Territory Sales Manager - Michigan

Company Overview

Buck Creek Distributing is a leading supplier of raw materials and packaging solutions to craft breweries, distilleries, and beverage producers across the Midwest and beyond. We specialize in premium malts, yeast, fruit purees, adjuncts, sugars, and aluminum packaging solutions — serving as a strategic partner to independent craft beverage producers.

We pride ourselves on operational excellence, supply chain reliability, deep industry knowledge, and long-term customer partnerships. Our team is entrepreneurial, performance-driven, and passionate about supporting the craft beverage community with innovation, quality, and service.

Position Summary

The Sales Territory Manager – Michigan is responsible for developing independent account business with an emphasis on overall profitability through new sales growth and deep account penetration. This role drives territory revenue by promoting Buck Creek Distributing’s branded and strategic product portfolio while meeting defined sales and margin objectives.

This is a field-based role requiring a proactive, results-oriented professional who can build trusted relationships with brewers and distillers while managing a structured, KPI-driven territory.

The Sales Territory Manager functions as a key team member within the organization and performs duties as assigned to best serve the company and its customers.

Key Responsibilities

Sales & Revenue Growth

• Develop and execute territory sales plans to meet or exceed revenue and margin targets.
• Manage assigned book of business through consistent and disciplined sales activity.
• Identify and pursue new business opportunities across Michigan.
• Expand share of wallet within existing accounts through consultative, value-based selling.
• Secure multi-year ingredient contracts by leveraging strategic pricing initiatives.
• Drive contribution margin across all product categories (malt, hops, yeast, adjuncts, fruit, packaging).

Customer Relationship Management

• Build and maintain long-term relationships with executive-level decision makers in breweries, distilleries and beverage manufacturing businesses.
• Conduct structured business reviews with customers to align on KPIs, forecasts, and service expectations.
• Perform thorough pre-call planning and timely post-call follow-up (quotes, CRM updates, forecast revisions).
• Maintain accurate pipeline data, production volumes, and contract forecasts in CRM.
• Assist with payment collection and terms reviews as needed.

Market & Brand Development

• Represent Buck Creek Distributing at trade shows, festivals, industry events, and educational sessions.
• Identify and create opportunities to strengthen brand presence within the Michigan craft beverage community.
• Gather competitive and market intelligence to inform pricing, product development, and strategy.
• Act as an ambassador for innovation and help introduce new products and solutions to the marketplace.

Operational & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Inside Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Operations to ensure seamless customer experience.
• Work with logistics and customer service team to ensure effective packaging, stock management, and quality control of deliveries.
• Support development and rollout of new sales initiatives and growth strategies.
• Track and report against defined KPIs, including sales growth, margin contribution, and account penetration metrics.
• Submit timely expense reports and maintain compliance with company policies.

Qualifications

Experience & Skills

• Minimum 3 years of B2B sales experience; ingredient or fermented beverage industry experience strongly preferred.
• Proven record of achieving or exceeding sales metrics and quotas.
• Strong negotiation and value-selling skills.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted, long-term customer relationships.
• Working knowledge of CRM systems and structured pipeline management.
• Strong analytical skills with ability to interpret margin, pricing, and KPI data.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Agriculture, Food Science, Brewing Science, or related field preferred.
• Brewing background or technical brewing knowledge is a strong advantage.

Professional Traits

• Entrepreneurial and self-motivated.
• Commercially astute and results-oriented.
• Highly organized with strong administrative discipline.
• Strong communicator with ability to influence both technical and executive stakeholders.
• Comfortable working independently in a field-based environment.
• Passion for the craft brewing and distilling community.

Travel Requirements

• Local travel within Michigan: up to 50%.
• Occasional out-of-region travel for company meetings or industry events.

What Success Looks Like

• Consistent achievement of territory revenue and margin targets.
• Expansion of ingredient contracts across key Michigan breweries and distilleries.
• High customer retention and measurable share-of-wallet growth.
• Strong CRM discipline and accurate forecasting.
• Positive contribution to Buck Creek’s brand presence in the Michigan craft market.

Why Join Buck Creek Distributing

• Growth-oriented, entrepreneurial culture.
• Direct impact on company strategy and territory performance.
• Opportunity to represent a premium ingredient portfolio.
• Collaborative leadership team focused on performance and innovation.
• Competitive compensation structure with performance incentives.

Compensation

• Base salary of $55,000-$70,000
• Commission paid on gross margin
• Quarterly bonuses tied to territory growth
• On-target earnings of ~$100,000+
• Uncapped commission with strong upside for top performers