[Hiring] Head of Sales, New Accounts @Balsam Brands

Role Description

The Head of Sales, New Accounts role will lead new customer acquisition for GE holiday lighting, focusing on opening national retail accounts and building profitable, sustainable new business. This is a senior individual-contributor role for an experienced sales leader with strong relationships at major U.S. retailers and a demonstrated track record of personally opening new accounts.

The role owns new customer relationships from initial pursuit through commercial negotiation, launch, and the first complete selling and holiday-season cycle before transitioning established accounts to the ongoing account management team. Over time, the scope may expand to include international retail accounts.

This is a remote US-based role reporting to the President of GE Holiday Lighting and requires up to 40% travel within the US. There is a strong preference for this role to be located in the US Central or Eastern time zone.

What you’ll do:

• Win New National Accounts
  • Build and execute a prioritized acquisition strategy, initially focusing on major mass, club, and home-improvement retailers.
  • Use established relationships and develop new connections with buyers, merchandising leaders, and other key decision makers.
  • Develop retailer-specific strategies based on customer priorities, consumer needs, category insights, competitive positioning, and company capabilities.
  • Lead customer presentations, line reviews, proposals, and negotiations to secure initial purchasing commitments.
  • Maintain a disciplined pipeline with clear prioritization, stages, probabilities, next steps, risks, and expected timing.
• Build Profitable Deals
  • Partner with Merchandising on assortment and pricing, and with Brand Management on promotional plans and retailer commitments.
  • Evaluate opportunities and recommend tradeoffs based on revenue potential, profitability, strategic value, operational demands, and risk.
  • Lead commercial negotiations and drive contracting process from initial term discussions through agreement execution, including payment terms, allowances, returns, freight, promotional commitments, and exclusivity.
  • Work with Legal, Finance, and Operations to assess terms, ensure commitments are executable, and communicate customer requirements to cross-functional partners.
• Launch and Establish New Accounts
  • Own new-account revenue and profitability through the first complete selling and holiday-season cycle; coordinate executable launch plans across functions.
  • Ensure customer expectations, commercial terms, assortment decisions, timelines, and retailer-specific requirements are clearly understood across the company.
  • Build relationships beyond the initial buyer and partner with the Senior Director, National Accounts throughout the cycle to establish continuity.
  • Lead a structured handoff once the business is established, documenting relationships, account history, economics, commitments, customer requirements, risks, and future opportunities.
• Develop New Routes to Market
  • Evaluate and establish relationships in new channels or with brokers or distributors that can accelerate profitable growth.
  • Hold external sales partners accountable for target accounts, pipeline development, and commercial outcomes.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in consumer-product sales, including 5+ years directly responsible for national retail sales.
• A proven record of personally opening significant new national retail accounts, with current access to major U.S. retail decision makers, particularly in mass, club, and home improvement.
• Experience taking new business from initial access through negotiation, contracting, launch, and early account development.
• Deep knowledge of retailer buying processes, line reviews, assortment planning, promotions, and complex commercial negotiations.
• Strong commercial and financial judgment, including evaluating revenue, margin, terms, inventory exposure, and operational complexity.
• Ability to turn consumer, category, and competitive insights into persuasive selling strategies, supported by strong presentation and relationship-building skills.
• Proven initiative, persistence, and accountability through long selling cycles.
• Ability to lead cross-functional initiatives through influence without relying on formal authority or a large team.

Preferred Experience

• Direct selling experience with Costco, Walmart, and/or The Home Depot is strongly preferred.
• Experience in seasonal, home, décor, lighting, toys, hardware, consumer electronics, consumer durables, or other relevant consumer-product categories.
• Experience developing distributor or broker relationships or large international retail accounts.
• Experience with licensed or nationally recognized consumer brands.
• Experience working in a growing business where sales leaders combine strategic thinking with hands-on execution.
• Category experience is valued, but demonstrated retailer access, commercial judgment, and a track record of opening new accounts are more important.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation, including a cash-based incentive plan; salary is reviewed yearly and may be adjusted as part of the normal compensation review process.
• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage, with 100% of monthly premiums covered for team members, and 85%+ employer-paid premiums for other coverage tiers that include dependents.
• Up to $2,000 annual funding toward HSA accounts.
• Medical, transit, dependent care FSA.
• Infertility coverage offered on all medical plans.
• Generous parental leave program and flexible return options.
• Company-paid life and AD&D insurance.
• Company-paid short and long-term disability insurance.
• 401(k) with dollar-for-dollar company match up to $4,000 per calendar year.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and other mental health and wellness perks.
• Paid holidays, annual shutdown week, PTO, and volunteer time-off (VTO) packages.
• Paid 5-week sabbatical leave after 10 years of employment.
• Annual continuous learning benefit up to $1,000 per person, per fiscal year.
• Up to $300 flexible reimbursement to support setup of new team member's work-from-home environment.
• Generous team member merchandise discount.
• Valuable extras: identity theft protection, subsidized parking, monthly wellness, pet insurance, accident & critical illness insurance.