Now Hiring - Green Plains - CST (Clean Sugar Technology) Business Development Lead in Omaha, NE

Summary:

The CST™ Business Development Lead position is directly responsible for “Telling” our story in the marketplace and providing a go-to point of contact for the customer relationship. The Business Development Lead is accountable for the development and management of a strong sales pipeline, targeted towards existing customers, new customers, and new markets under the supervision of the CST™ leadership.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Create, advance, and refine short-term and long-term sales plan to achieve aggressive growth and profitability targets for the deployment of clean sugar technology™.
• As the critical point of contact, develop and maintain strong relationships across various functions and at different levels (including the C-Suite) within the targeted customer organizations.
• Continually monitor, build, and enhance sales activities that enrich Green Plain’s profile and position within the bio-industrial, bio-chemical, synthetic biology and food industries.
• Engage with potential customers and business partners through frequent virtual and direct meetings, conferences, and industry association events.
• Communicate effectively to all levels of the organization to ensure commercial activities and priorities are clearly understood by all.
• Engage in market research activities to analyze customer segmentation and identify new opportunities.
• Develop broad industry intelligence and understanding of customer’s unmet needs.
• Build, develop, and lead a portfolio of customer focused projects to meet and exceed aggressive growth goals of the clean sugar pillar.
• Build and maintain a strong understanding of the competitive landscape and emerging trends in the target segments and industries.
• Continually develop and refine the value proposition, product positioning, branding, customer segmentation, and approach to focus sales efforts in maximizing sustainable returns.
• Lead the creation of marketing materials including print, online, electronic media, and direct mail needed to support telling the story.
• Prepare any commercial documents needed to advance the sales pipeline and close the sale (e.g., sales contracts, pricing proposals, letters of intent, presentations).
• Assist CST™ leadership in building a strong commercial foundation for the business case of future capital investments.
• Utilize Salesforce.com to capture key information related to the customer (e.g., key contacts, product demand (volume and product type), unmet needs), status of projects/opportunities, along with competitive insights.

Skills and Experiences:

The successful Business Development Lead candidate will have/be:

• Ability to offer customers a unique perspective in identifying their unmet needs.
• Excellent two-way communication (verbal and written) and be articulate in presenting to clients and executives.
• Strong business acumen and ability to understand the customer’s value and economic drivers.
• A challenger sales mentality in leading customers through the buying process and educating them on value.
• Experience in selling raw material/inputs into the bio-industrial, bio-chemical, synthetic biology and food industries.
• A deep understanding of product positioning especially messaging around life-cycle analysis and sustainability.
• Capability to uncover unmet needs and translate into actionable tasks to bring unique, sustainable solutions back to the customer.
• The voice of the customer within the organization and advocate for critical resources to work towards filling the customer’s unmet needs.
• 5+ years of professional business development and commercial sales experience, ideally in the targeted industries.
• An established and strong relationship network within the bio-industrial, biochemical, and synthetic biology industries that can be utilized to quickly generate new opportunities/leads.

Travel: Travel of 50%+ is expected.

Education: Position requires a four-year college degree from an accredited college or university, preferably in a technical discipline, and/or comparable industry experience.

Location: Cedar Rapids, IA office/Omaha, NE office/remote may be allowable

We offer competitive pay: a generous benefit package including business casual work environment, health, dental, vision, life insurance, paid holidays, Paid Time Off (PTO) and a 401(k) retirement plan with immediate vesting and company safe harbor matching. All potential employees of will be required to successfully pass a pre-employment drug screening and background check prior to employment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Other duties may be assigned.

Green Plains Inc.

Green Plains Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE) is a leading biorefining company focused on the development and utilization of fermentation, agricultural and biological technologies in the processing of annually renewable crops into sustainable value-added ingredients. This includes the production of cleaner low carbon biofuels, renewable feedstocks for advanced biofuels and high purity alcohols for use in cleaners and disinfectants. Green Plains is an innovative producer of Ultra-High Protein and novel ingredients for animal and aquaculture diets to help satisfy a growing global appetite for sustainable protein. The Company also owns a 48.9% limited partner interest and a 2.0% general partner interest in Green Plains Partners LP.