Sahar Mehrabzadeh

I lead Bay Cities' team of 20+ sales representatives. I'm responsible for all our revenue, the budget for the entire company, and or identifying new opportunities and driving sales. We've seen a 20% increase in business year over year since I took this role. Beyond filling a typical sales leader role and aligning with the role I'm being prepared for next, I also touch multiple parts of the company from an operational standpoint and a sales standpoint. I work with each department, assuring that we execute for the client and run the business correctly. I'm the resident expert for all our green initiatives and sustainability metrics — both for Bay Cities and for the clients we serve. I help brands navigate and win at retail through assisting them in finding the right packaging and display solutions to help them connect with their customers. I also help our customers understand the retail landscape. Anyone can make a package, but Bay Cities goes so much further. We help customers execute, go through the retail channel, and get their product into stores and on shelves, on time, without failure within the process. We find that retailers and brands often don't communicate well, leaving a gap that hinders getting a product into the hands of customers. We step in and solve for that gap.

I led the entire sales organization in this role that gave me the opportunity to really understand people better. This included learning how to better manage people, get to know who our audience is, and gain deeper knowledge about our customers. You have to get super close to customers to understand how you can help them. It's not just about what products you sell. During this time, I also supported initiatives to showcase our brand as the innovative, technology-driven business we are, versus the stereotypical ideas about our industry.

In this role, I led a team responsible for identifying new business opportunities. I was also responsible for creating strategies to capture more of the markets we were succeeding in, and identify and target markets we were not yet playing in. This opportunity brought me closer to the executive side of the business. I took on a book of business to learn how to truly manage sales, and drove $10 million in business in the As Seen on TV world in my first year. I had complete responsibility for the point-of-purchase display side of our business.

I led marketing initiatives and worked closely with the sales side of our business. I was responsible for onboarding new customers and introducing them to our brand. I created all our capability decks, helped set new markets for the company, and drove those initiatives with the sales team and sales leadership. My responsibilities also included managing all tradeshow participation, industry events, and collecting knowledge about our industry in general. I also served as Bay Cities' sustainability director and drove our green initiatives internally and with our clients. As a member of the Sustainable Packaging coalition at Walmart, I was responsible for driving our sustainability initiatives within Bay Cities and at Walmart. This included responsibility for the sustainability scorecard for all programs that we produced and shipped to Walmart.

I joined Bay Cities soon after graduating from college, starting on an exciting journey through the ranks and learning every aspect of the business from entry level to where I am today. In this first role, I performed various marketing and sales duties. The company didn't have a true marketing department at the time, and I was creating things as I went along. I drove new business development by identifying opportunities and passing leads to the sales team. I also focused on positioning our brand in new industries.