Customer Development Lead

Role Overview

This is a hands-on modern trade role where you take ownership of supermarket and minimart performance through distributors and second-line buying groups. Your core focus will be translating Joint Business Plans into real shelf execution—monitoring share of shelf, on-shelf availability, pricing integrity, and promotional visibility across a defined territory. On any given day you will shift between buyer negotiations, merchandiser supervision, and store-level walkthroughs, making sure the execution matches what was agreed at the boardroom table.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate sales execution across supermarkets and minimarts, aligning distributors and regional second-line buyers behind common volume and display objectives.
• Develop, negotiate, and track Joint Business Plans with key retail accounts, ensuring quarterly milestones are hit and underperformance is corrected quickly.
• Own the monthly administrative cycle—data collection, payment confirmation, reconciliation reports, and resolution of invoice discrepancies.
• Enforce planogram standards and uphold shelf discipline, with direct responsibility for reaching and maintaining a 10% share of shelf by Q3.
• Push on-shelf availability to at least 80% across the territory, monitoring gaps by location and SKU and mobilising supply or merchandising resources to close them.
• Secure additional in-store displays, negotiate prime placement for POS materials, and upgrade visibility at high-traffic outlets.
• Manage a team of merchandisers across the territory, including third-party agency staff, with clear task ownership, daily direction, and performance evaluation.
• Track product movement weekly, report category trends, and provide competitor intelligence on pricing, new launches, shelf positioning, and trade promotions.
• Monitor in-store sampling activities to confirm stock availability, demonstrator presence, and compliance with the activation plan.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Seven to ten years of FMCG field sales or trade management experience, with a minimum of five years in the beverage sector.
• Demonstrated success in negotiating and executing Joint Business Plans—ideally involving supermarkets or wholesale buying groups.
• Strong familiarity with modern trade customers and the unique demands of national and regional chain accounts.
• Direct experience supervising large teams, including external merchandising or activation agencies.
• Excellent numerical ability for sales data analysis, reconciliation, and tracking of in-store performance metrics.
• Sound working knowledge of retail pricing architecture, trade promotion mechanics, and planogram compliance.
• Strong communication and presentation skills for buyer meetings and internal reviews, with the resilience to work under target pressure.