About the role:
The Sales Director is responsible for leading and integrating the company's total commercial sales strategy across Modern Trade, General Trade, and International Sales channels. The role owns national and export revenue, market share, distribution, and profitability targets, and leads the Heads of each channel to build a unified go-to-market approach that maximizes growth while protecting brand equity and trade profitability.
Job Responsibilities:
Strategic Leadership
- Define and execute the annual and long-term national and international sales strategy, aligned to company revenue, profitability, and market share goals.
- Translate the overall commercial strategy into channel-specific plans for Modern Trade, General Trade, and International Sales.
- Build the annual sales budget (volume, value, and trade spend) and secure leadership sign-off.
- Identify new growth avenues — new channels, geographies, categories, and route-to-market models.
Business & Financial Performance
- Own the P&L for the sales function, including revenue, gross-to-net, trade spend ROI, and distribution costs.
- Deliver monthly, quarterly, and annual targets for sell-in, sell-out, and market share across all three channels.
- Monitor pricing, trade terms, and margins to ensure healthy channel economics without compromising competitiveness.
Team Leadership
- Lead, coach, and develop the three Channel Heads and, through them, the wider field sales organization.
- Build a strong sales talent pipeline through recruitment, training, and succession planning.
- Set clear KPIs and incentive structures that drive the right channel behaviors and cross-channel collaboration.
- Foster a high-performance, accountable, and customer-centric sales culture.
Cross-Functional Alignment
- Partner with Marketing on brand plans, NPD launches, and channel-specific activation calendars.
- Work with Supply Chain and Finance to ensure forecast accuracy, optimal fill rates, and healthy working capital (inventory, receivables).
- Align with Trade Marketing/Category Management on channel-specific merchandising, promotions, and shelf strategy.
Modern Trade
Owns the strategy and relationship management for organized retail — supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail chains, and e-commerce/quick-commerce platforms.
- Drive key account management with national and regional retail chains, negotiating trading terms, listings, and joint business plans (JBPs).
- Ensure optimal shelf share, planogram compliance, and in-store visibility across accounts.
- Expand presence in e-commerce and quick-commerce channels, managing online assortment, pricing, and digital shelf performance.
- Balance promotional intensity and trade spend to protect brand price architecture and profitability.
General Trade
Owns the traditional trade network — distributors, wholesalers, and retail outlets — which typically forms the volume backbone in FMCG.
- Manage and expand the distributor and wholesaler network to maximize numeric and weighted distribution.
- Drive route-to-market efficiency, secondary sales productivity, and outlet coverage/expansion (rural and urban).
- Oversee distributor claims, credit terms, and ROI to maintain a healthy, motivated distributor base.
- Strengthen field sales force effectiveness through beat planning, DMS/SFA tools, and frontline training.
International Sales
Owns export growth and overseas market development, working through regional distributors, importers, and partners.
- Identify and prioritize international markets based on regulatory feasibility, demand potential, and margin profile.
- Appoint, develop, and manage overseas distributors/agents, including contracts, credit terms, and performance reviews.
- Ensure compliance with export documentation, customs, labeling, and country-specific regulatory requirements.
- Adapt product, pricing, and packaging strategy to local market and cultural requirements where needed.
Job Requirement:
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, or a related field; MBA in Sales/Marketing strongly preferred.
Experience
- 15+ years of progressive FMCG sales experience, including at least 5 years in a senior leadership role spanning multiple channels.
- Demonstrated experience managing Modern Trade, General Trade, and International/Export sales — either directly or through leading channel heads.
- Track record of delivering sustained revenue growth and building high-performing sales teams.
