Zonal Sales Manager, Various Locations at Lafarge Cement

About the Job

The Zonal Sales Manager is responsible for the implementation of Route to Market strategy and execution of Trade marketing activities in the assigned territories. Ultimately, the role holder is expected to maintain strong relationships with customers so as to boost the brand and profit in the long-run.

What You'll be Doing

• Responsible for the implementation of Route to Market strategy and the execution of Trade marketing activities in the assigned territories
• Responsible for the overall management of distributors and the retail trade
• Manage and improve the distribution channels of the existing go to market plan in addition to championing any identified improvements.
• Responsible for managing and leading the Sales Operations Partners and the 3rd party Sales team to deliver the territory objectives as detailed by the sales leadership team.
• Drives his team for market development to grow LAP share of market and value
• Responsible for the demand planning and forecast accuracy for his territory
• Responsible for the review and approval of the bottom-up sales plan in alignment with the top-down volume strategy.
• Should aim at satisfying the demand of general purpose distribution and redistribution in trade.
• Build relationships in the channels through planned regular field visits and problem solving, thus maintaining brand and customer loyalty.
• Ensure that the ROI of the channels remain attractive for sustained patronage.
• Responsible for target volume achievement, pricing and margin management. He would be required to track prices and volumes, in the light of strong competitive activities.
• Assign monthly, quarterly and yearly customer visit targets to his team, run the visit tracker reports on SFDC to monitor performance and carry out the coaching visit with his team members.
• Recommend offers to customers with focus on margin and bottom line objectives
• Responsible for the profitability of his customers to ensure business sustainability and succession planning
• Leads his team to develop and track the customers Business plan
• Ensure regular customer engagement by field sales staff with a view to meeting and surpassing customer expectations.
• Influence customer buying decision through regular engagements and customer forums, which will allow for information flow.
• Grow the LH share of customers wallet based on target market ambitions as specified by the Sales leadership for various markets. eg core market ambitions.
• Carry out regular retail mapping as may be agreed by the Country Sales Director to align and realign territories for efficient customer coverage and management.
• Make inputs into the development of customer loyalty programs that will be sustainable at the various channel levels
• Responsible for market intelligence gathering and prompt reporting
• Ensure the standards for quality, customers’ service and safety are met.
• Responsible for improved affinity and sustained partnership between LAP and dealers, ensuring retail endorsement for our products, thus “turning them to Brand ambassadors”
• To engage dealers/retailers in order to build strong brand image and gain their support in terms of improved product availability & visibility.
• Coordination of Sales and operations activities to achieve world class execution at retail
• Drive process adherence in the use of the CRM tools and ERP within his team.
• Drives team compliance with all business processes and policies
• Responsible for the safety of the company’s assets within his territory
• Responsible for the implementation of HSE actions in his territory
• Develop expertise and insight in the dynamics of market across territories, with focus on competition, end-user, and customer knowledge in order to develop market insight
• Provides leadership and direction for his team, while driving their motivation and morale
• He is responsible for the performance and development of his team through regular coaching, feedback and exposure to senior sales leadership

Who you'll work with

Indirect People Relationship

• All members of the Commercial Team
• Logistics
• Industrial teams
• Legal
• HSE
• Finance

What we are looking for

Education & Experience 

• Bachelor's Degree in a relevant course
• Minimum 8 years of commercial working experience, 6 of which is in Sales / Marketing supervisory position

Functional Competencies

• In-depth understanding of trends, challenges, opportunities, regulations and legislations relating to the cement manufacturing industry.
• Sound knowledge of LAP’s product and service offerings.
• Very good understanding of sales planning, modelling and business performance analysis.
• Very good understanding of micro and macroeconomic environment, relevant indices, trends and their impact on LAP’s business.
• Very good knowledge of retail/ distributor management and development
• Sound financial acumen with ability to perform financial analysis of customers and territory
• Excellent communication, presentation and facilitation skills.
• Very good analytical and problem solving skills.

Vision & Purpose

• Constantly ensure stickiness with Customers
• Know the business and its trends
• Creative/innovative

Leading People

• Communicate clearly and effectively
• Inspire and Motivate
• Develop self & team
• Teamwork and Leadership skills

Driving for Results

• Strong Business Foresight
• Autonomous and Accountable for his/her actions
• Result Oriented
• Self starter
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills
• Hardworking and highly disciplined with a strong work ethic.

Leading Change

• Build trust and get people’s buy-in
• High integrity
• Challenge and be open to be challenged
• Strategic thinking