Sales Leader

Job Summary

The US Sales Leader is responsible for leading the team of Regional Sales Account Managers to increase CN's revenue, carloads and profitability in line with corporate goals. The incumbent works closely with the Sales team to foster a consultative selling approach within the Sales team to ensure solutions are tailored to meet client needs. Furthermore, the role requires the Sales Leader to coach, motivate and empower the Sales team as the success of the team will be the success of the leader. In addition, the Sales Leader will maintain and build close customer relationships identifying new areas of opportunity for products, services, and locations to position CN ahead of the competition, and increase market share.

Main Responsibilities

Sales

• Understand where capacity exists, share the knowledge with the team and to sell to that capacity
• Support Account Managers develop growth strategies for their territories
• Deliver revenue related targets as set out by the company
• Support Account Managers with customer meetings, contract negotiations and where service issues or processes limit ability to progress an initiative
• Cross-sell the full suite of CN Transportation services
• Provide regular reports of customer business opportunities (and challenges) and territory market and industry trends
• Ensure the Sales team follows process and handles contract renewals and regular negotiations, protections, account transfers, and other functions
• Motivate and engage team to look for every sales opportunity
• Understand the competition and how CN can counter it
• Understand how CN can provide added value to gain market share
• Keep and maintain a pipeline of business growth opportunities per territory and Sales Manager
• Develop appropriate metrics to measure growth pipeline advances

People Development

• Set clear team objectives aligned with corporate goals
• Engage, empower and motivate Sales account managers to achieve their goals, drive improvements
• Work on each Sales employee's customized career development plan. Invest in ensuring Sales employees acquire new skills, sharpen existing ones, perform better, increase productivity, and ultimately become better leaders
• Teach and provide learning experience to the team
• Dedicate time regularly to provide to exchange feedback, gain insights, and make the Sales team feel listen and valued

Yield Increase and Administration

• Undergo yield analysis and strategies to improve CN's profitability
• Maintain focus on profitability growth
• Understand and sell the right mix of traffic lane, customer, equipment, balance and profitability
• Carry out cost reduction and service improvement initiatives
• Focus on systemic improvement to what we do
• Drive additional adherence to structured working and decision-making processes
• Capture and act on lessons learned
• Ensure consistent use of Sales tools like Salesforce

Working Conditions

The role has standard working conditions with a regular workweek from Monday to Friday. The role is required to work overtime hours and weekends when necessary. Due to the nature of the role, the incumbent must be able to meet tight deadlines, handle pressure, and stress. The role requires frequent travel (50%) to meet account managers, customers, stakeholders in person within USA and Canada.

Requirements

Experience

• Between 7 to 10 years of experience in Sales, Marketing
o Experience in operations
o Experience in project management and creating KPIs
o Experience with costing, yield management and profitability
o Experience in developing market or business strategies
o Experience in railway industry or supply chain
Any experience for these above would be considered as an asset

Education/Certification/Designation

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Engineering, or a related field
• Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
*Any designation for these above would be considered as an asset

Competencies

• Shows strong desire to lead, coach, and empower team members
• Collaborates with others and shares information
• Sets direction and inspires others
• Communicates with impact
• Demonstrates agility and drives change
• Leverages feedback and coaching to improve performance
• Knows the business and stays current on industry needs
• Ability to maintain and strengthen customer relationships internally and externally
• Identifies needs and finds solution to create value for all stakeholders
• Fluency in French and/or Spanish is an asset

Technical Skills/Knowledge

• Understanding of CN's overall operations
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
• Knowledge of competitive transportation landscape and business environment
• Technical communication to explain complex concepts and processes in simple and clear language that your prospects can understand and relate to
• Technical Problem-Solving to troubleshoot issues, provide solutions, and handle objections. Ability to think creatively, analytically, and strategically, and use data and evidence to support your arguments and recommendations

About CN

CN is a world-class transportation leader and trade-enabler. Essential to the economy, to the customers, and to the communities it serves, CN safely transports more than 300 million tons of natural resources, manufactured products, and finished goods throughout North America every year. As the only railroad connecting Canada's Eastern and Western coasts with the Southern tip of the U.S. through a 19,500 mile rail network, CN and its affiliates have been contributing to community prosperity and sustainable trade since 1919. CN is committed to programs supporting social responsibility and environmental stewardship. At CN, we work as ONE TEAM, focused on safety, sustainability and our customers, providing operational and supply chain excellence to deliver results.