Global Head of Sales

Job description

# CONFIDENTIAL | HEAD OF GLOBAL SALES **Location:** Southern California **Reports To:** VP/GM ## POSITION OVERVIEW Our client, an established **lifestyle footwear brand**, is seeking a **Head of Global Sales** to lead its total wholesale commercial strategy and deliver profitable, sustainable growth across **Major Accounts, Specialty, and International**. This is a highly strategic, analytical, and growth-oriented leadership role. The ideal candidate combines strong commercial and financial acumen with deep footwear and/or consumer brand sales experience and a proven track record of successfully selling into and growing major national retailers. This leader will have ultimate accountability for the total wholesale business while leading through strong functional leaders. The Head of Global Sales will set the strategy, establish goals and KPIs, create accountability, and own performance across all wholesale channels. A major focus of the role is **creating new business opportunities and accelerating growth**. This person must be equally comfortable analyzing a detailed sales forecast, managing a P&L, and presenting a commercial plan to executive leadership as they are sitting across the table from a major retailer, selling the brand and closing new business. ## KEY RESPONSIBILITIES ### Commercial Strategy & Growth - Own and develop the overall wholesale commercial strategy across Major Accounts, Specialty, and International. - Translate company revenue and profitability goals into detailed seasonal, channel, and account-level sales plans. - Develop and maintain a robust pipeline of new business opportunities across accounts, channels, categories, and geographies. - Personally lead the highest-value new business opportunities from initial relationship development through presentation, negotiation, and launch. - Continuously identify whitespace opportunities, including new doors, expanded assortments, additional categories, SMUs, and other incremental revenue opportunities. ### Major Account Leadership - Own the overall strategy and performance of the company’s major national accounts. - Bring direct experience successfully selling product into and growing business with major sporting goods, department store, footwear, and specialty retailers. - Develop and maintain direct, senior-level relationships with buyers and key decision makers. - Build detailed account plans with clear revenue, distribution, assortment, and profitability goals. - Maintain close visibility into bookings, at-once business, sell-through, inventory, replenishment, forecasts, and opportunities. - Proactively identify account risks and opportunities and develop specific action plans to address them. ### Sales Planning, Forecasting & Analytics - Own the wholesale sales forecast and provide accurate, consistent visibility into expected performance versus plan. - Establish rigorous reporting and KPIs across channels, accounts, and the broader sales organization. - Maintain a deep understanding of bookings, at-once demand, sell-through, inventory, distribution, ASPs, margins, and account trends. - Identify performance gaps early, understand underlying drivers, and develop actionable plans to close them. - Use data and analytics to inform account investment, inventory, product opportunities, and future growth. - Clearly communicate business performance, future outlook, and required actions to executive leadership. ### P&L & Profitability Management - Manage the wholesale P&L with accountability for both top-line growth and profitability. - Understand the full cost of doing business by account and channel, including product margin, discounts, freight, commissions, chargebacks, returns, allowances, and marketing support. - Evaluate opportunities based on true contribution and profitability—not revenue alone. - Partner closely with Finance and Operations to identify margin opportunities and areas of financial risk. - Ensure commercial decisions appropriately balance growth, brand opportunity, and long-term profitability. ### Specialty & Field Sales - Provide strategic leadership and ultimate accountability for the Specialty channel. - Partner closely with Specialty Sales leadership overseeing the rep force, trade shows, specialty accounts, and day-to-day field execution. - Establish channel goals, KPIs, territory expectations, and growth priorities. - Ensure the rep organization has clear direction, accountability, and the tools required to execute. - Maintain direct visibility into performance and key opportunities while empowering functional leaders to manage day-to-day execution. ### International - Maintain accountability for the performance and growth of key international markets while partnering with dedicated regional sales leadership. - Incorporate international markets into broader commercial planning, forecasting, and growth strategy. - Oversee international distributor strategy and performance with clear revenue, distribution, and profitability expectations. - Identify and evaluate opportunities for expansion into new international markets. ### Cross-Functional Leadership - Serve as the commercial voice of the customer across the organization. - Partner closely with Product, Planning, Operations, Finance, E-commerce, and Marketing to ensure customer and marketplace insights inform company decisions. - Connect sales demand and forecasting to inventory planning and purchasing decisions. - Provide Product with clear marketplace feedback, competitive insights, and future demand opportunities. - Ensure Sales and Marketing priorities are aligned around key accounts, launches, and growth opportunities. ## LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS - Lead through clear expectations, measurable KPIs, accountability, and consistent follow-through. - Develop strong leaders and empower them to own their respective areas of the business. - Create organizational structure and operating rhythms that allow the business to scale. - Proactively identify risks and opportunities before they become issues. - Bring executive leadership clear recommendations supported by data, financial implications, and actionable plans. - Operate as an owner of the total business, not simply the sales function. - Build strong relationships across the organization and foster open, direct communication. - Create a collaborative team culture that celebrates wins, works through challenges together, and prioritizes trust and engagement. ## QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE - **10+ years of progressive sales and commercial leadership experience**, ideally within footwear, apparel, accessories, or consumer brands. - Significant experience leading a meaningful wholesale business across multiple channels. - Proven track record of **personally selling into and growing major national retail accounts**. - Existing relationships with major footwear, sporting goods, department store, and/or specialty retail buyers strongly preferred. - Demonstrated success opening new accounts and creating meaningful incremental revenue. - Strong understanding of major-account planning, assortment strategy, sell-through, replenishment, and retail economics. - Highly analytical with strong forecasting, reporting, and financial-management capabilities. - Strong P&L management experience and understanding of the full cost of doing business. - Ability to turn data into clear commercial strategies and actionable recommendations. - Experience leading through other sales leaders and managing a geographically dispersed organization. - Strong negotiation, presentation, and relationship-building skills. - Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment where **growth and profitability are equally important**. ## WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE Success means establishing a clear commercial plan, accurate visibility into the business, detailed strategies for every major account, a healthy pipeline of new opportunities, and a sales organization that consistently delivers profitable growth. This leader will understand **where the growth is coming from, what it will cost to achieve it, how each major account is performing, and what actions need to happen next**. Ultimately, this person is responsible for **building the plan, finding the growth, winning the business, and ensuring the sales organization delivers against it profitably.**