District Sales Manager
About the job
- High school education is required.
- A bachelor's degree in a related field, such as business administration, or equivalent relevant industry experience is required.
- At least 2 years of experience successfully growing profitable sales in the foodservice industry is required.
- Interpersonal skills and the ability to work with a variety of stakeholders are required.
- The ability to derive insights through probing questions and collaborative problem-solving is required.
- Organizational and project management skills, including the ability to execute multiple initiatives autonomously, are required.
- The ability to use Sysco's proprietary Customer Relationship Management tool for planning and forecasting sales growth is required.
- Mastery of consultative selling, marketing principles, prospecting, networking, coaching, and negotiations is required.
- The ability to coach, counsel, train, and direct associates is required.
- The ability to supervise and motivate others is required.
- The ability to write reports and business correspondence is required.
- The ability to develop new business, penetrate existing accounts, minimize lost business, and achieve profitable sales growth and territory objectives is required.
- The ability to seek and qualify prospects under company account stratification goals is required.
- The ability to research customer business needs and develop an appropriate mix of products and services is required.
- The ability to evaluate market trends and recommend products based on customer business needs and goals is required.
- Knowledge of market conditions, product innovations, and competitors' products, prices, and sales is required.
- The ability to answer customer questions about products, prices, availability, and product use is required.
- The ability to provide product information and practical training to customer personnel is required.
- The ability to communicate and collect accounts receivable as necessary, working with the credit department and clients, and collect balances due under approved credit terms is required.
- The ability to manage deliveries according to the transportation department's published routing schedule is required.
- The ability to troubleshoot order-process problems, including out-of-stock items, special orders, and low inventory, is required.
- The ability to participate in company functions, promotions, customer visits, and customer events is required.
- The ability to attend and participate in general sales and district meetings is required.
- The ability to review and analyze daily and weekly reports, including special order requests, customer bid files, and sales and gross profit margin data, is required.
- The ability to prepare sales budgets and reports, maintain sales records, process credits and pickup requests, prepare sales quotes and menu suggestions, and file reports is required.
- The ability to participate in ongoing training sessions is required.
- Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States.
- Manage the performance and development of Sales Consultants within the district.
- Conduct an average of 3–5 Sales Consultant work-withs per week to provide one-on-one coaching and direction.
- Lead and facilitate Friday district meetings to educate, inspire, and drive behavior changes that support sales.
- Lead customer engagement efforts by enabling Sales Consultants to provide customers with expanded service-channel options, including technology enablers, value-added services, and team selling.
- Maintain a continuous-improvement focus on technology, sales skills, soft skills, and product knowledge.
- Leverage Sales Support resources and tools to maximize Sales Consultants' consultative time.
- Use the Customer Relationship Management tool to manage Sales Consultants' sales planning, prospecting, and daily customer engagement, and expect productive utilization of Sysco 360 by Sales Consultants.
- Deliver Sysco brand results and directly manage conversion opportunities within the district.
- Support and promote national campaigns and promotions.
- Provide coaching, training, and timely feedback to develop Sales Consultants' consultative selling skills using The Sysco Way to Sell.
- Use the CMP and QPP processes to coach the performance of sales colleagues in the district.
- Execute territory planning and management.
- Build independent relationships with top customers and high-value prospects.
- Champion company initiatives and implement center-led strategy within the district.
- Perform additional sales-management and operational duties, including customer relationship management.
- Assist with training new employees as requested.
- At least 5 years of foodservice sales experience is preferred.
About the company
Sysco buys, stores and delivers food, kitchen supplies and equipment to restaurants, hospitals, schools, hotels and other businesses that cook away from home. Alongside national brands, it sells its own Sysco Brand line of foods and supplies, which fills a large share of the cases it ships. Its biggest product groups are fresh and frozen meats, canned and dry goods, and frozen produce and baked goods. Customers order through Sysco sales representatives or online, and Sysco delivers from distribution centers across North America and Europe, earning money on the difference between what it pays suppliers and what customers pay for delivered goods. Sysco was founded in 1969, began public operations in 1970 and is based in Houston, Texas.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Houston, Texas
Founded
1969
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Growth is set to speed up: in August 2026 Sysco forecast 6% to 7% sales growth for fiscal 2027.
- Jobs rest on a steady base: Sysco posted record sales of $84.6 billion in the year to June 2026.
