About Job

The positions key responsibilities are:

• Achieving target numerical distribution and trade coverage, initiating and managing distributor relationships and controlling trade credit.
• Meeting net sales targets and pricing targets while maintaining trade margins and company profitability.
• Maintaining an up to date understanding of relevant developments in the market and advising the Chief Executive Officer to enable anticipatory or reactive fact and data-based decisions.
• Managing key relationships with market participants to ensure operations continue smoothly.
• Overseeing the company and third party high performing sales, promotions and merchandising teams to accomplish the items listed above.

SPECIFIC JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Sales Manager is responsible and accountable for the following Core job elements:

• Consistent achievement of net sales and numeric distribution targets whilst maintaining gross profit targets.
• Development, administration and successful execution of the commercial budgets and associated annual business plan.
• Identifying, developing and effectively implementing the company’s ‘Class of Trade’ and ‘Go to Market strategy.’
• Development and execution of 5P sales strategies or principles to achieve associated targets.
• Recruiting, training and retaining a high-performance sales team to ensure targets are consistently met or exceeded. Ensuring optimum resource usage to deliver results.
• Ensuring that the sales team can implement the channel strategy, rebates and incentives programs and other best practice effectively.
• Developing and maintaining relationships with all customers but with a key focus on distributors in all regions and key accounts.
• Spearheading sales promoting activities such as activations, temporary price reductions, placement of promotional materials, partnerships etc.
• Managing all company trade ‘terms and conditions’, rebates and incentives, business growth activity and best practice.
• Compiling and reviewing trade, market and transaction data and completing analytics to surface actionable insights for the businesses benefit. Reporting via appropriate dashboards at each level, ‘on time, accurate and complete’. Leveraging data to regularly advice the business leadership team.
• Developing and maintaining adequate rolling sales forecasts by SKU by month by customer to ensure supply chain is properly informed as per planning cycles.
• Collaborating closely with other department heads to drive innovation such as product development.

EDUCATIONAL & COLLATERAL REQUREMENTS:

• An undergraduate degree from an accredited University. At least eight years’ experience in sales with demonstrable variety and progressive career growth in the roles and responsibilities. Experience in FMCG sales in a multi-national environment is preferable.
• Knowledge of coffee products, shopper and consumer preferences and attitudes, market and industry trends is an added advantage.
• Demonstrated excellence in 5P field execution, good understanding of and relationships with the trade. Experience with HoReCa, Institutions sales and regional exports will be an added advantage.
• Outstanding current shopper and consumer driver knowledge, strong negotiations skills.
• Particularly good analytical skills, understanding of profit and loss statement drivers, sales force automation derived analytics, awareness of supply chain and sales activity impacts on the cash flow statement. Practical experience using technology such as the Microsoft Office suite, CRM and SFAs an added advantage.
• Ability and evidence of managing people with respect to promote a caring attitude and continuous improvements. Evidence of continuous learning and execution of new practices needed.
• The fiduciary responsibilities call for demonstrated utmost integrity, a self-starter, mature individual.