Business Development Manager Agriculture

Locations US - KY/TN/AL/AR/GA

One of the nation’s largest construction products manufacturers is seeking a Business Development Manager for their Southeast Region. Responsibilities of the Business Development Manager will focus on business expansion areas of growth regarding trial work and new development opportunities. Additionally, this role will support current agriculture product sales team with sales and product training for new and experienced sales representatives, in addition to the following responsibilities:

Leadership Competencies

The successful candidate must bring high level of ethical, intellectual, professional, and personal values that complement the team.

• Strategic Mindset – anticipates future trends and implications accurately
• Decision Quality – relies on a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment when making decisions
• Customer Focus – identifies opportunities that benefit the business
• Business Insight – keeps up with current and possible future policies, practices, and trends in the organization, function, and in the marketplace
• Plans and Aligns – breaks down objectives into appropriate initiatives and actions
• Optimizes Work Processes – seeks ways to improve processes, from small tweaks to complete reengineering
• Ensures Accountability – establishes clear responsibilities and processes for monitoring work and measuring results
• Collaborates – works cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives
• Develops Talent – develops others through coaching, feedback, exposure, and stretch assignments
• Builds Effective Teams – forms teams with appropriate and diverse mix of styles, perspectives, and experience
• Drives Vision and Purpose – talks about future possibilities in a positive way
• Courage – faces difficult issues and supports others who do the same

Business Development:

• Serve as boots on the ground for existing trial work in identified growth areas
• Execute new opportunities and generate product positioning and local/regional tactics within specified geography (new and existing areas)
• As we expand, technical training will be needed for key retail/distributors
• Help launch and support new and existing products, while serving as the technical liaison with product management, engineering, agriculture director and national sales leader for agriculture
• Vetting ideas against field needs, wants, practicality and opportunity
• Identify partnership opportunities with other sectors of agriculture

Assist agriculture director and national sales manager in current business flow and process, serving as a liaison between leadership and regions:

• Key Market Strategy Implementation:
• Support agriculture director with gathering market research for each state in region to provide strategic reasoning for goals set forth
• Work with university and farm partners on current and future research and trial needs
• Develop product positioning, sales tools, and other local marketing activities
• Assist in competitive program development with geographical fit
• Identify distribution opportunities in focus growth areas
• Ease of Doing Business – strategic pillar of success for FY2025
• Manage continual Voice of Customer feedback gathering and communication for quality, brand, and customer service improvements for success in growth areas
• Identify components necessary for successful implementation of products in growth areas. This includes product availability, lead time, portfolio expansion needs, ROI.
• Other activities as needed that arise and fit within the parameters of role
• “Closing the sale”: Once annual Ag Zone marketing strategy is finalized, coordinate and provide technical knowledge to support regional marketing strategies and boost sales where needed
• Support adjacent business development manager with product positioning

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required with demonstrated capabilities and 5+ years field experience in the agriculture industry; ag drainage experience highly preferred
• Frequent travel required, anticipate 50%; Main locations will be Southeastern states and Midwest. Additional specialized development locations may arise during year.

Additional skills we are seeking:

• Strong technical expertise and problem-solving skills required
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, verbal and written
• Working knowledge of sales and marketing skills
• Self-directing skills, ability to work effectively with minimal guidance
• Dependable organizational, planning, and time management skills
• Solid computer skills; PowerPoint, Word, Excel is preferred

For more information, please submit your resume to: blake@mriz.net.

Blake Chastain

1531 W. Oak Street

Zionsville, IN 4607

www.mriz.net

Due to the high volume of resumes received, only applicants with SPECIFIC EXPERIENCE requested by our clients will be contacted. All replies are held in strict confidence. MR Zionsville WILL NOT share your personally identifiable information WITHOUT your permission.