- Warehouse staff have a path up: Sysco pays for in-house truck-license training and offers graduates driver jobs.
What critics are saying
- Debt is ballooning: by October 2026 Sysco had raised $25.65 billion in stock, bonds and loans to buy Restaurant Depot.
- Stock grants lose a prop: Sysco paused share buybacks in March 2026 to pay down debt from the deal.
- Labor friction is real: 500-plus Sysco drivers and warehouse workers in Chicago and Montana authorized a strike in February 2026.
What makes Sysco unique
- Sysco's own labels carry weight: Sysco Brand filled 35.5% of cases shipped by its main US delivery arm in mid-2026.
- Sysco is entering warehouse stores: in March 2026 it agreed to buy Restaurant Depot, with 167 stores in 35 states.
- Sysco works far beyond the US: about 23,000 of its 75,000 employees were based abroad in June 2026.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
401(k) Company Match
Professional Development Budget
Performance Bonus
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
-5%1 year growth
-5%2 year growth
-5%StockStory has named one S&P 500 stock to watch and two to avoid, saying that a place in the index doesn't guarantee a strong business. It advises selling Skyworks Solutions, a chip maker with a $11.52 billion market cap. Sales fell 4.2% annually over the past two years and are projected to stay flat over the next 12 months. Operating profits have dropped over five years, and the stock trades at 13.9x forward P/E. It also steers clear of Sysco, a food distributor worth $38.88 billion. Unit sales growth averaged 0.9% over two years, free cash flow margin is projected to stall, and returns on capital are diminishing. The shares trade at 15.5x forward P/E. Its pick is Lennox, a $12.1 billion heating and cooling company. It has a 17.7% operating margin, a 37.3% return on capital, and a free cash flow margin that rose 8.6 percentage points over five years.
Sysco honored with Southern Smoke Foundation Hall of Flame Award. Recognition celebrates Sysco's longstanding support of Southern Smoke Foundation and its mission to care for food and beverage industry workers. HOUSTON, Oct. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Sysco Corporation, the global leader in foodservice distribution, is honored to announce it has been named a 2026 recipient of the Southern Smoke Foundation Hall of Flame Award, recognizing the company's longstanding support of food and beverage industry workers through financial contributions and product donations. Southern Smoke Foundation works to create a healthier and more sustainable food and beverage industry by providing emergency relief funding and access to mental health services for industry workers. The award recognizes Sysco's financial and product donations that help fund emergency relief and expand access to mental health services for hospitality workers across the food and beverage industry. "Sysco is honored to receive this recognition from Southern Smoke Foundation and proud to stand alongside them as they care for the people who make our industry what it is," said April Love, Sysco's vice president, chief inclusion & community impact officer. "This partnership is a meaningful expression of our Purpose of Connecting the World to Share Food and Care for One Another, and we're grateful to support an organization that shows up for food and beverage workers when they need it most." Sysco was honored Saturday evening at the annual Southern Smoke Festival in Houston, where the foundation brings together chefs, restaurants, partners and supporters to raise funds and awareness for their mission. "We established the SSF Hall of Flame Award in 2022 to recognize corporate partners and individuals who have contributed in a meaningful way to our organization," said Lindsey Brown, executive director and co-founder of the James Beard award-winning Southern Smoke Foundation. "Sysco has been such a large supporter of SSF for years - both financially and with product donations - that we're so happy to honor them as one of our Hall of Flame recipients this year." About Sysco Sysco is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food and related products to customers who prepare meals away from home. This includes restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments, entertainment venues, and more. Sysco operates 333 distribution centers, in 10 countries, with 75,000 colleagues serving approximately 670,000 customer locations. The company generated sales of more than $84 billion in fiscal year 2026 that ended June 27, 2026. As the world's largest food-away-from-home distributor, Sysco offers customized supply chain solutions, bespoke specialty product offerings, and culinary support to drive customers to innovate and optimize their operations. Sustainable Agriculture Today act as a trusted business partner to its customers, helping them grow through its industry-leading portfolio that includes fresh produce, premium proteins, specialty products, sustainably focused items, equipment and supplies, and innovative culinary solutions. ABOUT SOUTHERN SMOKE FOUNDATION Founded in 2015 by award-winning chef Chris Shepherd and Executive Director Lindsey Brown, Southern Smoke Foundation provides access to no-cost mental health services through its program, Behind You, and emergency relief funding to food and beverage (F+B) workers nationwide. This includes restaurant, bar, and cafe workers; farmers and ranchers; winemakers, distillers, and brewers; and anyone in the industry faced with financial hardship because of a medical emergency, accident, or other unforeseen incident. Since 2017, the James Beard Foundation Impact Award-winning organization has provided more than $16.9M in emergency relief funds to F&B workers facing crises, and since 2020, has provided access to more than 12,600 no-cost counseling sessions to F+B workers across 14 states and Washington D.C. To support Southern Smoke Foundation or to apply for assistance, visit southernsmoke.org.
