Company Overview 

Brookside Flavors & Ingredients LLC (“BFI” or the “Company”) is a leading manufacturer and developer of healthy and natural flavors and ingredients for the food and beverage industries. Our core mission is to partner with our customers to provide value-added solutions, creating high-quality, healthy, natural, and good-for-you products that drive consumer preference and demand.

BFI is well positioned for sustainable growth across broad category segments, supported by ownership with a strategy to acquire companies that complement our growth.  Our success comes from offering both sweet and savory expertise, market-leading customer service, high response rates, and a high-touch, hands-on commercial approach. We aim to be partners that our customers can firmly rely on, so that they have “No sleepless nights.” Our experienced R&D team has unique, enhanced technical capabilities that allow us to partner seamlessly with our customers. We recently completed major capital improvements to strengthen our capabilities and customer interactions at our locations in Addison, IL, and Branchburg, NJ. Our entrepreneurial culture, passion for serving customers with world-class expertise, and creative ideas make us unique. Recently, we acquired Sterling Food Flavorings, a manufacturer of savory flavoring, which complements our growth strategy by expanding our product portfolio and capabilities for current and future customers. Our continued growth will be driven by both organic initiatives and an active acquisition strategy.

BFI is privately owned by Brookside Equity Partners, a private investment company with roots dating back over 45 years and a capital base of family offices and other long-term investors. Brookside Equity Partners is known for its long-term approach to building successful businesses and partnering with leadership teams to achieve strategic growth objectives.

Position Overview:

The Director of Sales is responsible for: (1) driving revenue growth, achieving profitability goals, and developing a high-performing sales team; (2) will execute sales strategies in line with company objectives, while coaching and mentoring the team to win in the marketplace; (3) will oversee daily sales activities across the U.S., directly manage key pillar customer relationships, partner with the CCO to analyze market trends and identify growth opportunities; (4) will collaborate closely with the Make It Happen Team and other cross-functional partners to support product marketing, commercialization, and customer engagement; and (5) as a hands-on leader, the Director will train and develop the sales team in value-based selling techniques and disciplined sales processes ensuring sales targets, KPIs, and customer satisfaction are consistently achieved.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Revenue Delivery & Culture of Success
  • Create a culture of accountability, success, and goal achievement across the sales organization.
  • Deliver quarterly and annual revenue targets across key markets and customer segments.
  • Directly manage pillar customer relationships and lead the closing of strategic opportunities.
• Business Development & Growth
  • Develop plans and strategies for generating new business and achieving company growth targets.
  • Partner with business development support teams (Ops, MIH, Sales, R&D, Regulatory) to deliver profitable growth.
  • Monitor customer, market, and competitor activity; provide insights and feedback to leadership.
• Sales Leadership & People Development
  • Hire, train, and develop a high-performing sales team, including coaching on value-based selling techniques that highlight how flavors drive customer brand differentiation.
  • Build a sales culture and employer brand that attracts top commercial talent.
  • In conjunction with leadership, oversee sales staff compensation and incentive programs.
  • Define and coordinate training programs to enable sales staff to achieve their potential.
  • Meet with sales team regularly to review results, provide coaching, and build commercial acumen.
• Pipeline & Process Excellence
  • Ensure disciplined pipeline management and accurate forecasting, including detailed sales forecasts and budgets.
  • Ensure all customer and prospect information is entered and maintained in CRM (Salesforce.com).
  • Establish, track, and measure sales team KPIs and performance metrics.
  • Define and enforce sales processes that drive desired outcomes; identify improvements as needed.
  • Compile and report information related to leads, opportunities, and customer upside potential.
• Customer Management & Satisfaction
  • Travel frequently (50%+) for in-person meetings with customers and partners to develop key relationships.
  • Manage customer expectations and contribute to high levels of satisfaction.
  • Constructively handle customer concerns, resolving issues in collaboration with other departments as needed.
  • Develop and communicate customer pricing and, in partnership with commercial and finance leadership, support pricing strategy development.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Infrastructure
  • Collaborate with R&D, operations, and other cross-functional teams to deliver seamless solutions for customers.
  • Partner with leadership to implement systems and infrastructure that support sales team success.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

