Job title: Director Sales – Safeway & Customer Marketing
Department: Personal Care, Laundry and Home Care (U-W)
At Henkel since: 1995

How did you begin working with the company?
At first, knowing little about Dial, I was not interested in the company as a job prospect. As I researched the company, the many opportunities offered by Dial were clear to me by discovering the remarkable people the company attracts. I started as an Account Executive in California calling on key accounts. Soon I was offered the opportunity to move into Trade Marketing for the Personal Cleansing business and relocated to Arizona. Following this, I had several creative, unique positions that included Sales Director for ISC, where we sold private label soaps and candles to specialty shops and department stores. I was able to use my Spanish skills as the manufacturing facility was in Guatemala. Moving on from there, I was Sales Director, managing a sales team for specialty personal care products, which includes bath and body care type products. Afterwards I managed a team at Dial in Puerto Rico as General Manager and once again was able to utilize my Spanish skills. Back in the U.S., I went into Sales Operations working with the Special Markets team including Target, drug store chains and K-Mart. Over the past 18 months, I have been working as the Director of Sales for the Safeway team.

What are your day-to-day resonsibilities?
Each day is different and very challenging. I work with the Safeway account, which is headquartered in Northern California. Safeway is one of the Top 16 accounts within the Dial Corporation in the U.S.  My responsibility is to grow profitable sales, work on developing distribution, pricing, merchandising and create unique customer marketing programs for Safeway. I work hand in hand, managing our broker partner Advantage, who is our liaison between Dial and the Safeway account. It’s a very rewarding job, especially when meeting the expectations, growing the business, gaining distribution and reaching new heights at Safeway.

What about the term, "learning on the job"?
Every day is a lesson in sales. In general, you’re learning from day one when entering a new assignment, e.g. when I was managing a team in Puerto Rico, it was the first time for me working in a different country with a different culture. I learned very quickly by experience, communicating with the people and the customers. Every day I learn something new, especially with and from my fellow workers. Doing the best job with available resources and seeing the process bloom into great results is very rewarding.

What distinguishes the company from other companies?
We have an excellent company where professionalism can flourish. The company sets itself apart by its image and its pride in itself . The way it treats its employees is a reflection on this.  Additionally the “people” are who have made Dial what it is today. We’re strong in diversity and support cross-functional learning abilities. That’s something a lot of companies don’t offer to their employees. Henkel has worldwide known brands and at the moment, there is a lot of innovation rising from our parent company reflecting on what we are doing here at Dial. The company gives its employees the possibility to make professionalism blossom.