John Kipka

Experience

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  C.H. Robinson

  Aug 1998 - Nov 1999

  Inside Sales Representative

  Managed set up of product shipments for new accounts. Coordinate on time and accurate deliveries.

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  BI WORLDWIDE

  Nov 1999 - Feb 2003

  Senior Event Director

  Senior Event Director responsible for planning and leading the execution of travel incentive programs, meetings, new product launches, and special events for various Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., Central America, Asia, and Europe.• Partnered with customers to develop programs and solutions to meet their needs; managed tight deadlines and created contingency plans to meet customer expectations and ensure successful implementation by delivering on time and under budget.

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  Guest Supply

  Feb 2003 - now

  I partner with VP’s of Sourcing and Strategic Partnerships, Corporate Purchasing Directors, Regional VP of operations, strategic sourcing teams and procurement managers. Designing OS&E, FF&E, and MRO programs that add value and lower costs to the specific hotel management group and casino resort client. I take the time to understand buying needs and create solutions that deliver long term savings and value to the properties, while staying up to date with current trends. I am passionate and truly enjoy working with ownership and hotel management groups demonstrating how they can increase shareholder value while focusing on the resources that impact both the guest experience and operational efficiencies.President’s Distinguished Sales Award-fiscal year 2022. Ecolab Keystone Winner 2023, 2024 Show less District Sales Manager responsible for a five-state territory in the Midwest with an outside sales team of nine reps and overseeing $32M in sales and 75 Corporate/National accounts. • Develop annual business plan to achieve targeted sales quotas for district; grew category sales in existing strategic accounts and attained year-over-year growth over past 13 years. Increased sales by 300% since being in role.• Maintain and grow long-term customer relationships through tailored business plans for each account and enhanced customer service; worked on effort to define customer centric approach and process to support.• Identify and develop new business opportunities with potential and existing customers by synthesizing data from Salesforce.com to create sales strategies, establish promotional programs, and build sales. • Resolve urgent and day-to-day customer issues by assessing problems and addressing needs. Oversee and collaborate with cross-functional teams to determine creative and effective solutions to improve service.• Lead hiring, training, and career development of outside sales team; built team from two to nine people and maintained high retention of sales reps with team consistently, recognized for exceeding sales quotas.• Identified and negotiated an addition of five new hotel brands with business impact of $3M annually; implemented internal system to manage customer portfolios in order to up-sell and cross-sell products.Awards & Accomplishments:• Presidents Club Award (awarded to top two district managers) –2014, 2015 • Pacesetter Award (awarded for exceeding sales quota) – 2014, 2015, 2019• Ecolab Keystone Winner (awarded to top 5 district managers) – 2016-2019 • Safai Coffee Winner (awarded to top two district managers) – 2019• Georgia-Pacific Pro Ultra Winner (awarded to top district managers) – 2019 Team Achievements:• 13 Pacesetter Award Winners• 1 Presidents Distinguished Award Winner• 1 Certified Field trainer• 1 Brand Manager Show less Outside Sales Representative responsible for growing sales of amenities, textiles, janitorial supplies, hotel room accessories, and FF&E to hotel and hospitality customers.• Built and cultivated long-term customer relationships for over 150 customers by demonstrating value of Guest Supply; proactively created marketing flyers and pricing materials to share with customers and grew portfolio book of business by more than 400% over four years.• Partnered with Fortunate 500 companies, including Kimberly-Clark, GOJO, Georgia-Pacific, Ecolab, Rubbermaid, 3M, and Sunbeam to offer customers name brand products.• Developed playbook of day-to-day activities to identify opportunities, manage client information, and drive sales; established as best practices used to train new sales reps on end-to-end sales cycle.Key Successes: • Achieved double digit year-over-year territory growth• Recognized as top performer; consistently met or exceeded targets for sales and profitso Highest profit percentage at 14.6% in 2006.o Highest profit dollars out of 15 reps in 2006.• Won 4 of 6 new account contests from 2003-2005• Second place in SPIFF Olympics in entire sales organization 2007 out of 220 reps Show less

  • Corporate Account Director - Management Groups & Gaming

    Aug 2021 - now

  • District Sales Manager

    May 2007 - Aug 2021

  • Territory Manager (Outside Sales Representative)

    Feb 2003 - May 2007