New Account Acquisition Manager, Retail & Private Label, Coffee

The Role
The New Account Acquisition Manager, Retail and Private Label Coffee, brings retail experience to Fair Trade USA’s coffee team to win new accounts, educate Retail and Coffee partners, open new business opportunities, activate new commitments to the Coffee program, and support our strategic growth. This position is responsible for identifying and cultivating expansion opportunities by helping build and convert a pipeline of new business opportunities and helping prospective partners see how Fair Trade certification can create meaningful impact for their business, shoppers, suppliers, and for producers. This role helps the Director of Coffee gain retail Private Label business by showing how Fair Trade Certified coffee products can support a retailer’s goals and the producers behind the product.

The role focuses on new account acquisition across retailer private label programs and mid-size to large coffee brands and owns private label lead generation for Coffee. It also onboards newly won accounts and supports them through their first year.

This is a long-cycle sales role for a seller with retail experience who knows how retailers buy, can start conversations with new buyers, and can make a clear commercial case.

Key Responsibilities

New Account Acquisition & Pipeline Development

• Identify, prospect, qualify, and convert new Coffee accounts, with a focus on retailer private label coffee programs, retailer-led initiatives, and mid to large coffee brands and roasters that do not yet work with Fair Trade USA.
• Own new private label lead generation for Coffee: source and qualify retailer private label opportunities and keep a visible private label pipeline.
• Open doors: secure first meetings with retail buyers, category managers, private label teams, and sourcing and sustainability leads, and move each conversation toward a pilot, program, or commitment.
• Develop customized pitches, business cases, and proposals that connect Fair Trade Certified coffee with each prospect’s sales, sourcing, and sustainability goals.
• Sell programs with long sales cycles, managing each opportunity from first contact through close.
• Work with Certification, Supply, and the Coffee team to move new accounts through certification, sourcing alignment, product development, and launch, and help prospects understand the support available to them.
• Develop opportunity plans for priority prospects, with clear ownership, next steps, and progress tracking.

Retail Strategy & Outreach

• Bring retail experience to coffee strategy: advise the Coffee Team on how target retailers buy, plan assortments, and choose private label and brand partners, and on the timing of line reviews and category resets.
• Build target retailer lists and outreach plans with the Coffee Team and set up meetings with buyers and private label and sourcing teams.
• Prepare the Coffee Team for retailer meetings with account research, tailored talking points, and clear next steps, join those meetings, and manage follow-up.

New Account Onboarding

• Onboard newly won accounts, including brands that come to Fair Trade USA through inbound inquiries, and serve as their primary commercial contact through their first year.
• Check in regularly with each account, resolve issues with Certification, Supply, and Marketing, and keep account contacts, products, and activity current in the CRM.
• Identify growth opportunities in new accounts and transition them into the Coffee team's account managers after their first year.

Coffee Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner directly with the Director of Coffee to set new business priorities, target accounts, and revenue goals.
• Share retailer, brand, and competitive insights from prospect conversations with the Director of Coffee to inform positioning and growth priorities.
• Represent Fair Trade USA in retailer and brand meetings, industry events, and trade shows, consistent with priorities set by the Director of Coffee.
• Work dynamically with internal teams to meet the needs of prospective and current retail partners’ requests, including data, intelligence, and impact queries.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams so Fair Trade USA consistently engages each retailer and elevates shared learnings to improve internal knowledge and insight for brand partners.

Pipeline, Revenue & Impact Tracking

• Drive performance against new accounts, private label leads, pipeline conversion, new revenue, and certified volume goals.
• Maintain accurate and timely CRM records for forecasting, account planning, and leadership reporting.
• Work with internal teams to resolve onboarding and transaction-reporting gaps so new partners can sell Fair Trade Certified coffee without delay.
• Report on new account results, including pipeline, conversion, and sales, to the Director of Coffee.

Key Qualifications / Experience

• 4+ years of retail experience required, such as buying, merchandising, category management, private label, sourcing, or retail-focused business development or sales, with a record of working directly with retail buyers.
• Demonstrated success winning new accounts for private label and/or branded programs, including building pipeline from first outreach through close.
• Understanding of how retailers plan assortments, run line reviews and category resets, and select private label and brand partners.
• Working knowledge of the coffee category, including roasters, brands, and retail and private label coffee, preferred.
• Strong commercial judgment, with the ability to build a business case and negotiate effectively.
• Hands-on prospecting skills, including researching and prioritizing target accounts, identifying the right contacts, and running multi-touch outreach (email, phone, LinkedIn, events) to secure first meetings with buyers who don’t know you yet.
• Skilled at running discovery and qualification calls that uncover a prospect’s goals, buying process, decision-makers, budget, and timing, and at deciding early which opportunities to pursue and which to drop.
• Strong communication, presentation, and relationship-building skills, with comfort starting conversations with new contacts at every level of retail or brand organization.
• Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage many opportunities and priorities at once, and a high degree of ownership and follow-through.
• Ability to work across teams and influence without direct authority, and comfort working in an evolving, fast-moving environment.
• Experience using a CRM system, such as Salesforce, to manage pipeline, forecasting, and account information; proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and collaboration tools such as Slack.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience
• Willingness to travel to meet with retailers, brands, and partners, attend trade shows and industry events, and join origin trips.
• Bilingual English/Spanish speaker preferred but not required.