Sysco launches Keystone Laundry range for hospitality operators. Sysco has launched Keystone Laundry, a new professional-grade range designed to make on-site laundry simpler, more consistent and more cost-effective for hospitality operators. Created for the realities of busy kitchens, high staff turnover and constant pressure on time, Keystone Laundry is designed to help teams achieve reliable results across loads, fabrics and temperatures. The range covers the core laundry needs of hospitality, including everyday detergents for all-round washing, bio and non-bio options for tougher stains or sensitive environments, and a fresh softener. Jess Mettrick, head of merchandising, said: "Keystone Laundry brings the clarity, consistency and cost control its customers already trust from Keystone into the laundry room. "Operators told us they were dealing with too many products, too many steps and too many re-washes. This range fixes that. It is professional laundry made simple, with one product per task, right-first-time results and routines that work for busy hospitality teams." Keystone Laundry is an extension of the wider Keystone cleaning and hygiene products portfolio, developed in partnership with Ecolab. Published Date: October 4, 2026
CONSCIOUS KITCHEN launches nation's first Organic School Food Purchasing Cooperative. California school districts combine purchasing demand to expand access to organic food, strengthen markets for organic farmers and food makers... California schools serve over a billion meals a year, an extraordinary market. When districts come together and say, 'This is what we want to buy,' farmers, food makers and distributors can respond." - Judi Shils, Founder and Executive Director of Conscious Kitchen. SAUSALITO, CA, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2026 / EINPresswire.com / - What if the enormous purchasing power of California's public schools could be used not only to feed children well, but to help reshape the food system around them? Conscious Kitchen today announced the official launch of the Conscious Organic School Food Purchasing Cooperative (Conscious Co-op), a first-of-its-kind initiative bringing California school districts together to use their collective purchasing demand to make organic food more accessible in school kitchens while creating stronger, more dependable markets for organic farmers and food makers. The Conscious Co-op has partnered with two leading food distributors, UNFI and Sysco, to be the bridge between schools and farms, ranches and food makers. UNFI is a leading distributor of natural and organic foods in North America, and Sysco is the global leader in foodservice distribution. The Co-op also brings together 17 founding school districts serving more than 300,000 students, with the potential to reach far more. Other eligible California school districts can access the Conscious Co-op's contracts through piggybacking, giving them a pathway to Co-op products and pricing without having to conduct their own bid. As participation and purchasing demand grow, the Co-op can continue adding organic products and expanding access to organic food in school meals across California. The launch is being celebrated today at Cavallo Point Lodge in Sausalito, bringing together school nutrition leaders, organic farmers, food makers, distributors, state officials and partners working to create a stronger organic school food system. "Our schools have tremendous purchasing power, and when we harness that power together, we can improve the quality of meals we serve students while strengthening California's food system," said Tony Thurmond, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. "Every student deserves access to fresh, nutritious food at school. The Conscious Co-op is an innovative model for helping districts expand access to organic food, create stronger markets for California farmers and producers, and show what is possible when schools work together at scale." For more than a decade, Conscious Kitchen has worked alongside school districts and across the food system to understand what it takes to move more fresh, local, organic food into school kitchens. Again and again, the opportunity became clear: schools wanted greater access to organic ingredients, while farmers and food makers needed dependable institutional markets. "Schools serve more than a billion meals every year in California. That is an extraordinary market," said Judi Shils, Founder and Executive Director of Conscious Kitchen. "When districts come together and say, 'This is what we want to buy,' farmers, food makers and distributors can respond. The Co-op is about turning the massive purchasing potential of school food budgets into a market that can move organic food at a scale we have never seen before." The Conscious Co-op grew out of years of work helping individual districts source organic food and build relationships across the supply chain. Mt. Diablo Unified School District serves as the lead for the Co-op's grocery bid, working alongside 16 other founding districts and school nutrition leaders who helped shape the model. "There is tremendous expertise inside school nutrition programs across California, but