About the Role
The Head of General Trade is responsible for leading distributor-driven and formal trade sales execution across assigned regions and territories. The primary focus is driving General Trade volume, value, margin, numeric distribution, outlet coverage, customer availability, and distributor performance.
Key Responsibilities
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.
Qualifications & Requirements
- 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.
- Strong commercial acumen and communication skills.
