About the Role:

We are looking for a Manager - Senior Manager - Sales Excellence who will serve as the technology and process backbone of the sales organization. The role will be responsible for driving field-force productivity, sales automation, distributor effectiveness, and distribution expansion through hands-on implementation and optimization of Sales Force Automation (SFA) and Distributor Management System (DMS) platforms.

The role combines Sales Operations, Sales Excellence, Technology, Analytics, and on-ground execution, with a strong focus on improving sales productivity, market coverage, distributor visibility, and data-driven decision-making.

This is an execution-oriented role for a professional who can translate technology and data into measurable business outcomes and drive adoption across a large field sales and distributor network.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Sales Excellence, Analytics & Governance:

- Build and maintain sales dashboards, MIS, and performance trackers covering sales productivity, SFA/DMS adoption, and market expansion.

- Develop and standardize SOPs, playbooks, and best practices for sales automation, distributor management, and distribution expansion.

- Analyze sales and distribution data to identify business opportunities, productivity gaps, and growth levers.

- Convert data insights into actionable recommendations for the sales leadership team.

- Drive a culture of data-led decision-making across the sales organization.

- Monitor key sales excellence metrics and ensure governance through regular reviews.

2. Sales Force Automation (SFA):

- Own the end-to-end implementation, rollout, adoption, and continuous improvement of SFA platforms across field sales teams, Branch Managers, and Demand Generation teams.

- Design and optimize Permanent Journey Plans (PJP) based on outlet potential, call frequency, route optimization, and market coverage.

- Drive improvement in field-force productivity, call efficiency, and outlet coverage through technology-enabled interventions.

- Design and implement gamification, leaderboards, contests, and performance programs to increase field engagement and target achievement.

- Lead change management and ensure high levels of SFA adoption, daily usage, and data compliance.

- Define and monitor SFA-linked KPIs, including call compliance, productive call percentage, product penetration, range selling index, outlet coverage, and field-force productivity.

3. Distributor Management System (DMS):

- Drive hands-on DMS implementation and adoption across the distributor network.

- Enable real-time visibility of orders, secondary sales, inventory, billing, and stock reconciliation.

- Lead distributor onboarding, training, and adoption programs to ensure accurate and timely data capture.

- Work closely with IT, Sales, and external technology partners on DMS architecture, integration, and system improvements.

- Ensure effective integration of DMS with ERP, SFA, and trade promotion systems.

- Monitor DMS health metrics, including billing compliance, stock reconciliation, and data quality.

- Identify system gaps and lead upgrades, enhancements, and re-architecture initiatives based on business requirements.

4. Market Expansion & Distribution Growth:

- Conduct whitespace and coverage-gap analysis to identify untapped towns, markets, outlets, and growth opportunities.

- Develop a structured, data-driven framework for new distributor appointment covering market sizing, distributor evaluation, commercial benchmarking, market potential, and speed-to-market.

- Partner with Zonal and Regional Sales teams to convert identified whitespace into new distribution points and active markets.

- Drive growth in numeric distribution, weighted distribution, outlet reach, and market penetration.

- Track key expansion metrics such as new town coverage, new distributor appointments, incremental outlet reach, new outlet additions, and distribution productivity.

5. AI & Digital Sales Enablement:

- Explore and implement AI-enabled sales recommendation tools to improve cross-sell, upsell, and range-selling opportunities.

- Leverage technology, analytics, and automation to improve sales planning, outlet prioritization, and field-force effectiveness.

- Identify opportunities to use AI and advanced analytics for sales forecasting, customer segmentation, and productivity improvement.

Required Qualifications & Experience:

- MBA / PGDM, preferably in Sales & Marketing, from a reputed institute.

- 8 - 9 years of overall experience in Sales, Sales Operations, Sales Excellence, Trade Excellence, or Commercial roles.

- Minimum 4 - 6 years of dedicated experience in Sales Excellence / Sales Operations / Trade Excellence.

- Minimum 2 years of Sales Excellence experience within FMCG is mandatory.

- Strong experience working with FMCG, consumer, building materials, consumer durables, or other distribution-intensive businesses.

- Proven hands-on experience implementing and scaling Sales Force Automation (SFA) platforms such as Salesforce, Bizom, M-Assist, or similar platforms.

- Strong experience in PJP design, journey optimization, field-force productivity, and gamification/leaderboard programs.

- Demonstrated experience in DMS implementation, distributor adoption, and distributor data management.

- Understanding of DMS architecture, ERP/SFA integration, data governance, and system scalability.

- Hands-on experience in whitespace analysis, market expansion, and new distributor appointment.

- Exposure to AI-enabled sales recommendation, cross-sell, and upsell tools will be an advantage.

- Strong analytical and data visualization skills with proficiency in Advanced Excel and Power BI.

What We Are Looking For:

- The ideal candidate will be a technology-oriented Sales Excellence professional who understands the realities of field sales and distributor networks.

- You should be comfortable working at the intersection of Sales, Technology, Data, and Operations, with the ability to take ownership from solution design and implementation through field adoption and measurable business impact.

- Candidates who have personally driven SFA/DMS implementation and adoption, rather than only worked as users of these systems, will be preferred.