Key Account Manager - Grocery, West

Key Account Manager, Grocery — West ABOUT ANTELOPE: Antelope is revolutionizing pet care with its omnichannel platform, launched in August 2021. Our mission? To elevate the lives of pets by offering the very best in pet products through a bold buy-and-build strategy. The name “Antelope” says it all — “Ante” means raising the stakes, and “Lope” signifies bounding forward together. Backed by Alpine Investors, Antelope has already made impressive strides, acquiring five standout brands: Bocce’s Bakery, Diggin’ Your Dog / Super Snouts, My Perfect Pet, and Ark Naturals. Antelope has plans to acquire additional all-natural, high-quality brands to become the one-stop shop for pet parents. OVERVIEW: Antelope is hiring a Key Account Manager, Grocery – West to drive new account acquisition and channel expansion across our full product portfolio in grocery, with a primary emphasis on our pet treat brand, across all states west of the Mississippi River, including Texas — from national and regional banners like H-E-B, Albertsons/Safeway divisions (Vons, Safeway NorCal, Intermountain) and Kroger's western divisions (Fred Meyer, QFC, King Soopers, Smith's) to WinCo, Raley's, Save Mart, Stater Bros., Bashas' and the independents and co-ops across Texas, the Mountain West and West Coast, plus any other accounts or channels assigned. This is a 75% build, 25% maintenance role: our treat business has already established a foothold in grocery, and the mandate is to convert that proof of concept into full regional coverage. The ideal candidate is a hunter who thrives on a long prospect list, builds category cases from syndicated data, and holds broker partners accountable to a plan. RESPONSIBILITIES: New account development ● Build and work a prioritized target list of grocery banners in your region, identifying the highest-value white space by geography, banner format and category role. ● Own the full sales cycle from prospecting and first contact through category review, item setup and first ship. ● Secure new authorizations and net-new points of distribution against annual store count and revenue targets for your territory. ● Navigate the mechanics of grocery entry — category review calendars, distributor routes to market, new item paperwork, slotting and deduction structures — without needing them explained. Pitching and category selling ● Build customer-specific, insight-led selling stories using Circana/IRI, Nielsen and retailer POS data — shopper trends, category gaps, incrementality and space productivity. ● Deliver the presentations personally to buyers and category managers, and defend the assortment recommendation with data. ● Translate the brand's consumer marketing plan into a retailer-facing case for support, including promotional and in-store activation. ● Surface innovation and assortment recommendations to internal teams based on product white space and competitive trends observed in your markets. Broker network management ● Manage the broker agencies covering your west markets, setting clear objectives, priorities and scorecards by agency and territory. ● Onboard, train and continuously equip broker teams and distributor reps so they can sell the brand story with the same fluency you do. ● Run a consistent cadence of business reviews, market walks and pipeline calls; hold agencies accountable to distribution and revenue commitments. ● Assess coverage gaps and performance in your region, and recommend changes to agency scope, footprint or partnership as the business scales. Planning, forecasting and accountability ● Build, communicate and execute annual account plans for your territory, including promotional calendars and trade spend. ● Forecast sales volume and spending needs at the customer and SKU level, partnering with Operations and Finance so new distribution is supported by inventory. ● Plan, execute and analyze promotions, reporting ROI and adjusting the approach based on what the results show. ● Operate within an assigned trade and travel budget and report on it. ● Conduct customer business reviews and maintain accurate opportunity tracking in Salesforce. ● Prioritize, plan and organize your own travel and market coverage, and coordinate with your counterpart Key Account Manager and the VP of Sales on any account with national or cross-regional buying authority. QUALIFICATIONS: Must-haves: ● Three to seven years of progressive CPG sales results, including recent grocery experience. ● A demonstrated hunter track record — specific new accounts you opened, not accounts you inherited and maintained. ● Existing relationships with grocery buyers in the West that can be leveraged into new business. ● Broker management experience, ideally across multiple agencies or territories. ● Fluency with syndicated data (Circana/IRI, Nielsen) and the ability to build a category story from it independently. ● Strong analytical skills and financial acumen; comfort with trade math, margin structures and promotional ROI. ● Exceptional verbal and written communication and a genuine ability to build relationships; an outgoing, charismatic presence in a buyer room. ● Excellent Microsoft Office skills, especially PowerPoint and Excel, plus Salesforce CRM, Slack and Google Workspace. ● Bachelor's degree. ● Residence within the territory with access to a top 25 airport — ideally Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Southern California or the Pacific Northwest. ● Familiarity with a remote sales environment and a desire to travel, including overnight and air travel. Estimated 25–30% travel. Nice-to-haves: ● Pet category experience. ● Comfort operating in ambiguity with limited oversight; prior experience at a fast growing consumer company is a plus. ● Must love dogs or cats (& treats!) WHAT WE OFFER: ● Connected remote-first culture with a highly engaged distributed workforce ● Flexible PTO ● Competitive compensation ● Medical, dental, and vision insurance ● 401K employer match ● Home Office Stipend ● Parental leave including “pawternity” ● Discounted Antelope products and pet insurance