districts have historically had to solve many of the same challenges on their own," said Alex Emmott, Director of Food & Nutrition Services at Mt. Diablo Unified School District. "When we work together, we unlock that expertise, share what we know and create opportunities that would not exist if we did it alone. That's what makes this Co-op so exciting." For Barbara Jellison, who has worked alongside Conscious Kitchen since 2017 in West Contra Costa Unified School District, the Co-op represents the evolution of an idea tested and refined in school kitchens over many years. "We have spent years proving that students will eat and love fresh, organic food and that school kitchens can make it work," said Barbara Jellison, VP of Food Services, West Contra Costa USD. "The next challenge has always been how to make that possible for more districts. The Co-op gives schools a way to take what we have learned and move it to a completely different scale." That scale is already beginning to influence the marketplace. UNFI and Sysco are working with the Co-op to expand the organic products available to participating districts, giving schools access to major distribution networks while giving distributors clearer visibility into the collective demand for organic food. Additional products are expected to be added as the Cooperative grows. "For a distributor, visibility into demand matters," said Steve Brancamp, VP Sales of UNFI. "When districts come together and show us what they need, not for one school, but across a much larger market, we can work differently with suppliers, plan ahead and help create a more reliable pathway for organic products into schools." The Conscious Co-op works hand in hand with Conscious Kitchen's Recipe Project and Conscious Kitchen Recipe Collection, helping connect the meals districts want to serve with the ingredients they need to purchase. The Conscious Co-op builds on Conscious Kitchen's work with 136+ California school districts reaching more than 2.1 million students, alongside organic farmers, ranchers, food makers and distributors throughout the state. The goal is to make California schools a dependable market for organic food, and create a path for schools across the country to do the same. Conscious Co-op Founding Member Districts: Alameda USD, Albany USD, Berkeley USD, Capistrano USD, Cupertino Union SD, Hayward USD, Laguna Beach USD, Lagunitas Elementary SD, Mt. Diablo USD, North Monterey County USD, Pajaro Valley USD, San Leandro USD, San Ramon Valley USD, Santa Clara USD, Sausalito Marin City SD, Tahoe-Truckee USD, West Contra Costa USD. ABOUT CONSCIOUS KITCHEN Founded in 2013, Conscious Kitchen partners with school nutrition leaders, organic farmers, ranchers, food makers, distributors, chefs and educators to make fresh, local, organic meals accessible to every student. Agriculture Industry Today build on what's already working in schools, strengthening procurement, recipes, farmer partnerships, distribution and kitchen operations to make organic school food achievable and scalable. To learn more about Conscious Kitchen, visit consciouskitchen.org. Meredith Soden Conscious Kitchen [email protected] Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. Agriculture Industry Today do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Sysco launches online tool to support customers with sustainable sourcing. Sysco GB has launched One Planet One Table, a new proposition designed to help foodservice operators make menu decisions supported by sustainability certifications. Developed in partnership with global sustainability firm Quantis, the initiative highlights products that carry robust, product-specific, third-party sustainability certifications. Customers can shop for these products through a dedicated One Planet One Table page and filter on the Brakes website. Certifications have been assessed against strict criteria including independent auditing, open enrolment, product-level traceability, rigorous standards and relevance to Sysco's material environmental and social topics. Only those that meet these requirements have been included, spanning globally recognised schemes including MSC, ASC, Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, RSPCA Assured and Leaf Marque, each with different focus criteria. Every certified product page on the Brakes website displays the relevant accreditation. Explore related questions. The programme spans a range of categories including fresh produce, meat, poultry, eggs, disposables, tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar and ice cream. Sysco GB's selection of MSC and ASC-certified seafood will also be included, with it now exceeding 200 certified products including core cod, haddock and pollock lines. "Operators want sustainability to be credible, practical and commercially relevant," said Sysco head of sustainability Pete Statham. "By using verified third-party accreditations, One Planet One Table helps chefs and caterers to choose products that support their sustainability goals, while delivering great food for their customers." Latest. Partner features. No comments yet. You will be able to: * Read more stories * Receive daily newsletters * Comment on stories