Director of Business Development (Central Valley, CA)

About Beeflow

Beeflow is a biotech startup company that leverages scientific knowledge and technology to improve the impact of ecosystem services in agriculture. Beeflow creates and manages pollination programs for farmers with the goal of consistently increasing crop yields. The company combines scientific knowledge of crop pollination, bee biology & behavior and chemical ecology with proprietary technologies including molecules that help train bees to pollinate specific crops and a plant-based bee diet that enhances bees’ immune system. This novel approach to pollination management allows growers to produce more with less.

Based in California and with operations across the US West Coast, Mexico, Peru and Argentina, Beeflow closed an $8.3M Series A in May 2021 with Ospraie Ag Sciences, Future Ventures, Vectr Ventures, Jeff Wilke (former CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon), SOSV and others. Beeflow’s team of experts includes biologists, ecologists, entomologists, agronomists, and entrepreneurs.

For more information about Beeflow, please visit www.beeflow.com.

About this role

As a Director of Business Development, you will use your specialty crop agronomy, production, and account management expertise to create, convert, develop, and maintain customer relationships leading to the sale and sustained adoption of Beeflow's services. Beeflow is foremost a science-based company but prides itself in outstanding customer centricity, long-term relationships, and pollination outcomes aligned to customer needs and requirements. The Sales Account Manager role identifies the intersecting pollination needs of customers and Beeflow’s solutions and then works with other Beeflow functions and partners to implement programs that create the best customer experience.

Responsibilities

• Build a strong relationship with growers based on trust and understanding their needs.
• Create, convert, and retain customers.
• Use consultative account management processes to create and enhance commercial relationships.
• Work closely with customers to explore solutions to pollination and/or pollinator challenges.
• Create and deliver the best customer experience together with Field Development & Operations.
• Bring the voice of the customer to Beeflow to understand needs.
• Understand and diagnose customer business.
• Understand and sell Beeflow's value proposition to growers.
• Follow up on service delivery to ensure customer satisfaction through superior crop pollination outcomes and services.
• Work with other team members in field development, marketing, operations, and finance to ensure a good balance between operational processes and customer results.
• Lead the interaction with customers to communicate results and coordinate in-season course corrections to optimize pollination.
• Use field results to expand customer adoption.
• Attend and Speak at industry events and trade shows to promote pollination and Beeflow.
• Represent the mission, vision, and core values of Beeflow with customers and other stakeholders.
• Manage negotiation process, monitoring and overseeing customer contracts, pricing, and billing.
• Anticipate and mitigate potential market or customer risks.
• Identify new market opportunities in his/her region of responsibility.
• Responsible for sales forecast (S&OP): Participate in sales and operations planning and forecast discussions.
• CRM tool to plan and execute sales and manage customer relationships.

Requirements

Minimum qualifications:

• B.S. in Agriculture (ag science, ag production or related)
• +10 years experience in agronomy consulting, retail sales, or farm management.
• Prior marketing, sales, or product development experience related to launching new ag production products or services into specialty crop markets.
• Proven sales track record
• Proficiency in MS Office and CRM software (we use Pipedrive, but it can be any CRM)
• Strong communication skills - written, verbal, and presentation.
• An adaptable and fast learner professional.
• Negotiation skills.
• Almonds market understanding.
• Experience performing sales planning & forecasting.
• Willing to travel up to 75% of the time.

Preferred qualifications:

• An existing network of grower contacts in Almonds.
• Experience in customer support.
• Data analysis skills.
• Basic understanding of finance, accounting, and agri-business.
• Basic understanding of food processing and marketing channels.

You might be a good fit if our core values resonate with you!

• Putting people first - We focus on creating an environment in which everyone can thrive and get their highest-impact work done.
• Being passionate about helping build a food system in harmony with nature - We are convinced that we can make the world a better place for future generations if we listen to and work with nature rather than replacing it and we’re committed to making that happen.
• Doing things right - We have principles, and we live them every day.
• Staying humble and curious - We are open-minded and humbly seek to challenge the status quo so that we can continuously improve.
• Leading by service - We are humble servants of those with whom we are interdependent. We strive to make their lives easier by being responsive, flexible, empathetic, and curious.

Benefits

Compensation Target

$110,000 - $130,000 base salary

Beeflow reserves the ability to adjust the compensation range based on the final candidate’s experience, skillset, and geography. In addition to on target earnings, we offer stock options as we believe that every employee should have a stake in the company’s growth.

In addition, we offer:

• Medical, Vision and Dental Insurance for the employee and their dependents.
• 401k.
• A generous holiday schedule: 15 working days of vacation + Week off between Christmas and New Year’s.
• Family Leave: 4 weeks of paid leave for the nonpregnant parent + Soft Landing options to return to work after the leave both for pregnant and nonpregnant person.
• In-company Spanish lessons.
• Learning & Development budget + 3 days off per year to attend conferences, industry events, courses, etc.