Wholesale Director role at US Sports/Outdoor/Lifestyle Brand

The Wholesale Director position plays an important strategic role for the success of Japan's business, hence this role is highly visible and the future incumbent has the following key responsibilities:

• Accountable for the Wholesale P&L of Japan and provides insight and reacts pro-actively to overall market status including key account business and competitors performance within the wholesale channel.
• Create, in cooperation with the Legal Team, sales agreements in which the company complies with the mutual interest of all parties, and external wholesale customers.
• Develop and execute sales and marketing strategy, to better meet new customer needs and requirements - with the objective of both expanding business with current accounts and penetrating new markets and customers. Prepare and deliver all Key Account presentations, pricing, and promotional proposals, and other business endeavors.
• Work closely with existing or prospective Key Accounts to identify opportunities, and to drive and further develop the successful business. Monitor major complaints and wishes which the Japan market and key accounts may have. Improve the way the brand deals with them, and be an internal advocate for the Wholesale business.
• Identify market developments, trends and wishes in the area of Wholesale. Identify new wholesale opportunities and create the Japan market strategy.
• Responsible for meeting seasonal and annual commercial revenue targets, product margin, penetration/ door count targets, and wholesale door count expansion.
• Lead and oversee the process for realistic and accurate account planning, forecasting, seasonal initiatives, business analysis, and new sales opportunities.
• Lead and work collaboratively with Merchandising to execute key/national accounts pre-line and sell-in process, as per the approved sell-in timelines and order deadlines seasonally.
• Manage all aspects of the assigned territory, by developing and implementing sales strategies that promote the sale and sell through of all products. Achieve the product margin and revenue goals by ensuring that all accounts are profitably served, and control the Wholesale costs.
• Achieve the annual wholesale revenue goals, new product sales goals, and gross margin goals, by growing top-line revenue, and penetrating deeply into key (retail) accounts.
• Actively sell all seasonal and at-once product initiatives, and be responsible for selling and maximizing the profit on EOL product. Monitor and develop product segmentation in the different trading channels in the market place.
• In cooperation with HR, recruit, manage, train, assess and motivate the direct reporting staff according to company procedures, policy and employment law.
• Coordinate the involvement of cross-functional personnel, including supply chain support, customer service, and management resources, in order to meet partner performance objectives and customers’ expectations.
• Monitor competitor activity within the channel market, and develop strategic plans for increasing market share. Monitor major payment behaviour of markets. In cooperation with A/R, select agents, distributors, and country sales or key account managers for payment reminders, revenue reports and forecasted revenues.
• Collaborate with the Product and Marketing Teams on product, price, quality, and design, in order to deliver impactful product introductions.
• Provide quarterly forecasts of shipments, and monthly outlooks of bookings for Japan market - detailing major customer orders and product levels, in order to ensure minimal lead-times and accurate shipments.