CUSTOMER BUSINESS MANAGER

About Us:

For over 100 years, Hartz has been driven by one belief: pets make life better. That belief fuels our commitment to creating innovative, trusted products that strengthen the bond between pets and their families.

Our diverse team of passionate professionals continuously reimagine what pet care can be—working collaboratively to improve the wellbeing of pets everywhere. We’re proud to offer an inclusive, flexible workplace where employees are supported, valued, and empowered to grow.

At Hartz, the work you do matters—far beyond our walls. Join us and help shape the next chapter of pet care innovation.

What We Offer …

• Remote Work Schedule: Work remotely from your home office.
• Competitive Compensation & Benefits: Receive a generous 401(k) match with immediate vesting.
• Generous Paid Time Off: Enjoy up to 34 paid days off annually. 
• Paid Leaves: Parental leave, Bereavement leave, and Military leave.
• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Includes Medical, Dental, Vision, Healthcare FSA, and Mental Health EAP, basic Life insurance and Disability Insurance.
• Tuition Reimbursement & Career Growth: Access to tuition reimbursement and other learning and development opportunities.

The Role …

We are excited to offer a fantastic opportunity for a motivated and hands-on sales professional to serve as the Customer Business Manager, overseeing the strategic and end-to-end operational management of the established Publix and Meijer accounts. In this role, you will be directly accountable for driving sales revenue and maximizing long-term Hartz category volume by achieving targets and profit goals across both accounts. Candidates must have prior experience with Publix or Meijer and demonstrate proficiency in their respective systems, including digital platforms, promotional planning tools, and retailer-specific business requirements.

Success hinges on your ability to cultivate exceptionally strong relationships with key stakeholders and brokers, supported by a high level of operational rigor. You will maintain a weekly cadence of tracking customer engagement to stay ahead of account needs and lead monthly reviews of sales forecasts, retail visits, and distribution changes to ensure flawless execution at the shelf. By leveraging POS and syndicated data, you will build data-driven annual business plans and provide quarterly oversight of trade spend and promotional activities to maximize ROI. By identifying new opportunities and building compelling selling stories, you will establish yourself as a trusted industry expert who uses disciplined business tracking to drive profitable, incremental growth.

In this position, you will work remotely from your home base, located in one of the following states: FL, IL, IN, MI, or OH.

Your Responsibilities …

Strategic Sales and Business Planning

• Achieve sales targets for overall territory, customer and category within approved trade spend budget through negotiations with the buyer on sales and product placement. 
• Develop, monitor, and continually revise assigned accounts’ annual business plans.
• Analyze point of sale and other sales data; communicate trends, insights, and risks via performance reports to Hartz internal teams, and to accounts’ category/replenishment teams. Use data to update and adjust the customer business plan
• Identify opportunities for all category and line reviews on an ongoing basis, building a selling story to secure new business as well as increase existing distribution across all categories.
• Ensure that retail margins and promotions fall within the published brand strategy for all items and categories, including proper shelf position.
• Forecast customer events as required.

Account and Relationship Management

• Build exceptionally strong relationships with key account stakeholders and brokers through consistent communication and meetings.
• Collaborate closely with internal Brand and Customer Planning teams and external broker partners to pinpoint significant opportunities within these Major grocery accounts. Develop and implement strategies and programs aimed at generating profitable and incremental sales.
• Understand and convey account strategies and goals to the internal Hartz team.
• Attend/participate in industry and customer events, trade/trade show events, and company sales/marketing meetings.

Operations and Administration

• Effectively manage the administrative responsibilities, including price change forms, deductions, and selling and planning schedules.
• Manage routine business vitals including weekly customer engagement logs, monthly sales forecasting and distribution updates, and quarterly trade spend and promotional audits to ensure seamless account execution.

You’ll Need …

• Education and Experience: Bachelor’s Degree in a Business-related discipline with 2+ years of direct sales experience (or 5+ years direct sales experience in lieu of degree), calling on Publix or Meijer headquarter accounts with a history of setting and delivering a growth agenda; pet care industry a plus
• Customer Specific Systems Proficiency: Proficient use of Publix and/or Meijer systems and all included vendor apps and reports to create and track metrics expected by customer scorecards. Includes:
•         Publix Specific:
•                   Publix Business Connection
•         Meijer Specific:
•                   Meijer Vendor Net
•                   Product Information Management (PIM)
•                   Vendor Agreement Management Systems (VAMS)
•                   MicroStrategy Reporting
•                   Portager
• Communication Skills: Excellent communication skills (verbal and written) with proven negotiation skills, coupled with the demonstrated ability to finalize business, and expand the current account list
• Sales & Presentation Skills: Experience with category management, fact-based selling techniques (point of sale and syndicated data analysis), and the ability to create, develop, and present this information compellingly from scratch
• Software Proficiency: Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite Programs
• Business Travel: Willingness and ability to travel as needed (25%)