization that drives for results.

Key Competencies

• Managing growth and a high degree of proven creative problem-solving intelligence and imaginative thinking must be evidenced. The pace of the business and the demand that explosive growth puts on the business system requires the ability to strategically and predictably build market, channel and strategic customer plans and the ability to link various elements of a complex business together to maximize results. This leader needs to have demonstrated having not been bound by convention, but rather sought solutions that were differentiated, enhanced the brand and, while pragmatic, uncompromising to core values/principles.

• There is a need to continue to elevate the strategic nature of the company’s customer relationships, as well as explore relationships for differentiated growth. Dyson is defined by innovation, therefore the approach to collaborating with customers will be similarly pioneering; requiring a sales leader who can initiate and constructively challenge trade partners to tackle problems with creative and occasionally uncomfortable solutions that optimize the category’s performance. Therefore, excellent listening skills, combined with a strong sales and client/customer savvy, will be necessary. This will require a solid grounding and blend of skills in classic sales management, strategic customer and channel and financial management.

• This leader must possess the horizontal view of a general manager, along with vertical functional prowess.

Benefits:

At Dyson, how we reward you is linked to our high-performance culture. But it’s about more than salary and bonus. Through a package of financial, lifestyle and health benefits, we support whatever stage of life you’re in and the moments that matter.

Financial benefits:

• 401K with up to a 4% match

• Company paid Life Insurance and AD&D

• Flexible Savings Account (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA)

Lifestyle benefits:

• Competitive Paid Time Off Benefits including Separate Holiday, Sick, and Vacation Time

• Pre-tax Commuter Benefits (applicable areas only)

• Generous Child Care Leave Program

• Wellness Program

• Employee Assistance Program

• Generous Dyson Product Discounts

Health benefits:

• Multi-Level Healthcare Coverage Options

• Vision & Dental Coverage

• Company paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability

Hiring Range: $300,000-350,000 annually + bonus

Dyson is an equal opportunity employer. We know that great minds don’t think alike, and it takes all kinds of minds to make our technology so unique. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, protected veteran status or other any other dimension of diversity. 

Dyson is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Dyson will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact Americas Talent Acquisition at ustalentacquisition@dyson.com