Training & Development Specialist - Wholesale Operations

JOB SUMMARY:

Drives Wholesale sales, service levels, and brand awareness within assigned territory by educating, training, and developing wholesale account associates. Forges business relationships with account management teams, including Area Managers, Store Managers, District Managers, and Buying teams, as well as with internal stakeholders, including Wholesale, Visual, and Retail Operations teams.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING:

• Store Visits: Develop and follow store visit cadence strategy to maximize sales and minimize travel expenses.

• Compile store visit reports and review visit metrics with account management teams as a prescriptive roadmap for driving sales, customer service, brand awareness, and increased penetration of James Avery to their total business.

• Resolve issues while in store and train associates & department managers to ensure issues to not reoccur.

• District Business Analysis: Partner with Retail Management teams and speak to opportunities to further drive district sales and inventory turn.

• Focus on resolving sawtooth performance within districts.

• Review penetration to jewelry for missed opportunity.

• Assess behavioral metrics (newness ST%, clienteling, certifications, and Specialist dashboard metrics) to develop hypotheses on what is driving store trends.

• Training & Development: Deliver training, coaching, and ongoing support to account associates and management teams.

• Achieve shipment goals and account retail sales plans.

• Deliver consistent brand messaging and standards across points of distribution.

• Improve service levels and exhibit brand-defining behavior.

• Grow items per customer (IPC) metrics to 2.0 or higher in stores covered.

• Develop associate confidence and competency in use of service equipment and understanding of the brand and product.

• Assist account teams in acquiring new customers through clienteling.

• Build brand awareness in wholesale markets, particularly outside of James Avery's core retail footprint.

• Lead Retail Management training seminars to provide account Store Managers brand direction, trends, and opportunities and to increase "mindshare" within their organization.

• Provide ongoing feedback and insights to the Wholesale Visual, Creative & Training Manager and Field Team Supervisor to enhance training effectiveness, associate engagement, and operational excellence.

• Visual Merchandising: Ensure proper and consistent execution of brand visual merchandising standards at point of sale.

• Implement and train associates how to follow visual merchandising directives and plan-o-guides.

• Take and share before/after photos, and work with graphics applications when needed.

• Spearhead shop-in-shop and new store setups within territory and assist colleagues in implementing shop-in-shop and new store setups in their territories.

• Competitive Review: Review competitors to drive improvements to assortments, training, branding or merchandising.

• Administrative: Provide general administrative support related to the wholesale sales channel.

• Prepare Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents as needed and presents to internal and external stakeholders.

• Complete expense reports prior to the close of each month.

• Track store deliveries to and from DC/Corporate offices.

• Collect photos of tests being executed in select stores.

WHAT IS REQUIRED:

• Bachelor's Degree in sales, marketing or related field; or equivalent combination of education and/or experience.
• 1 year experience in retail leadership.
• Demonstrates exceptional interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, with proven experience presenting to and engaging effectively with stakeholders at all organizational levels.
• Demonstrates effective leadership and collaboration skills, with the ability to build positive business partnerships and maintain a positive demeanor in challenging situations.
• Experience working in a dynamic fast-paced environment, while maintaining effective problem-solving, organizational and time management skills.
• Ability to learn new systems used to support Sales & Marketing activities.
• Basic proficiency with Microsoft (MS) Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• Basic proficiency with Excel: spreadsheet input, add/subtract/multiple/divide; sum; insert and delete rows/columns.
• Must reside within assigned territory near a national airport and within 20 miles of at least one wholesale account.
• Ability to travel up to 80%+ with overnight stays (Monday through Thursday).
• Ability to work on key retail holidays or events as business need requires

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• 1 year experience as a James Avery Assistant Store Manager or comparable experience within another retailer.
• Fashion conscious, familiar with fashion market trends and styles.
• Solid understanding of retail math with ability to utilize sales metrics to draw conclusions and develop action plans.
• Experience working with budgets and expense reconciliation.
• Intermediate proficiency with PowerPoint with experience building and presenting presentations.
• Intermediate or advanced Excel proficiency: spreadsheet design and linking; data sorting; advanced formulas such as nest if/then, min/max, Average, Count; pivot tables; and charts.
• Ability to relocate preferred as Wholesale business grows.