Prestige Wine Imports - Chief Sales Officer

Department: Sales 

Reports to: International Sales Director, Gruppo Mezzacorona 

About us:

Prestige Wine Imports (PWI) is the exclusive importer to USA for a distinguished and diverse portfolio of high-quality Italian wines sourced from leading appellations including Veneto, Alto-Adige, Tuscany, Piedmont, Umbria, Emilia Romagna and Sicily.

Position Overview:

The CSO will lead the next phase of PWI’s commercial development in the USA, strengthening distributor execution, accelerating national and regional account growth, and building a high-performing sales organization aligned with Gruppo Mezzacorona’s strategic priorities.

• The CSO for PWI will have Sales Management and Business Development responsibility for building the entire portfolio of PWI brands and products across all channels in the USA.
• Reports to International Sales Director, Gruppo Mezzacorona and has four direct reports (Three VP of Sales and Senior Director National Accounts).
• This sales leader will focus on improving performance through:
  • Creating and executing aligned strategies and tactics to drive growth.
  • Training, developing, hiring and inspiring the sales team.
  • Enhancing distributor performance.
  • Executing against new distribution and promotional events within defined National Account universe.
  • Effectively utilize cross-functional resources (Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain).
  • Optimizing promotional budgets and brand investments.

Responsibilities:

• Commercial Strategy and Portfolio Growth: Leverage in-market experience and perspective to be a thought-leader in the development of PWI portfolio (brand, product, positioning, price, promotion).
• Sales Planning: intellectual thought leader who has command of overall industry and trends in addition to key customer objectives and strategies. Work collaboratively to leverage brand equity, commercial route-to-market strategy, data (consumer, distributor and account), pricing and promotional tactics to achieve volume (shipment and depletion), net revenue and operating expense objectives.
• Distributor Management: deliver business goals/objectives through best-in-class standards and exceptional top-to-top relationships. Establish effective and efficient ways of working through clear and timely communication and implementation of performance metrics.
• National and Regional Account development: Increase capability and capacity to drive distribution and volume in National and Regional accounts (retail and on-premise).
• People Leadership and Development: enhance current team’s selling capabilities (e.g. annual business planning, conceptual selling, distributor management, analytical skills). Recruit and retain top performers by nurturing a collaborative and proactive culture, provide direct support and coaching while holding individuals accountable for delivery of plan.
• Commercial Performance and Analytics: with internal support, conduct business performance and competitive analyses to ensure critical decisions are well-informed. Track and review results, measure versus plan, and implement necessary changes. Summarize the analysis to internal and external stakeholders.
• Executive Leadership & Governance: collaborate closely with International Sales Director, Gruppo Mezzacorona, to align and communicate supplier priorities, distributor execution and market opportunities in support of PWI strategic objectives.
• Serves on Board of Directors* for PWI with Board having equal member representation between PWI and Gruppo Mezzacorona.

Performance Measures:

• Volume (shipments, depletions), Net Revenue, Share growth, Operating Expense budget
• Execution of national customer and distributor program goals
• Annual distribution targets in on-premise and retail channels
• Recruiting and building a strong team, contributing to a motivated Sales culture
• Strong 360 feedback (distributors, accounts, cross-functional partners, team members)

Key Internal Operating Relationships:

• CFO
• Data Analyst
• Sales VPs (3)
• VP National Accounts 

 Qualifications, Location and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Minimum 10-15 years of progressive sales leadership in beverage alcohol
• Close proximity to major airport hub. 25-40% travel required

Ideal Candidate Attributes:

• Working knowledge and demonstrated success within Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits planning and operating model.
• National and regional account leadership
• Experience creating and executing annual business plans for volume, net revenue, margin and expenses. This includes forecasting and recommended adjustments within the planning horizon.
• Commercial pricing acumen (structure and programming).
• Familiarity with premium/imported wine portfolios.
• Strong EQ (Emotional Intelligence) demonstrated by empathy and building team trust and optimism
• Influencer (both internally and externally with demonstrated ability to persuade others towards an idea or goal)
• Developer and builder of strong remote teams.
• Facilitating innovation from ideation to execution.
• Competitive drive to win.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to effectively influence, align and inspire stakeholders such as Board Members, agency suppliers, distributors, customers and internal teams.