• Education & Background
  • Bachelor’s degree in Sales, Marketing, Food Science, or a related field.
  • 10+ years of progressive sales experience in the flavors and ingredients industry, across sweet and savory applications.
  • 5+ years of demonstrated success leading sales teams and achieving results through others.
• Commercial & Industry Experience
  • Established relationships with middle-market food and beverage companies.
  • Proven track record building and optimizing a sales organization that delivers consistent growth (10%+ year-over-year) through new projects and customer wins.
  • Hands-on experience developing and executing value-based selling techniques, strategic segmentation, and customer differentiation strategies.
  • Experience in market and value-based pricing approaches.
  • Demonstrated success managing and motivating both on-site and remote sales teams.
  • Experience selecting, managing, and building partnerships with external partners.
  • Strong understanding of business financials with proven ability to drive both top-line revenue and profitability growth.
  • Skilled in creating and refining sales forecasts, budgets, and models for volume, revenue, and profitability.
• Technical Skills
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Office, with advanced Excel capability.
  • Substantial experience with CRM platforms (preferably Salesforce) and business intelligence systems.
  • Strong presentation development skills, including preparing and delivering board-level and executive presentations.
• Leadership & Abilities
  • Ability to work effectively in a private equity portfolio company environment, including comfort with ambitious growth objectives and accelerated timelines.
  • Ability to develop and execute short-, medium-, and long-term plans while managing commercial and financial risks.
  • Strong analytical and critical thinking skills; able to apply data-driven tools to enhance sales processes and customer experience.
  • Proven ability to create a team-building culture, drive organizational development, and attract top commercial talent.
  • Collaborative yet decisive management style, with the confidence to make sound decisions in uncertain situations.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to develop strong relationships internally across functions and externally with key customers and partners.
  • Superior oral and written communication, presentation, and negotiation skills.
  • High energy, adaptable, detail-oriented, and intellectually curious.
  • Ability to give and receive constructive feedback with clarity, maturity, and empathy.

Cultural Fit:

• Strong voice for the BFI values and culture
• A “can-do” attitude with respect for co-workers, suppliers, and customers
• Ability to foster a positive and collaborative work environment across all levels and functions
• Strong focus on continuous improvement
• Strong work ethic, entrepreneurial attitude, and ownership mindset
• A collaborative partnership mentality combined with strategic and analytical rigor
• Humility, high integrity and impeccable ethics

BFI’s Values:

• Cultivate Wildly Excited Customers: The customer is always the top priority. Every day the team is hyper-focused on making our clients love BFI. Someone who embraces the values makes every decision, no matter how big or small, with the customer top of mind. They put themselves in the customers’ shoes and make their experience better. That way, the team creates Wildly Excited Fans of the customers and of each other. If customers aren’t wildly excited about Brookside’s people and their service and products, then the level of service expected was not achieved.
• We Do The Right Things: What do you do when no one else is looking? Brookside’s teams act with integrity and honesty and focus on putting themselves in the shoes of others with safety top of mind.
• Find a Better Way: A diverse culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Constantly seeking personal and professional growth to drive customer success.
• Build for Durability: Brookside wants to create something worth creating, that will endure the test of time and is respectful of the planet. They do this by relentlessly focusing on the customer’s success, creating high quality, Healthy, Natural, Good for You products, and planning for long-term growth and scale. They’re grounded in humility and driven by ambition and success for all their key stakeholders.
• Teams on a Mission: Above all, they’re a team. That means they show up for each other, act with empathy, and bring their authentic selves to work every day. Growing this company is not for personal gain, but for each other, with the mission in mind.
• Make Something Better – Today: Hungry; passionate, and in love with new challenges. You don’t hear a lot of “I don’t know how” or “I can’t” at BFI. When faced with a hurdle, the team jumps with creativity.

Compensation and Benefits:
BFI offers a very attractive compensation package, including a base salary, three variable bonus programs, 401k safe harbor match of 4% along with group insurance options for medical, dental, vision, life and disability.  

Disclaimer:
This job description is not intended, and should not be construed to be, an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, efforts or working conditions associated with the job.  It is intended, however, to be an accurate reflection of those principal job elements essential for making decisions related to job performance, employee development and compensation.  As such, the incumbent may perform other duties and responsibilities as required.