ALTRA – LIVE THE BRAND

Founded in 2009, Altra Running is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It all started when Golden Harper started cutting up and reconfiguring existing running shoes in hopes of designing something better. Along with co-founders, Brian Beckstead, Jeremy Howlett and Quirl Jacob Hansen, he came up with the idea for a “Zero Drop" shoe, meaning that the goal was to create shoes that lacked a height differential between the heel and toe area. When you consider that many of today's athletic shoes pad the heel so much that they resemble high heels, this was a revolutionary idea! When no companies expressed interest in the design, the foursome partnered with Pulse Labs (an engineering firm at Brigham Young University), contracted manufacturers in Asia and launched Altra Footwear on their own. The name “Altra" is derived from the Latin word “altera," which means “to fix or mend something that is broken."

GENERAL SUMMARY

The Trade Marketing Coordinator is responsible for driving brand awareness, demand and advocacy for Altra with retail partners and local communities. He/she will drive and support topline sales through product knowledge education, brand merchandising standards, Trade Marketing initiatives, effective account communication and building of strong account partnerships. He/she will lead a team of Tech Reps based in key markets to expand adoption and maximise sales for Altra. This includes developing a training program with the Tech Reps to raise product expertise across retail store staff and T-Red ambassadors, leading sell-in presentations and elevating the quality of Altra’s brand experience in the stores.

This position will continually work cross-functionally with internal teams and external agencies to relay feedback and partner on key initiatives throughout each season.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage a team of Tech Reps based in key markets to drive brand awareness and adoption in each designated territory through regular store visits, partnership development, and impactful communication
• Arrange comprehensive travel plans for the Tech Reps team, designed to provide regular and frequent store coverage, on a tiered basis, of all account doors.
• Implement Visual Merchandising strategies and incentives to drive and support the Wholesale business based on daily sales analysis, marketing initiatives and seasonal objectives
• Develop the staff training program with Tech Reps to conduct training sessions for retail partners, both formal and informal ensuring that all staff are fully conversant with the features and benefits of the relevant Altra product range and to ensure that they are motivated to sell those products. This will include both instore and ‘on the hill training’
• Become the internal product expert on Brand technologies within the team, raising standards and levels of expertise throughout the organisation including the Sales Representatives and their specialty account base. 
• Effectively communicate and demonstrate visual presentation standards to Wholesale accounts
• Host and execute seasonal product knowledge sessions that motivate, train and engage store associates and internal teams alike
• Act as a leader in product knowledge with a commitment to providing ongoing education to wholesale account partners
• Manage the performance of Designated Sales Associates in key account partnering with the Account Managers
• Analyse financial metrics, inventory levels and style sell-through to proactively identify opportunities by door and communicate it to the Account Managers
• Timely and effectively communicate product feedback, style selling, product assortment analysis, reorder requests and competitive information to internal cross functional partners in Sales and Planning departments
• Effectively manage individual travel and expense budget
• Participate in seasonal showroom flips and ongoing maintenance of selling space
• Partner closely with Store Development on Shop in Shop execution and maintenance
• Build excellent instore relationships to ensure product is displayed in the best position & to ensure retail presentation is of a high standard. This includes the implementation of trade marketing initiatives and ensuring the accuracy and quality of ALTRA’s POS materials.
• Provide quality feedback to the Sales manager and Sales Reps on customer and market data in order to aid account management and sales presentations.
• Provide support to the customer’s sales and marketing activities. This includes staffing events including tent shows, store openings and, on occasions, key selling periods.
• Manage and co-ordinate the set-up, organisation and smooth running of the showroom for each selling season. This will be a fully comprehensive task requiring everything from design and theme input, physical preparation and installation of the showroom, full sample management, presentation support and provision supply.
• Effective and commercially successful management of the specified geographical region for the B2B accounts , critically achieving the key financial targets set on an annual and seasonal basis.   

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES

• Experience: Retail experience essential, preferably from within the running and outdoor sector. Experience in events, trade marketing or staff training desirable.
• Fluency in English is mandatory, any other European language would be a valuable asset (French/German)
• Ability to be flexible and react to the everchanging needs of the business
• Ability to create and abide by an autonomous schedule
• Experience in public speaking an asset
• Team player with a key understanding of cross functional partnerships both internally and externally
• Embraces continuous improvement by proposing new and/or efficient processes and procedures
• Creative thinker with the ability to influence others
• Strong understanding of retail sales analysis
• Awareness of weekly top door and overall territory sales trends
• Knowledge of visual merchandising techniques and practices
• Strong organizational skills