Regional Food Sales Lead (Oregon)

Time Commitment: Full-Time (35-40 hrs/wk) 
Salary: $68-$73k starting 
Location: Candidates must be based in the Portland Metro, Columbia Gorge, Bend, or Eugene Areas 
Travel: Local travel on a weekly basis, and regional travel around Oregon is expected quarterly

Background of KSS and this Role:
Launched in 2019, Kitchen Sync Strategies is a small (but mighty!) social enterprise dedicated to supporting small farmers, ranchers, fishers, and food makers through brokering sales and consulting. We believe there is immense, untapped potential in the institutional foodservice market channel, and through our work supporting small farms, food hubs, and food companies to scale their own operations and our work brokering sales opportunities directly for these businesses we have created systems that help bring larger markets to suppliers who are otherwise left out of this multibillion dollar marketplace. Our staff consists of 3 fearless teammates and we regularly work with a handful of experts, close collaborators, and contractors. 

Our clients are triple-bottom-line food businesses pushing for fairness, environmental sustainability, and other core values of KSS and our work helps these clients build sales relationships with K-12 schools, healthcare facilities, and institutions of higher education. Often, before we can directly broker sales for our clients, we partner with public and nonprofit collaborators in their region through regional food systems development projects to build their capacity and advance the region’s value chain infrastructure. 
Our staff are based around the US, and we are active in the Pacific NW, the Mountain West, the Midwest, the Northeast, in noncontiguous parts of the US (AK, HI, Guam), and with national projects, and we are focused on selling more good food for our farmers and food businesses in each of these regions. 

[email protected] | KITCHENSYNCSTRATEGIES.COM

Position Summary:
The Regional Food Sales Lead (OR) is an exciting role for Kitchen Sync Strategies, and it will play a pivotal role in our rapidly growing work in Oregon. This Sales Lead will be responsible for using Kitchen Sync’s existing systems and processes to drive sales of food from food hubs and values-aligned supplier clients of ours to Oregon institutions like K-12 schools, hospitals, universities, corporate dining facilities, and others. The position is also responsible for developing new business partnerships with values-aligned food businesses (like value-added food makers, CPG companies, etc.). As a representative of Kitchen Sync playing a specific sales- and value chain coordination-focused role in each project, the Sales Lead will support the Director of Regional Growth and CEO to embed KSS in farm-to-school, farm-to-ECE, and farm-to-institution projects across the State. 

This work will focus on our work with 2 core partners: 
- Food Hubs/Suppliers: The RFSL will lead the sales of local/regional, sustainably grown, and/or equitably grown food products to institutions on behalf of our 5 food hub clients in the state. 
- Non-profit Support Partners: The RFSL will support our company’s partnerships with the Oregon Farm to Institution Collaborative coordinated by Health Care Without Harm, the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and others. 
We’re seeking an experienced, charismatic sales leader who understands the process of institutional food sales well, who has a sharp sense of strategy, and has a firm commitment to building a fairer, more sustainable food economy. 

A successful Regional Food Sales Lead will: 

• Develop strong personal relationships with buyers, sustainability leaders, and/or local procurement leadership within each institution to which Kitchen Sync sells products Implement a bold yet achievable sales growth plan for client food hubs and food companies that increases their sales to institutions in Oregon and, as relevant, the broader PNW 
• Perform weekly sales activities including: 
• Carefully manage Kitchen Sync’s CRM database to track existing sales accounts Make regular, recurring contact with all active leads, anticipating customer needs and working hard to strengthen personal relationships 
• Conduct outbound sales calls to new institutional customers 
• Understand inventory, logistics, and operational capacity for client food hubs and suppliers, and share tactical substitutions, menu items, and seasonal specials with customers on a weekly basis 

• Engage a broader range of values-aligned food hubs and food companies in new brokerage relationships, including adding values-aligned food businesses to KSS’ sales portfolio in Oregon and the PNW 
• Work with CEO to develop marketing and branding strategies for attracting more institutional buying clients for KSS 
• Ensure customer satisfaction while meeting sales targets for client food hubs and long-term goals for KSS 
• Making group presentations to institution representatives (especially K-12 school districts) on local procurement strategies and providing 1:1 Technical Assistance Recognizing and documenting barriers for buyers and sellers, trends in buyer behavior, informing solutions to improve KSS work and partner programs 
• Maintain a high level of integrity as a representative of KSS, and be about it �� Other stuff that we encounter along the way- but not too much of it, we promise I

Important Skills Required (and Desired): 
Required Skills:

• Sales experience specifically in local/regional food systems 
  • Preference for candidates with 3-5 years of experience in fields of institutional foodservice, food sales, or food procurement 
• A strong grasp of the institutional foodservice market and a particularly keen understanding of farm-to-school and institutional procurement 
  • Preference for candidates with direct experience in institutional foodservice, working with food hubs and other suppliers, and/or large scale procurement businesses and foodservice companies 
• A deep, firm commitment to the notion that supporting small farms and food producers to access institutional markets is one critical step towards building a fairer, healthier, less harmful food economy 
•  Good writing and even better verbal communication skills 
•  A commitment to building real relationships rooted in compassion, kindness, and care 
• Ability to synthesize complex information, recognizing and documenting patterns in buyer and seller behavior to inform improvements to systems and programs

Desired Skills:

• A sense of adventure and a willingness to explore new ideas of how to build fairer food economies- and a tolerance for the high levels of ambiguity inherent in this work ● Tech savvy and ability to quickly leverage a range of softwares that increase productivity and creativity in your work. (We tend to use tools like Mural, Canva, and other design tools to visualize our work.) 
• Experience with HubSpot or similar ERP software, and/or experience inventory systems for food hubs (Local Food Marketplace, Shopify, etc.) is a big plus ● Strong focus and the ability to maintain drive while working remotely, with regular meetings via Zoom (or in-person as necessary) 
• Fluency working across the G-Suite platform (Gmail, Google Drive, etc.) ● Training or teaching experience, including ability to cross-train others in 1:1, small group, and large group settings 
• Experience presenting to groups and comfort with public speaking and presentations

Compensation Package: 

• This contract position is a full-time (35-40 hours/wk) 
• The position will be paid a starting salary of $68k - $73k per year with the following 
• benefits: 
• Generous and flexible vacation policy (15 days PTO plus federal holidays) 
• Generous medical benefits package (Health, Dental, Vision, Life) 
• 401k plan with pro-rata profit sharing 
• Healthy travel stipend for business travel 
• Annual professional development funds 

To Apply:  

• Please email a .pdf cover letter, resume & contact for 3 references to
  
• [email protected] Please reference “Regional Food Sales Lead (OR) ” in the subject line of your email.
  
• Applications accepted until the position is filled, and interviews will start on a rolling basis starting November 5, 2024. 

As a company, we are committed to prioritizing racial equity in all aspects of our work, and we strongly encourage individuals who share that core goal to apply especially if they identify as people of color. Kitchen Sync Strategies is an equal opportunity employer and provider of services. 
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[email protected] | KITCHENSYNCSTRATEGIES.COM