Account Services Lead

Advanta is a global seed business adapting to rapidly increasing food insecurity and climate change by providing farmers with innovation and new technologies. As part of UPL Group, Advanta aims to deliver high quality seeds with excellent agronomic practices and crop protection solutions. Advanta operates in over 80 countries under global brands of Advanta, Alta and Pacific Seeds. Advanta holds a leadership position in tropical and sub-tropical geographies in corn, grain and forage sorghum, sunflower, canola, rice, and a variety of vegetables. With over 60 years' experience in plant genetics, Advanta provides seeds technology that ensures crop performance and farmers prosperity.

The Customer/Account Services Manager is a key role supporting the US sales and finance team.  This role actively contributes to sales team competitiveness through sales planning, order placement, and account service after products have been delivered. Reporting to the CFO and supporting the Director of Sales & Marketing, this role requires coordination, teamwork, cross functional collaboration, distribution and customers interaction, and a high level of self-initiative.  The position is a hybrid role based out of College Station, TX with the option to work remote 2-3 per/week.  

Responsibilities:
•    Assist with order entry and processing (sales order entry, modification and follow-up, invoicing, inter-party transfers and master data management) utilizing SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software
•    Respond to customer account and sales inquiries in a timely, accurate, and appropriate manner
•    Assists field sales staff with product forecast, sales reporting, and budget preparation
•    Assist sales team with inaccurate customer pricing and quickly resolve any inquires or concerns
•    Prepare standard use and sales reports as well as other custom reports requested by management, sales, and customer
•    Coordinate with commercial planner to ensure sales order management and invoicing is aligned with sales demand plan
•    Collaborate with credit manager to ensure customer credit approvals so sales orders can be released and shipped 
•    Align with supply planner to ensure inventroy availability and QA testing has been completed before shipments.
•    Collaborate with the sales team regarding order information, customer data and related issues.
•    Creation of reports from SAP and other data sources for tracking re-invoicing, account registration, inventory control, and return management. 
•    Construction of a management dashboard that can integrate the main activities to be able to track and report to the team.
•    Administrative management of the services contracted by the commercial team, from purchase orders entry into SAP, follow-up, relationship with suppliers, and connection with accounts payable.
•    Assist Sales Team in annual budget preparation and monthly budget vs. actual reports
•    All other duties as assigned 

Requirements:
•    Associate degree in business or related field required, bachelor’s degree preferred
•    1-3 years’ experience working in a sales or sales support role
•    Proficient skills in Microsoft productivity applications
•    Experience with business ERP software, preferably SAP 

Skills & Competencies:
•    Strong interpersonal and effective communication skills (verbal, written and utilizing all media (phone, e-mail, text) 
•    Ability to effectively interact with customers and fellow employees
•    Positive and professional working relationship with peers, management and support resources, with a constant commitment to teamwork and exemplary customer service
•    Problem solving and customer service skills.
•    Practical organization skills with strong attention to detail along with the ability to multi-task and prioritize multiple assignments
•    Ability to respond professionally to common inquiries or complaints from sales staff and other employees, customers, regulatory agencies, suppliers, etc.

We are one team, for maximum impact. One team with shared goals. We all play for the team and no one plays against the team. We have a laser-like focus on what our customers need and want, on anticipating their future needs and on how we can create innovative solutions and experiences for them.

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