Fall Creek is creating a world with better blueberries through its friendly, collaborative team spread across the globe. To help us accomplish this, we are seeking a qualified Sales & Grower Support Representative to support our US Southeast region clients. This position will be located in any of the following states: Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.
The Fall Creek’s Grower Support is a front-line position responsible for delivering Fall Creek’s mission: to bring exceptional plants and solutions to optimize customer success. The role will provide commercial and technical support for commercial blueberry growers in the Southeast region of the US, particularly but not limited to the states of Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.
The position requires frequent single-day and overnight travel within the assigned region (33% to 50%) and occasionally international travel. Job setting is a mix of farm, nursery and office.
What you’ll do at Fall Creek:
- Serves as the primary representative to assist customers with all aspects of the sales process, including plant ordering, availability, terms and conditions, and other interactions that lead to a successful relationship between Fall Creek and the customer.
- Responsible for providing product support and technical assistance to commercial customers in the assigned region. This includes providing qualified advice and perspectives, on-site evaluation, pre-plant preparation, variety selection, and post-plant cultural care.
- Responsible for identifying and developing new accounts in the assigned territory.
- Supports new and existing licensees with technical product support and facilitates plant orders as required.
- Provides feedback and timely intel to management regarding the state of the industry and our competition.
- Responsible for the accurate and timely use of Fall Creek’s CRM to record all observations, activities, daily tasks, sales opportunities, and customer interactions.
- As a member of the Global Commercial Team, provides support and input on horticultural and commercial issues of interest to the group.
- Provides support to the Commercial Team and others with key commercial account responsibilities.
- Responsible for ensuring each order is accurate, and each customer understands Fall Creek’s fulfillment process, timelines, and the role of customer service and logistics teams, and required deposits are received on time.
- Assists by building opportunities in the CRM that provide critical data for sales and demand forecasting. The CRM opportunities will include accurate intelligence on upcoming projects and insight into what varieties, sizes, and quantities will be needed to meet future demand.
- Responsible for reporting field observations on variety and selection performance to R&D, Applied Research, and the Commercial department. As requested, may also assist with plantings and cultural care.
- Represents the company as an attendee and occasionally as a presenter at regional meetings, tradeshows, and industry events.
- Responsible for scheduling and managing existing and prospective customer visits to Fall Creek nursery locations, and to farm operations within the assigned region, as well as international customers when necessary.
- Acts as the “humble servant” and provides a high level of customer-focused service.
- Supports, perpetuates, and enhances Fall Creek’s core values and corporate culture.
- Assures the highest level of confidentiality on sensitive matters concerning the business.
- Adheres to the standards set forth in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
- Performs special projects and other duties as assigned.
What you bring to Fall Creek:
- Typically requires a bachelor’s degree in Horticulture, Crop Science, or related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Requires 3 to 7+ years of related sales, technical, and customer service in an agricultural business, preferably in the blueberry industry. Must be results-driven and customer- focused.
- Strong negotiation and relationship-building skills.
- Strong understanding of agronomic topics such as soil & water chemistry, plant nutrition, irrigation, fertigation, and crop management.
- Requires a proven track record of building successful, professional relationships, including the ability to interact with customers as well as colleagues.
- Requires a high degree of independent professional judgment in problem solving, researching solutions, and decision making.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills. Ability to effectively present information clearly in formal and informal settings to peers, customers and industry leaders. Ability to actively listen.
- Proficient with MS Office products.
- Ability to take initiative and prioritize tasks; excellent time management and organizational skills.
- Ability to collaborate with other team members and maintain a positive attitude. Must be able to exercise good judgment in recognizing scope of authority.
- High degree of autonomy and independence.
- Requires a valid driver’s license in the assigned territory.
- Ability to perform the essential functions of the position, which includes the ability to travel.
- Must demonstrate professional and ethical business practices, adherence to company values, and a commitment to personal and professional development.
Strongly Preferred Qualifications:
- Specific experience in blueberries or a similar horticultural crop.
- Previous experience working with an ERP and/or CRM system, preferably SAP and/or Salesforce.
Who is Fall Creek?
We’re a US-based company with a keen focus on blueberry genetics, plants, and grower support delivered to the world’s premier blueberry growers. From our humble beginnings in Lowell, Oregon more than 40 years ago, we now also have wholly-owned nurseries in Mexico, Peru, Spain, South Africa, Netherlands, Chile, China, and expanding nurseries in North Africa and Eastern Europe. Additionally, we have built a global team of the finest breeders, researchers, propagators and nursery professionals, grower support technicians, sales and customer service experts and more. We’re a deeply-planted link in a global chain, ready to serve our customers and our industry throughout North, Central, and South America, Greater Europe, Asia and Africa. Our mission is to serve the growers and to support the blueberry industry, helping to ensure growers maximize success through our delivery of the best genetics and plants, technical know-how and global market intelligence. To fulfill our mission, we focus on cultivating exceptional plants, building strong relationships and providing responsive customer service. This is all part of how we’re helping to build A World with Better Blueberries™.
Fall Creek Farm & Nursery® offers a competitive salary and benefit package which includes health, vision, and dental insurance, paid time off, company-paid life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance, and 401K plan. This position requires an executed confidentiality and non-solicitation agreement upon hire. Employment offers are contingent on meeting our drug testing, background, and reference check standards. EOE
