Job Description

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Farm Journal seeks to hire a NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER.  This position is an incredible opportunity to be holistically responsible for strategy, sales and customer service for our full line media portfolio for current and prospective accounts.

JOB SUMMARY:

Generate revenues by maintaining or establishing business relationships with new and existing customers, assessing their needs, developing and presenting advertising and marketing proposals that address those needs, and providing on-going customer service. Candidate must be extremely entrepreneurial and a self starter.  Most importantly, the account manager is required to meet and/or exceed all revenue budgets, and convert a minimum of four Target accounts to Key account status each year.

SALES CALLS:

Upon completion of orientation, Account Managers are to make ten quality calls per week.  This is the minimum standard of performance for all Account Managers.  A quality call is defined as any of the following types of calls on Key and Target accounts only:  1) Customer Needs Analysis (CNA).  2) Customer Focused (No Surprise) Written Proposal (CFWP).  3) Presentation of half-baked ideas.  4) Components of the “critical path”.  5) Confirming and contracting Key Marketing Challenges (KMC).  7) Confirming and contracting return on investment and client expectations.  8) Steps on the Target Account Progress Tracker (TAPT).

The NATIONAL ACCOUNT MANAGER is responsible for the maintenance of their account list and prospecting for new account development. Peridiodically, you will be required to meet with your sales director to review the status and progress of your target and key accounts. Annually, Account Manager is responsible for completion of a Key Account Growth Plan for each Key account.   Weekly, Account Manager is required to maintain a Target Account Progress Tracker and weekly sales planner from the previous and/or current week.  Client contact must be noted daily in company CRM system.  The account manager is also required to provide the sales director with revenue projections on a monthly basis and other reports on an as needed basis.  

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES These duties include, but are not limited to, the following (other duties may be assigned):

• You will conceptualize, present and close multi-media sales using our portfolio of products to existing and new businesses. Once closed you will service, maintain and grow these new business relationships.
• You will actively build your knowledge of agriculture and all segments of the large animal production industries
• You will provide monthly forecasts and annual account plans.
• You will stay current with new media platforms.
• You will maintain strong business relationships with all new/existing clients to optimize customer satisfaction and repeat sales opportunities. Maintain and continue to develop current client contacts and relationships with senior levels of client corporations and their advertising agencies.

PREFERRED EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE: These qualifications include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Completion of Bachelors Degree program
• Minimum 3 years sales, advertising, and or marketing experience
• Strong understanding of sales data and how to utilize it in marketing plans
• Proven prior success selling, or planning complex multi-media programs
• Basic understanding of agriculture
• Strong understanding of how large companies marketing and sales divisions work and a comfort level working throughout that environment
• Experience with the use of data to drive digital/social, events, print, broadcast and mobile platforms preferred
• Comprehensive understanding of how client marketing and sales divisions work and a comfort level working throughout both environments
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Superior presentation and business planning skills
• Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, creative, and customer-focused
• Ability to travel up to 40%
• Perform all duties and responsibilities as assigned by supervisor(s)

Company Description

COMPANY PROFILE: Farm Journal is the recognized leader in B2B agriculture content, data and business insights. The Company’s broad portfolio of content channels – including magazines, broadcast, websites, events, enewsletters, social and mobile audiences and other online offerings – feed the most robust demographic and behavioral database and the largest collection of 1st party data in the industry The Company serves almost every key audience in agriculture, including crop farmers, livestock producers, the produce chain (retail, growers, shippers, wholesalers, brokers, etc.) and ag retail (crop and livestock input retailers, co-ops, consultants, farm managers, machinery dealers, etc.). The Farm Journal brand is an industry icon and the Company’s trusted agricultural resources include market leaders such as AgWeb.com, The Packer, Drovers, Dairy Herd Management and Pro Farmer and nationally renowned television and radio programs including “U.S. Farm Report,” “AgDay,” “Machinery Pete” and “AgriTalk.” Farm Journal’s portfolio also includes more than a dozen industry-leading websites, from AgWeb.com and ThePacker.com to ProduceMarketGuide.com. The Company licenses detailed industry data through its FarmReach Vision database, publishes several paid-information newsletters, produces numerous large-scale live events, and provides extensive custom-publishing services. Farm Journal is also majority owner of the leading used farm equipment marketplace, Machinery Pete, LLC. Farm Journal demonstrates unique industry leadership through the Farm Journal Foundation, a non-profit, public hunger charity established to sustain agriculture's ability to meet the vital needs of a growing population through education and advocacy, and with Trust In FoodTM, a Farm Journal Initiative to empower resilient and sustainable agriculture by helping farmers enrich soils, protect waters, clear skies and nurture habitat.