Relationship Manager US East Coast JD

About

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At Algrano, a tech-focused coffee startup from Switzerland, we are on a mission to reshape the global coffee trade. We are driven by an ambitious goal: to revolutionize the age-old coffee trade industry, making it both transparent and digital.

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‍Via Algrano's online marketplace, coffee farmers can effortlessly promote and sell their coffees directly to roasters in Europe and the USA. Algrano provides the online (marketplace) and offline infrastructure (logistics, insurance, financing). 

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Honored with the Best Innovation award by the European Coffee Industry Association in 2015 for our launch and again in 2022 for our achievements, we currently serve over 1,000 sellers and roasters in more than 50 countries. With the support of a robust investor network, our vision is to become the premier platform for direct coffee trading globally.

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Summary

Following our international expansion, we are now searching for our next Relationship Manager on the US East Coast

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The role is based remotely, managing our existing relationships between roasters and producers as well as developing the growing market we launched in 2023.

The role also will involve meeting customers in their roastery, attending coffee festivals in the US  and abroad and potentially trips to origin. 

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The role

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As a Relationship Manager, you will be the key point of contact between roasters, producers and Algrano. Reporting to Yannick Lauber (Head of Sales US) and working closely with the other 3 members of the US/Canadian relationship management team you will promote the stories of technologically savvy specialty coffee growers to a young quality and transparency driven generation of coffee roasters on the US East Coast. 

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By enabling relationships between roasters and growers, you change the supply chain of coffee and ultimately the living conditions of the people producing it.

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You will be involved with product, marketing, logistics and coffee sourcing departments to provide the best solutions to your customers. There will be frequent trips which could be for multiple days and often alone, so a confident and entrepreneurial personality is important as well as the ability to work in a team as the day to day role will include many online meetings. 

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Your responsibilities include:

• Planning with roasters their buying needs on a 12-24 month basis and then monitoring the plans on a weekly basis to ensure they are being carried out as needed. 
• Drive the entire sales cycle from initial customer engagement to closed sales and after sales support
• Interact with customers through visits, phone calls, emails, trade shows, whatsapp, Instagram..... 
• Train roasters how to use the Algrano marketplace and advise roasters on producers who fit their company values and on current offerings that would fit their menu.
• Nurture public relations and relationships with national industry organisations, media and strategic partners.
• Maintain a high level of relevant industry knowledge in order to have meaningful conversations with both roasters and producers.
• Provide feedback internally to all departments on market trends and opportunities to enhance the marketplace and improve the company brand and reputation.

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Your profile

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You love coffee and understand the realities of coffee producers and daily operational needs of coffee roasters. You are curious and naturally inquisitive. You enjoy learning and reading. You are outgoing and open-minded. Your friends appreciate you for your optimism and your empathy. You are self driven and prefer to manage your own time to complete your tasks than simply clock in for a shift. Furthermore you are:

• Conscientious: you take your tasks seriously and feel deeply responsible for the results
• Ambitious: you embrace ambitious goals and want to grow with the company
• Achievement-oriented: you are intrinsically motivated on achieving goals and continuously measure your performance in comparison to the goals
• Persistent: You consider a No as another door opener
• A Swiss army knife: you are versatile and grow into new challenges and adapt to new situations.
• Ready for change: you agree that the industry is lacking technology and transparency and you are intrinsically motivated to change that. 
• Independent: you are used to pushing yourself to achieve your goals, possibly having worked for a start up company or started your own company in the past.
• Technology proficient: You already use a range of apps and technology and are open to start using new ones. 
• Positive and outgoing - you see the best in everyone, happy to start a conversation with a stranger and are always respectful in all situations. 

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Experience, background and skills include:

• Language skills: You are a native English speaker with proficient written skills. Any other languages are a plus.
• People focused: You have at least 3 years experience talking to customers directly, either face to face or over the phone. 
• Coffee: Coffee experience from green coffee buying or grading through to training or roasting would be a benefit, but as we are a unique business and training will be provided this is not essential. 
• Network: You do have a profound network in the US East Coast coffee industry. Ideally you have ties to roasters, roastery owners and decision makers.
• Financial acumen: You are capable of developing a sales plan that produces effective results and highlighting gaps as they come up and solutions to fill them. 
• Sales experience: You have either a proven track record in sales, an entrepreneurial background or a very high level of customer service experience.  
• CRM: you are an experienced user of CRM software. (We use Hubspot, but any previous CRM experience is a good base)
• Mobile: You are ready to travel all over the US East Coast, as well as from time to time to other US states in the central part and the West Coast, with the potential to also travel to origin countries. A driving licence would therefore be an advantage. 

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Why work for Algrano

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You will be part of a growing and talented team that is united around a mission to create change with technology to enable independent producers and roasters to thrive.

• You will be working remotely, in an exciting expansion phase of the company. This is a role where you can truly make a difference within the company as we continue to grow. 
• You will be working with our potentially biggest  market area  and you enjoy working with existing customers as well as thrive to go out and start working with prospects and win them as new clients.
• We are dedicated but offer flexible working hours and 5 weeks of holidays.