About the role:

The role holder works closely with Commercial Director, Commercial Leadership Team (CLT), Commercial Finance Manager, Head of Beer, Head of IPS/Reserve, Head of Mainstream Spirits & Divisional Commercial Performance Managers (DCPM).

DCPM have a doted reporting line to the role holder.Lead and drive the consumer & customer strategies and facilitate the formulation of the sales strategy by integrating the strategic and operational brand and trade planning.

Ensure commercial insights and information platform is fit-for-purpose, to support informed decision-making business through right leadership, strategy and direction to business governance function.

Role Responsibilities:

Performance Monitoring & Reporting

Responsible for owning the end-to-end performance management process, ensuring alignment with business objectives and driving commercial excellence across divisions and national operations.

Drive right depletion focus across the organization & our business partners, including sales reps' van selling, esp. premiumisation & market objectives.

Generate and deliver actionable market and consumer insights to advise commercial strategy, identifying trends in behaviour, perceptions, and category dynamics.

Steer timely evaluation and remedial corrective actions of all activities, at the Division & National level, vs the set volume objectives.

Steer & drive right distribution coverage hygiene with corrective actions in place to close gaps or and seize market opportunities. (RTC metrics, (ND, WD, etc), by division, area & category, with the right actions in place to deliver target by divisions).

Review market opportunities aligned to market share and put in place mechanism to turn around.

Oversee resolution all distributor-related issues through CLT, including reconciliation matters, payments to maintain strong and sustainable partnerships.

Conduct performance deep-dives to identify root causes of underperformance & share learning across the divisions. 

Drive robust meeting rhythms/cycle, from POPs/ DLTs/CLTs/DEMAND REVIEW, with standardized strategic input and output to address market issues or and opportunities.

Drive & ensure effective distributor reviews/BRMs are held, in the right standard format, documented (minutes) & actions are closed by the respective individuals.

Own commercial organization’s data analytics strategy, driving data-related business changes to transform KBL Sales into a data driven one.

Applies in-depth understanding of the customer, customer segmentation, trade environment and touchpoints to build integrated, actionable and thought-provoking analysis

Uncovers and articulates holistic and actionable customer/trade/touchpoints insights and their implications on the business and its plan.

Ensure that all relevant sales information is available to meet company business needs and that this is effectively communicated to the Management Team.

Lead the innovation development of the consumer & customer strategies by, ensuring development and refinement of forward-looking, actionable and meaningful customer and consumer segments.

Sales Forecasting and Operation Planning Meetings

Directed and aligned cross-divisional sales forecasting and operational planning to support business objectives and demand accuracy.

Drive robust planning processes across the commercial organization to ensure that excellent forecasts, planning account plans are developed and implemented.

Proactively participates in cross-functional meetings supporting the identification, assessment, management and monitoring of opportunities and risks.

Monitors performance against plans and external benchmarks. Addresses issues in a timely manner with full consideration for top line growth and cost management

Track & review Monthly depletion forecast, with subsequent shipments aligned to the right stock policy & NSV impact, with corrective actions to meet monthly target & right planning.

Liaise with supply teams, to ensure right production scheduling, in line with product requirement and demand.

Work closely with the various DSMs, supply chain & market finance to ensure efficient inventory, across the chain, to eliminate out of stocks and optimal inventory.  

Develops continuous input to the successful execution of Demand Review, PMR and SOE meetings.

Champions the commercial teams in anticipating and shaping the understanding of future consumer and shopper behaviours, trends and needs.

Drive out unnecessary costs & steer the right working capital for distributors(indirect), through others & steer FIFO, review of abnormal SIT on selective SKUs to proactively handle SLOBs, to eliminate write-offs.

Leadership Accountabilities: 

Provide People and strategic Leadership to the commercial team, ensuring that individuals are well trained, coached & motivated in line with business goals.

Actively build and drive the identification and development of a solid talent pipeline and potential successors for key positions in the commercial operations team.

Provides leadership and mentorship to evolve the analytics capability of the sales team to enable deviation from a traditional centre-based model.

Demonstrate and uphold leadership qualities when engaging with key stakeholders, consistently reflecting the guiding principles in both behaviours and attitude

Support the commercial team in execution of the AOP and SMART commercial IBOs while holding the Commercial Leadership Team (CLT) and other business partners to account for delivery of their plan commitments.

Drive close working relationships with the Brand, commercial, Supply Chain, Finance teams and KBL stakeholders in order to ensure S&OE processes are compliant and that information related to the commercial strategy is cascaded correctly for both operational and annual planning.

Support the function and business by delivering on Your Voice initiatives and Strategic Leadership Agenda

Experience / skills required:

Business Degree level

Strong understanding of field sales, Sales Operations and analytics

8 –10 years FMCG experience, which must include extended period within sales operations, management and business analytics.

Good relationship management and interpersonal skills

Excellent communication, influencing and negotiating skills.

Excellent understanding of strategy development and implementation

Good understanding of project/change management

Presentation, report writing and research skills.

Self-starter with high levels of energy and commitment

Multifaceted and creative with an ability to work on own initiative as well as be a team player

Key Skills & Competencies:

Performance Metrics & KPIs: Ability to define, track, and interpret key performance indicators

Data Analysis & Reporting: Proficient in tools like Excel, Power BI etc

Goal Setting & Monitoring: Competency in creating SMART goals and monitoring progress against them.

Process Improvement /Familiarity with continuous improvement methodologies

Excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills

Coaching & Development: Ability to coach managers and employees for continuous improvement and skill development

Facilitation Skills: Effective in leading performance review meetings, workshops, and training sessions

Feedback Delivery: Skilled in delivering both constructive and motivational feedback

Proactive, solutions-focused mindset with commercial awareness