Head of General Trade

Job Purpose

• The Head of General Trade is responsible for leading distributor-driven and formal trade sales execution across assigned regions and territories, driving General Trade volume, value, margin, numeric distribution, outlet coverage, customer availability, and distributor performance.

General Trade Strategy Execution:

• Execute general trade strategies in line with overall sales objectives.
• Translate national sales targets into clear regional, territory, and distributor plans.
• Drive achievement of volume, value, margin, coverage, availability, and distribution targets.
• Monitor sales performance and take timely corrective action to close gaps.

Distributor Management

• Manage distributor performance against agreed targets, service standards, and commercial terms.
• Conduct regular distributor performance reviews and identify areas for improvement.
• Drive corrective actions to address performance gaps, route inefficiencies, and execution weaknesses.
• Support the appointment, evaluation, development, and rationalization of distributors.
• Ensure distributor territories, customer segments, and commercial terms are clearly defined and properly maintained.

Regional & Territory Sales Leadership

• Lead Regional Sales Managers to deliver general trade targets across all assigned regions.
• Review regional, territory, and distributor performance and ensure corrective actions are implemented.
• Ensure clear territory maps, route plans, outlet coverage plans, and service frequency standards are in place.
• Oversee Territory Sales Manager execution, including route coverage, order generation, merchandising, and customer issue resolution.
• Ensure consistent field execution across regions and territories.

Market Execution & Trade Development

• Drive product availability, visibility, merchandising, promotions, and trade activation across the general trade channel.
• Monitor competitor activity, pricing, customer feedback, and market opportunities.
• Convert market insights into practical actions that improve sales performance and execution.
• Ensure trade activities comply with approved pricing, promotion, and channel guidelines.

Channel Governance

• Enforce clear separation between sales channels to minimize conflict and protect customer ownership.
• Escalate unresolved channel conflicts in line with company procedures.
• Maintain discipline around customer classification, territory ownership, and route compliance.
• Ensure all sales activities are aligned with approved channel guidelines.

People Management

• Coach, guide, and manage the performance of Regional Sales Managers.
• Build capability across the general trade team through regular feedback, coaching, and performance reviews.
• Identify skills gaps, succession needs, and training requirements within the team.
• Promote a performance-driven culture focused on accountability, execution, and continuous improvement.

Reporting & Performance management

• Prepare regular general trade performance reports covering sales results, coverage, distribution, route efficiency, and distributor performance.
• Analyse performance data to identify sales gaps, distributor weaknesses, route inefficiencies, and growth opportunities.
• Provide input into sales forecasts, incentive schemes, territory reviews, and distributor performance reviews.
• Recommend actions to improve sales productivity, market coverage, and distributor effectiveness.

Academic and Professional Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Marketing, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Minimum of 8 years’ sales experience, preferably in FMCG or high-volume distribution.
• Proven experience managing regional sales teams, distributors, or trade channels.
• Strong background in route-to-market execution, distributor management, territory planning, and sales performance management.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong commercial acumen.
• Distributor management and route-to-market execution.
• Territory planning and outlet coverage management.
• Sales performance analysis and reporting.
• Team leadership, coaching, and performance management.
• Customer relationship management.
• Strong communication, planning, and execution discipline.
• Ability to identify performance gaps and drive corrective action.