Wholesale Account Director

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Over 150 million Americans have treatable body skin concerns that are currently being unaddressed. Soft Services is a beauty company defining a billion-dollar category by creating the first targeted body care company dedicated to these concerns.

The skincare market expanded 60% in the last decade, driven by targeted solutions and widespread conversations for facial skin concerns. The body care category is primed to repeat this evolution, with aging millennials and our evolving lifestyles leading to more prevalent body skin concerns.

Using targeted, effective products, expert, digestible info optimized for search, an aspirational brand everyone wants to talk about, an outsized investment in sustainability, and no exploitation of the customer, Soft Services is leading the evolution of the bodycare category and now distributing nationwide through an exclusive retail partnership with Sephora.

ABOUT THE ROLE
We are excited to bring on a Wholesale Account Director to lead our Sephora wholesale account. You will develop and create the infrastructure for us to build momentum and scale within Sephora. This will require you to collaborate cross-functionally with the Executive, Creative, Marketing/Growth, Operations and Product Development teams to identify and execute on opportunities to drive our performance and growth in wholesale.

You will work with the Executive team to set key performance targets for this business line, own forecasting/reporting, set budgets, and evaluate ROI on channel-specific investments. You will be responsible for wholesale account leadership and fostering an excellent working relationship with all members of the retailer merchant teams. 

You’ll be responsible for keeping a pulse on the body category at third-party beauty retailers, while also bringing insights and trends to our organization. You will be the go-to resource and internal educator for all things wholesale with a goal of fostering wholesaler literacy at Soft Services.

Working within a small team, you must be both a strategic leader and must execute. This role can be remote or hybrid—the Soft Services office is in Brooklyn, NY.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Wholesale Account Leadership & Relationship Building: 

• Manage Sephora USA wholesale business for Soft Services and build strong, collaborative relationships with the retailer team.
• Own development of account relationships by:
• Planning (meeting preparation, scheduling, agenda)
• Building necessary materials (presentations)
• Executing (actionable meeting notes, follow-up on next steps)
• Grow the Sephora wholesale businesses in alignment with shared performance goals, remaining competitive and maintaining top rankings. Drive strong revenue and profitability growth, achieving aggressive sales goals while expanding market share and supporting omnichannel plans.
• Advocate for Soft Services’ brand positioning and point of difference with our retailer counterparts.
• Identify risks and opportunities to sell-in and sell-through plans and propose and execute innovative solutions.
• Own Retailer Meeting prep including presentation materials, market samples, product samples, shipments, and meeting set up. 

Retailer Marketing Exposure Planning:

• Manage 360 omnichannel opportunity planning in partnership with retailer and internal Soft Services team, including digital and in-store exposures for both permanent wall/shelf fixturing and temporary locations, sell-in sales, dot.com, media and social strategy, and sampling and loyalty/CRM initiatives, optimizing key levers and being best-in-class partners.
• Execute sales material and samples, including defining the needs, cross-functional partnership of managing ordering, budgeting, tracking and shipments.

Core and Launch Strategic Support

• Partner with retailer to identify key market trends and focus categories to drive collaborative product development and best-in-class digital strategy.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to build new go-to-market strategies and 360 support elements to maximize launches and brand potential tailored to our retail partners' needs.
• Partner with education and events internal resources to align on strategy, planning and execution to support core and new launches.
• Own and manage retailer timelines and deliverables: new product forms, pricing set up and changes, samples, and logistic information.

Inventory Analysis

• Partner with internal planner to develop and communicate detailed plans and ensure adequate inventory support in-store and online. Responsible for the overall stock levels and ensuring that appropriate product mix of stock is available in the stores/online by ensuring timely ordering, proactively monitoring and resolving low or out-of-stock conditions.

Logistics Management

• Responsible for working with internal partners to enter POs and ensure product registration and PO execution is aligned with on-counter timelines.

Visual Merchandising

• Partner with visual merchandising, marketing, and retailer teams to execute in-store visual merchandising deliverables including design, planograms, timelines, and corresponding inventory planning and support.

Sales Reporting and Analysis

• Weekly sales reporting, analysis, and communication, identifying opportunities, amplifying successes, tracking rankings, etc.

Budget Management

• Responsible for account omnichannel promotional budget planning and tracking.

Requirements

• A strong communicator and strategic thinker with relationship-building skills
• A highly organized doer with a data-driven mentality and a bias towards action
• Ability to execute with precision and pivot quickly to support the needs of the business
• Experience at a growth-stage company is a plus, experience in the beauty industry and interest in skincare is a must

Benefits

• Salary and equity compensation package.
• Health, vision, and dental insurance.
• 15 days paid time off, 23 days of observed holidays, 5 days sick leave.
• Annual education, cultural inspiration, and skincare product and services stipend.