Director of Distributor & Specialty Channel

About the role

This role is central to our revenue generation, focusing on expanding our distributor network and managing key specialty retail relationships. You will take charge of a significant existing distributor portfolio, optimize its performance, and build the necessary team and infrastructure for substantial annual growth. This involves both nurturing current accounts and actively forging new partnerships.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Manage all distributor relationships outside the top-5 national wholesale tier, currently 15-25 regional distributors, with plans for expansion in the first two years.
• Systematically grow existing accounts through trade marketing, expanding product lines, analyzing sales data, and conducting quarterly business reviews.
• Establish 4-8 new regional convenience distributors annually, such as Royal Distributing, Eby-Brown, Liberty USA, S. Abraham, Lipari, or Vistar.
• Directly manage relationships with regional and national smoke shop and specialty chain accounts, including Smoker's Outlet, Tobacco Stop, Smokers Plus, Up-N-Smoke, Cigar World, and regional consolidators.
• Lead a team of 4-6 Regional Sales Managers, providing weekly one-on-ones, conducting ride-alongs, performing quarterly territory reviews, and holding hiring/termination authority with CRO approval.
• Oversee an Inside Sales team of 3-5 representatives who support independent accounts.
• Maintain and review a weekly distributor health dashboard covering metrics like days-on-hand, depletion velocity, reorder cadence, retention, expansion, and MAP compliance.
• Allocate trade funds across the distributor network within a CRO-approved budget and manage the in-quarter promotional calendar.
• Drive improvements in distributor agreements, including EDI 852 implementation, MAP enforcement, and standardizing terms for returns, swaps, and buybacks.
• Conduct over 100 in-person distributor visits per year, ensuring each distributor is visited at least once per quarter.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in wholesale CPG with a multi-state distributor portfolio.
• 4+ years in regional or national sales leadership.
• Proven track record of achieving over 25% year-over-year same-account growth across a portfolio for multiple years.
• Proficiency in distributor health metrics: days-on-hand, depletion velocity, reorder cadence, and MAP compliance.
• Experience managing or building a field sales team.
• Ability to demonstrate specific success in significantly increasing distributor revenue through deliberate actions.
• Capacity for independent judgment and autonomous operation across a large, multi-state territory.
• Skill in anticipating distributor health issues 6-12 months before data indicates them.
• Experience developing Regional Sales Manager talent through ride-alongs and coaching.
• Strong focus on both acquiring new accounts and growing existing ones.
• Comfort in enforcing MAP compliance, quarterly business review schedules, and agreement terms across a full distributor network.

Nice to have

• Direct experience in alt-tobacco, vape, kratom-adjacent, or supplement wholesale channels.
• History of successfully opening new regional convenience distributors, not just managing existing ones.
• Experience directly managing smoke shop or specialty retail chain relationships without broker involvement.
• Experience with EDI 852 or similar depletion data rollout.
• Background in conducting structured quarterly business reviews with wholesale partners.

Skills & tools

• Sales leadership
• Distributor management
• Trade marketing
• SKU breadth expansion
• Account-level depletion analysis
• Quarterly business reviews
• Sales team leadership
• Inside sales management
• Distributor health dashboard management
• Trade dollar allocation
• Promotional calendar management
• Distributor agreement reform
• EDI 852
• MAP enforcement

Practical notes

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. We do not engage external recruiting agencies; all candidates must apply directly. Benefits include 100% company-paid health premiums for employees and families, mental wellness resources, up to $1,000/year fitness reimbursement, up to $5,250/year tuition reimbursement, up to $5,000/year professional development reimbursement, $150/month in company products plus a 50% employee discount, free meals and company celebrations, a discretionary quarterly bonus program, and a 401(k) with a 100% match on the first 2% and a 50% match on the next 4%. AI literacy is a core capability, and team members are expected to apply AI tools to improve work.