Area Sales Manager

Role Overview

This role leads a regional field sales force day-to-day, focusing on recruiting, coaching, and holding representatives accountable for closing deals with farmers, cooperatives, and rural businesses. By personally joining team members on customer visits and running marketing events, the Area Sales Manager ensures the region hits its revenue targets while expanding the company’s footprint in underserved agricultural markets.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and sustain a high-performing team of field sales representatives through hands-on hiring, training, and ongoing mentoring.
• Set individual and team quotas, track performance weekly, and step in with coaching or corrective plans when targets slip.
• Design and execute monthly and quarterly territory sales plans that balance lead generation, customer visits, and promotional events.
• Identify fresh business opportunities by forging partnerships with farmer groups, cooperatives, local agro-dealers, financial institutions, and community leaders.
• Manage the full sales pipeline, from lead capture in the CRM through follow-up to conversion, ensuring healthy volume and velocity.
• Conduct field coaching rides and joint customer calls to sharpen the team’s selling skills and strengthen client relationships.
• Collect and relay market intelligence on competitor moves, pricing shifts, and emerging customer needs to guide product and pricing decisions.
• Deliver accurate weekly and monthly sales forecasts, performance dashboards, and compliance reports to regional leadership.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Sales & Marketing, Business Administration, Agriculture, Agribusiness, or a related field.
• At least five years of B2C sales experience in agriculture, agribusiness, renewable energy, FMCG, or a similar rural distribution sector.
• Minimum three years directly leading a field sales team (ten or more representatives) and proven ability to recruit, train, and motivate them.
• Demonstrated track record of consistently exceeding monthly and annual sales targets in a territory that includes rural markets.
• Experience with direct sales and B2C models, including cold calling, field demonstrations, and farmer engagement activities.
• Excellent planning, organisation, and execution skills with hands-on, results-driven leadership style.
• Strong communication and negotiation abilities; fluency in English and Kiswahili mandatory.
• High integrity, professionalism, and ability to build trust with diverse stakeholders including local leaders and cooperatives.