Sales Manager, Brazil
Great Games Start with Great People! This is a significant time in our company's history - and one of the most exciting times to join us!
Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Activision Blizzard, is the umbrella organization over Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment, providing corporate shared services, such as Legal, HR, Finance, IT, Accounting, Facilities, Supply Chain and Sales. As the largest and most profitable third-party publisher, Activision Blizzard is a driving force shaping the future of entertainment. The company has a broad portfolio of industry leading brands and award-winning development talent. It's portfolio includes such best-selling franchises from Activision Publishing as Call of Duty, Spider-Man, X-Men, Shrek, James Bond, and Transformers, in addition to Blizzard Entertainment's StarCraft, Diablo and the #1 subscription based massively multi-player online role-playing game, World of Warcraft.
Basic Function:
The Sales Manager position is responsible for the tactical management and strategic leadership for the development of Activision's key video game product sales for assigned LAM distributors and retailers in Brazil. Achievement of volume targets within assigned spending budgets is a core accountability of the position, which will be achieved through customer business planning, flawless execution of sales controllable "building blocks," and leading the development of the overall relationship with assigned customers at multiple levels in the division.
Duties and Responsibilities:
· MANAGEMENT OF SALES FUNDAMENTALS
o Oversee existing relationships with customers to ensure Activision-Blizzard products are represented in line with Activision brand strategies.
· FORECASTING
o Manage corporate and customer item forecasts
· CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT
o Develop and maintain partnerships with customers to exploit new release and catalog revenue opportunities
· MERCHANDISING AND CONSUMER MARKETING
o Design and execute targeted programming that builds mass consumer awareness and drives purchase intent at key LAM retailers
· DISTRIBUTION
o Maximize product lifecycle revenue / profitability at assigned customers from pre-sell, to launch, and beyond. Maximize launch revenue through product evangelism and consultative selling using benchmark title data. Establish long lead planning with assigned customers to maximize upstream planning and execution
· MERCHANDISING AND COSNUMER MARKETING
o Plan and execute account specific merchandising and marketing programs designed to build mass awareness, maximize in-store presence, drive trial and purchase intent at key retailers. Leverage product evangelism, consultative selling, and customer expertise to garner customer alignment to plans. Manage all customer activities within budget. Lead financial analysis of program effectiveness.
· PRICING
o Communicate pricing issues and opportunities to corporate to maximize product replenishment.
· FORECASTING
o Communicate product launch and ongoing inventory needs with corporate. Align customer to product forecast expectations. Maximize product launch and quarterly forecast accuracy.
· SALES EXECUTION
o Prepare and deliver multi-faceted, best in class sales meeting presentations that contain industry, regional and account insights as well as cutting edge product information. Maintain a leadership role on all customer related transaction issues including order processing and logistics, marketing fund accrual deductions, and customer service. Compile, monitor and report sell-through in the region and share findings with key stakeholders. Use sell-through data for future bench marking sell-in purposes.
· CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
o Prepare monthly reports to management as well as status report as they are required.
· SPECIAL PROJECTS
o Create and maintain an overarching LAM sell-through reporting system that feeds in to AB corporate. Create a trade promotion spending tracking device that monitors spending on a quarterly basis. Maximize Activision's in-store presence by testing a 3 rd party merchandising firm. Help assess a direct distribution system in the region versus distribution.
Principal Working Relationships:
- Interaction with customers at all levels from Junior Administrators to Business Planners to Sr. Buyers and Company Owners
- Interaction with Activision-Blizzard internal cross functional teams including customer service, information services, operations, marketing, finance, retail marketing, PR, event marketing and legal.
- VP of Sales
- Region Lead; LAM Sales
- Retail Marketing Team
- Sales Planning & Analysis
- Operations Team
- Customer Service Team
Qualifications:
· Undergraduate 4 year degree from a major university in Business or Marketing
· MBA preferred
· Minimum of 5 years sales experience preferably in CPG or Entertainment Software Industry
· Knowledge of video game industry and specifically Latin America market
· Bi-Lingual; Portuguese/English
· Excellent quantitative and forecasting skills
· Experience in multi-channel distribution
· The ideal candidate will be extremely organized and take a logical and methodical approach to problem solving
· The ideal candidate will have a strong entrepreneurial drive with high standards of excellence
· Ability to influence others in a team based environment
· Excellent written and oral communication skills
· Excellent presentation skills
· Strong negotiation skills
· Interest and aptitude in interpreting the numbers in context of answering business questions
· Ability to assess trade promotion effectiveness
Physical Requirements:
The position requires the ability to perform essential job functions which may typically include sitting; walking; standing; bending; use of hands to type, handle or feel, reach with arms or hands, stoop, kneel, talk, see, hear and carry light items such as papers, notebooks, pens, etc. May also require occasional travel by car or plane.