Business Development Manager, Hospitality (United States)

About the role

Working at Freudenberg: We will wow your world!

Responsibilities

• Develop, refine, and execute the U.S. Hospitality market-entry strategy, defining the priority segments, customer targets, value proposition, portfolio requirements, routes to market, and commercial approach needed to establish Vileda Professional in Hospitality.
• Leverage established relationships and industry contacts to accelerate market entry, opening doors with key decision-makers across luxury and upper-upscale hotels, resorts, cruise lines, hospitality management companies, ownership groups, and other strategic end users.
• Secure initial strategic end-user partnerships and reference customers that validate the Vileda Professional offering, demonstrate customer value, and create a foundation for broader market expansion.
• Establish the optimal Hospitality product portfolio and solution offering, translating customer and market needs into clear portfolio priorities and work cross-functionally to address product, application, and solution gaps.
• Develop and secure the strategic distribution partnerships required to scale the business, establishing the distribution model, partner roles, and commercial approach needed to support key end-user relationships and future geographic expansion.
• Lead the initial business-development cycle from opportunity identification through conversion, including customer engagement, product trials, value demonstration, business cases, pricing, negotiation, implementation, and initial account development.
• Build a repeatable and scalable commercial model for Hospitality, developing the account approach, distributor engagement model, pipeline methodology, customer segmentation, and sales processes that can ultimately be transferred to and executed by an expanded sales organization.
• Create the foundation for the future U.S. Hospitality sales organization, generating sufficient market knowledge, customer relationships, distribution infrastructure, pipeline, and proven business opportunities to support the addition of dedicated sales resources and long-term profitable growth.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of proven business development experience within the U.S. Hospitality market, ideally serving luxury and upper-upscale hotels, resorts, cruise lines, hospitality management companies, ownership groups, or related multi-site customers.
• Home office located within 1 hour of an international airport as well as near Primary Hospitality Hubs including: Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Houston/Galveston, or Las Vegas.
• Willingness to travel an estimated 45-60%.
• Established network of hospitality industry relationships, with demonstrated access to corporate and property-level decision-makers in housekeeping, operations, procurement, sustainability, and executive leadership.
• Demonstrated success developing new markets, channels, or business segments, with the ability to move from market assessment and strategy development into customer acquisition and commercial execution.
• Strong understanding of hospitality operations and customer needs, particularly housekeeping productivity, labor optimization, cleanliness, sustainability, guest experience, and cost management.
• Experience building and managing strategic distributor or channel partnerships, with an understanding of how to generate end-user demand while enabling distribution partners to support and scale customer relationships.
• Strong commercial and strategic capability, including opportunity assessment, business-case and ROI development, pricing, negotiation, portfolio prioritization, pipeline management, forecasting, and profitable growth planning.
• Entrepreneurial, highly autonomous business builder with a strong hunter mentality, comfortable operating with limited existing infrastructure and taking ownership from concept through initial commercial success.
• Ability to build for scale, not simply sell individually, with the leadership, collaboration, communication, and organizational skills to establish the processes, partnerships, customer base, and commercial foundation that a future Hospitality sales team can successfully execute against.

Pay and benefits

The expected annual base salary range for this position is $110,000-$130,000 USD. Compensation for this position will be determined by the candidate's qualifications, experience, education, and overall alignment with the role's responsibilities.

Freudenberg Household Products LP (USA)