Key Account Manager

The Canadian market is a top 5 territory for SPHE. In a rapidly changing marketplace SPHE is evolving and changing the focus of our organization around Consumer Understanding and Insight to enable us to ‘Connect Canadians to a world of Entertainment Experiences’ and ‘expand our presence and conversion’.

Scope

The Key Account Manager is a core role for the SPHE Canada team. He/She reports to the Head of Sales and manages one (or several) national physical distribution and / or retail accounts.

He/She will drive the strategy and engagement for their accounts, owning the P&L, the account strategy and planning process, driving an insight driven approach to engaging and challenging our partners to ensure we are putting the consumer (shopper) at the core of our agreed initiatives. He/She will need to demonstrate strong thought leadership, relationship management, influencing skills and an analytical approach to evaluating our strategies and execution in line with our profit goals.

This is a key role that is critical as the business navigates an evolving and challenging market whilst shifting our approach to engage our key customers and partner to being Insight and Analytics led. He/She will lead insight based sell in of New Release titles, Catalogue programs, & overarching Commercial Strategy. He/She will need to have partnered with a variety of key customers and platforms, will be very data savvy having worked with large data sets and have a strong analytical skill set in account level analysis and reporting. He/She will also need to identify consumer trends and create account specific plans based on key consumer insights.

Core Responsibilities

Business Planning

Build a thorough understanding of the customer needs and National levers to achieve objectives; monitor competitor strategies
Generate and implement annual rolling customer business plans to meet / exceed targets
Monitor performance and recommend action as appropriate to improve sales, margin, and share of customer business
Where appropriate, implement joint account planning with customers to ensure SPHE delivers against their objectives while achieving gross profit targets

Customer Management

Facilitate engagement with the customer at multiple levels and through appropriate contacts both within and outside of the buying team
Manage customer portfolio, monitor customer profitability and prioritize commercial activities with each customer
Effectively negotiate and close customer agreements (short and long term trading terms), including promotional pricing, rebates, MDF and coop, ensuring profitability targets are maintained
Be the internal point of contact for all customer related queries; coordinate with Ops, Finance, Marketing and Sales Planning teams to deliver excellent overall customer service
Manages returns approval process, where necessary, and ensure effective coordination and information flow with Customer service, Operations & Finance teams.
Where appropriate, conduct regular business reviews with the customer, with a focus on annual Joint Business Planning alongside tactical execution and opportunistic exploitation

Commercial Planning

Review each account promotional calendar, ensuring activities are well executed
Work in conjunction with Marketing to define and allocate marketing budget and monitor spend vs. account performance
Work in conjunction with the Sales Planning team to agree planogram decisions in line with objectives set for each account & to ensure all strategies are supported with data and insight
Manage implementation of new business models and/or retail solutions enabling an increase in the number of consumer touch points
Execute trade presentations, in collaboration with Marketing teams

Team

Develop a full understanding of, and align with, Sony governance and standard working practices, strategies & objectives
Demonstrate and promote SPHE values
Maintain effective working relationships with all internal and US based teams to ensure smooth, efficient running of commercial activities within the Business Unit
Champion best practice solutions across the company

Education

Job Requirements:

BA/MA degree preferred

Experience

Minimum three years account management experience.
Typically 3-5 years in sales.

Knowledge

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Experience gained within a Home Entertainment or a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company
Experience working within a fast-paced, commercial sales environment
Experience with and working knowledge of Canadian retailers, media, and trade environment
Experience at working directly with internal and external stakeholders
Demonstrable examples of successful sales experience and contract negotiation. Examples of successful business development desirable.

Skills

Strong commercial skill set
Excellent communication skills both written and verbal / presentation skills
A high standard in influencing and interpersonal skills, to build and develop strong relationships
Excellent team-working and cross functional skills appreciation
Process improvement analysis and innovation
Problem identification, analysis and devising and implementing solutions
MS Office Suite, SharePoint, Excel proficiency required
Prioritizes work activities; plans and stays organized in order to meet commitment and productivity standards

Abilities

Embraces teamwork; shares ideas / methods to improve performance.
Strong capability for planning & analysis allied to the vision to consider wider business, category and market issues
Be comfortable with ambiguity in a dynamic, changing, commercial environment
Adaptability, flexibility, and ability to learn new systems and be nimble in an environment of ongoing change
Ability to be proactive as it pertains to all responsibilities; take initiative and seek increased responsibilities
Demonstrate true learning agility
Build effective teams, understanding the importance of team culture & values.
Act collaboratively at all times and build successful partner relationships.
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