GM of Retail

Smalls is seeking a seasoned GM of Retail Sales to lead our expansion into physical retail. You’ll report to our Chief Revenue Officer, working closely with the Executive and Retail teams to drive the strategic direction and efficient, profitable operations of this key growth channel.

As the GM of Retail, you will leverage your deep knowledge of the Pet retail landscape and your exceptional commercial instincts to set the strategy for one of our biggest company growth levers. Your knowledge of the channel dynamics will help you determine the retail channels with the best customer fit, scale, and margin dynamics to maximize the potential of the channel. You will fully own the retail P&L, setting and achieving ambitious targets for profitable growth.

You will also be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the retail business, overseeing the sales team and collaborating with cross-functional partners to impact merchandising roadmaps, optimize the retail supply chain, and ensure a smooth and brand right onboarding for all new retail partners.

What You’ll Do:

• Set the strategic vision for the Retail channel, developing a strong business case for future expansion opportunities.

  • Develop our retail vision, strategy, and roadmap, utilizing your deep channel knowledge as well as market, competitive, and sales data to set the plan for expansion beyond an indy retail pilot.

  • Analyze market trends, retailer feedback, and customer behavior to identify opportunities for growth and improvement.

• Own the Retail P&L, setting ambitious goals and plans to achieve them.

  • Build and own the channel P&L, budgets, resources and staffing forecasts.

  • Set performance metrics and targets for the retail business and the sales team, monitoring performance against targets and consistently identifying opportunities for improvement.

  • Utilize qualitative and quantitative data to understand what really moves the needle to improve channel performance across drivers like sell in strategy, inventory, merchandising, and retail marketing.

  • Oversee budgets, forecasting, and cost controls to meet profitability targets and ensure financial goals are met.

• Lead a cross-functional roadmap across Retail Sales, Merchandising, Innovation, and Marketing to achieve excellent retail sell-through.

  • Set the distribution strategy for our independent pet retail expansion.

  • Utilize your deep knowledge of the channel to develop a retail sell-through playbook, utilizing both innovative and tried-and-true tactics across pricing, promotions, and in-store merchandising.

  • Operate as the retail channel merchant, constantly providing feedback to the Innovation team on how the assortment, packaging, and price point could better serve the retail customer.

  • Leverage customer insights and retailer feedback to continuously refine and improve the assortment and the in-store experience.

• Drive operational excellence in our Retail channel, partnering with teams across the org to grow sales, reduce costs, and improve operational efficiency.

  • Partner with key cross-functional teams across Operations, Product & Engineering, and Merchandising to build and implement a comprehensive plan to efficiently support retail strategy.

  • Establish best practices in retail operations and processes, driving efficiency and ensuring compliance with brand standards, health & safety standards, and legal requirements.

  • Develop strong relationships with all relevant functions to ensure retail is being adequately and effectively served by teams that may not always have brick and mortar top of mind; holding leadership and their teams accountable for retail centric deliverables.

  • Oversee Retail inventory management processes.

• Design an efficient and effective Retail org that scales to support channel growth.

  • Develop the vision for a future org that scales with the business.

  • Act as a mentor and coach to Retail Sales team leaders, enabling them to effectively lead their teams and meet performance goals.

  • Promote a culture of accountability and figure-it-out-ness to meet or exceed goals related to retail.

What we’ll love about you:

You have 15+ years of experience or equivalent. You bring a strong background in retail sales & channel leadership, specifically in pet specialty. You have owned a Retail P&L and have a proven track record of exceeding aggressive top and bottom line targets.

You know the pet retail landscape like the back of your hand. You know the key players and accounts and understand what really moves the needle on performance. You have a strong playbook based on what you’ve seen work in the past, but also use your well honed gut to come up with new ideas to stand out on shelf.

You love setting and achieving ambitious goals. You are motivated by a challenge and will lead with a “do what it takes” attitude to drive results.

You are commercially-minded and strategic. You think about business outcomes and know how to develop channel strategies that drive revenue and boost margins.

You’re a thinker and a doer. You are experienced enough to lead a team and set the vision, but you still enjoy diving into the details and directly contributing to execution. You bring a desire to get things done and drive impact above all else.

You’re a people person. You love joining in on sales calls and are easy to build rapport and camaraderie with.

You thrive in ambiguity. You know how established players run Retail well, but aren’t afraid to have to build the systems and processes in a fast-paced start up environment.

You’re a cat person. You have a passion for cats and the cat community. You’re excited about developing products that enhance the lives of cats and their owners, and you understand how to engage with this audience.

What you’ll love about us:

• Mission-Driven Company: We love cats and we're here to make nine lives ten.

• People-Driven Company: We treat our people like people; we're committed to Smalls, and we work hard but also respect everyone’s lives outside of work.

• Data-Driven Culture: We love using data to guide decision-making where appropriate, but we also know when to move quickly and go with our gut.

• Competitive Salary: Make some $$$.

• Very Competitive Benefits: Fully paid Health, Vision, and Dental insurance. 4-day work week. Unlimited PTO.

• Fully Remote Office & Culture: Our team is spread across the US day to day, but we travel for department & company off-sites and retreats.

• Free Product: Free cat food every month.