Inside Sales Associate & Sales Support Associate

Job Description

Posted Friday, January 16, 2026 at 5:00 AM

About Hardies

Hardie’s Fresh Foods has been delivering the freshest produce and finest specialty ingredients to Texas kitchens for over 80 years. Family-owned and Texas-proud, Hardie’s started with a single truck and a passion for quality. Today, we’re a trusted partner to chefs, restaurants, and food service professionals across the Lone Star State—supplying everything from peak‑season fruits and vegetables to artisan cheeses, premium olive oils, chocolates, and center‑of‑the‑plate proteins like meats and seafood.

With deep relationships across local farms and global producers, we stay ahead of culinary trends while staying true to what matters: dependable service, outstanding quality, and helping chefs create memorable menus. Rooted in tradition, driven by innovation—Hardie’s is here to fuel kitchens with the ingredients that make food shine.

Position Summary:

The Inside Sales & Sales Support Associate plays a critical role in supporting Outside Sales Representatives while directly contributing to customer satisfaction, sales growth, and account profitability. This hybrid position serves as an extension of the outside sales team by managing day‑to‑day customer needs, assisting with account setup and maintenance, analyzing sales and profitability data, and identifying growth opportunities within assigned accounts.

This role requires strong communication skills, analytical capability, attention to detail, and a proactive, customer‑centric mindset. The associate will support 2–4 Outside Sales Representatives and maintain responsibility for select key accounts.

What you’ll do:

• Support 2–4 Outside Sales Representatives as a primary point of contact for assigned customers
• Assist with new account setup, onboarding, and ongoing account maintenance
• Manage customer orders, order add‑ons, credits, adjustments, and special requests
• Communicate out‑of‑stock items, substitutions, and order changes proactively to customers and sales reps
• Review incoming orders (phone, email, fax, voicemail) for accuracy and completeness
• Ensure accuracy of entered and outgoing orders
• Suggest and sell additional or complementary items when appropriate
• Run and analyze reports related to:
  • Account profitability
  • Gross profit per drop
  • Penetration and line growth opportunities
• Identify trends, risks, and opportunities within assigned accounts and share insights with the outside sales team
• Maintain responsibility for select key accounts, ensuring service levels, pricing accuracy, and issue resolution
• Work closely with sales, operations, purchasing, and customer service to deliver a seamless customer experience
• Escalate issues, irregularities, or customer concerns to the appropriate team members
• Document and track customer complaints and assist with quarterly reporting
• Assist with special orders, customer price lists, and program maintenance
• Provide backup coverage for Outside Sales Representatives during vacations or absences
• Attend inside and outside sales meetings and participate in sales initiatives as needed
• Maintain a professional attitude and sense of urgency in a fast‑paced environment
• Other duties and projects as assigned by management

About you:

• Minimum education:
  
  High School Diploma (college coursework a plus)
• Prior experience in food service distribution, inside sales, customer service, or sales support preferred
• Strong understanding of food service products, categories, and customer dynamics preferred
• Comfortable working with reports, data analysis, and profitability metrics
• Strong verbal, written, and telephone communication skills
• High attention to detail with strong follow‑through
• Self‑motivated, organized, and able to manage multiple priorities
• Team‑oriented with the ability to collaborate across departments
• Able to work under pressure with a sense of urgency
• Data entry and 10‑key experience required
• Bilingual (Spanish/English) a plus

The above job description is not an all‑inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.

• Paid Vacations, Paid Holidays
• Health, Dental and Medical…