Market Development Contractor - Chicago

About the role

We are seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial Market Development Contractor to drive sales growth and expand our presence across an assigned territory. This is a hands‑on, field‑based sales role focused on hunting new business – identifying opportunities, opening new accounts, securing distribution, and turning prospects into measurable sales. Success is measured by new accounts opened, new distribution gained, pipeline activity, sales growth, account expansion, and execution against agreed‑upon territory goals. The contractor will operate with a high degree of autonomy, managing their territory, developing prospecting strategies, generating new business, growing accounts, and achieving sales objectives while reporting to the Regional Sales Manager.

Responsibilities

• Aggressively prospect for new retail, on‑premise, and other qualified accounts throughout the assigned territory.
• Spend the majority of field time identifying and pursuing new business rather than simply servicing existing accounts.
• Build a consistent prospecting routine using in‑person cold calls, territory canvassing, phone and email outreach, referrals, networking, distributor relationships, and market research.
• Identify owners, buyers, managers, and other decision‑makers and create opportunities to present our brands.
• Conduct compelling sales presentations, communicate product value and differentiation, overcome objections, negotiate opportunities, and ask for the sale.
• Open new accounts and secure initial orders, new placements, and expanded distribution.
• Build and maintain a healthy, qualified pipeline with clear next steps and disciplined follow‑up.
• Develop a territory route and prospecting strategy that maximizes productive selling time and new‑account coverage.
• Take ownership of individual sales goals and proactively create the activity necessary to meet or exceed them.
• Build credible relationships with account owners, buyers, managers, and key decision‑makers.
• Maintain existing accounts while continually looking for incremental sales opportunities.
• Develop account‑specific growth plans based on customer needs, sales performance, and account potential.
• Identify opportunities to increase SKU count, order frequency, average order size, displays, shelf or cooler placement, distribution, and promotional activity.
• Regularly visit accounts to identify opportunities, solve issues, strengthen relationships, and drive incremental sales.
• Monitor account performance and use available sales data and market insights to identify areas for growth.
• Pre‑plan account visits with clear objectives, selling opportunities, and desired outcomes.
• Work closely with distributor partners and sales representatives to identify new doors, improve selling, expand distribution, and execute against opportunities.
• Ensure products are properly represented, priced, positioned, and available within active accounts.
• Represent the brand professionally during account visits, distributor work‑withs, retail events, tastings, and other approved market activities.
• Educate buyers, retailers, staff, and consumers on product benefits, positioning, and points of differentiation.
• Complete merchandising, sampling, promotional, or other field‑support duties when they directly support sales and account development.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the assigned market, including priority accounts, competitive brands, pricing, promotions, emerging trends, and whitespace opportunities.
• Identify new channels, neighborhoods, account types, and market opportunities that can contribute to sales growth.
• Maintain accurate and timely CRM records for prospects, account visits, opportunities, follow‑ups, account plans, and results.
• Track prospects through the sales process and consistently follow up on open opportunities and customer commitments.
• Report new accounts opened, pipeline status, sales progress, market feedback, competitive intelligence, and challenges to the Regional Sales Manager.
• Track performance against agreed‑upon activity and sales goals and adjust territory strategy as needed.
• Participate in sales meetings, training, distributor meetings, events, and other business activities as appropriate.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of sales growth, market development, and company objectives.

Requirements

• This is an independent contractor opportunity focused primarily on new business development, field sales, and market development.
• The contractor is responsible for managing their territory, developing and executing a prospecting strategy, generating new business, growing accounts, and achieving agreed‑upon sales objectives.
• The contractor is expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy and take personal ownership of activity, pipeline development, territory coverage, and sales performance.