Commercial leadership · Beverage & consumer goods
I’m Bill Nolan, a commercial executive with 15+ years across national sales, national accounts, and regional leadership. My focus is growth that works for both the brand and the customer: products that fit the business, programs that support sell-through, and teams that follow through.
San Clemente, California / National accounts & multi-state sales leadership.
Selected impact
My experience spans established portfolios and emerging brands, with responsibility for sales growth, distribution, and profitability.
Challenge: Address distribution gaps and declining trends at major chains.
Action: Adjusted pricing, realigned distributors, and focused account plans on resets and field execution.
Outcome: Expanded distribution and reversed declines at major chains.
Challenge: Improve territory performance and reverse declining brand trends.
Action: Led an eight-person team, set distributor priorities, and aligned pricing, programming, and performance measures.
Outcome: Improved sales and profitability and returned declining brands to growth.
Challenge: Build a sales organization and expand distribution for an emerging ready-to-drink brand.
Action: Built a 12-person team and coordinated sales planning and distributor execution across 30 states.
Outcome: Expanded into new markets and secured chain placements including Walmart, Kroger, and 7-Eleven.
National sales experience
I’ve led both a national sales organization and national account business. That means managing customer priorities across markets while giving distributor and field teams clear plans to execute.
Lead national account business across retail and on-premise channels, aligning account development, pricing, and programming with regional distributor execution.
Led a 12-person team and 35+ distributor partners across 30 states, with responsibility for market expansion, sales planning, and national chain placements.
Managed a national retail portfolio, led private label strategy, and coordinated forecasts, promotional plans, and distributor priorities across markets.
Career progression
I started in field sales and progressed into state, national account, and executive leadership roles.
SVP Sales · National Accounts & West Region
VP leadership · Feb 2024–Feb 2026
SVP · Feb 2026–Present
Lead all U.S. on- and off-premise national accounts alongside commercial strategy and execution across 11 Western states. Responsibility spans distributor strategy, pricing, trade investment, channel development, and national and regional P&L management.
Founder · Commercial Strategy Advisor
Advised emerging and pre-launch brands on go-to-market strategy, distributor selection, pricing, market prioritization, and scalable commercial organizations.
Vice President of Sales
Led national sales operations across 30 states and 35+ distributor partners, with responsibility for sales strategy, expansion, pricing, forecasting, and P&L. Built and led a 12-person sales organization and coordinated national chain activity with local market execution.
National Account Manager · Aug 2019–Oct 2021
Previously: State Manager, California & Kentucky · Field Sales
Advanced from field sales to state leadership and National Account Manager. Managed national retail business across multiple markets, coordinating customer plans, forecasting, pricing, and distributor execution. Led private label strategy and managed a Strategic Account Manager responsible for executing those plans.
What I bring
My work covers commercial planning, account development, P&L management, and sales execution.
Market prioritization, portfolio planning, brand launches, route-to-market design, and expansion strategies.
National sales and account leadership, joint business plans, and private label strategy. Connect assortment and programming to customer goals across retail and on-premise channels.
National and regional P&L management, pricing, promotional planning, and trade investment. Build programs that balance consumer value, customer margin, and sustainable partner economics.
Distributor evaluation and alignment, performance management, KPI accountability, and market-level execution.
Use forecasts, syndicated data, inventory reports, and performance dashboards to identify gaps and guide commercial decisions. Experience with Nielsen, SQL, R, and Tableau.
Hiring and developing sales teams while aligning sales, marketing, finance, and operations around shared priorities.
Selected retail account experience
Account experience across career roles; company names identify professional experience and do not imply endorsement.
My approach to growth
I start by understanding the customer’s business: who they serve, what sells, and where they want to grow. That helps us recommend the right products, build worthwhile programs, and coordinate the support needed to make them work.
Near term · Diagnose & execute
Measures: Customer sell-through and margin, reorders, product availability, promotional return, forecast accuracy, and company profitability.
Long term · Prioritize & build
Measures: Repeat purchases, sustained sell-through, customer retention, reliable availability, profit contribution, and team development.
Does it meet a customer or consumer need? Will it help the customer earn repeat business at a healthy margin? Can we deliver the inventory and support we promise? Is it the best use of our shared resources? Agreeing on what success looks like helps both sides decide whether to expand, adjust, or stop.
Start a conversation
Have a question about account growth, commercial leadership, or working together? Use the form below, or contact me by email or LinkedIn.