Zonal Sales Manager - Wholesale & Retail Lending

Industry: Automotive / Passenger Vehicles

Function: Sales - Wholesale & Retail Lending

Location: Chandigarh

Role Purpose:

We are looking for an experienced Zonal Sales Manager to drive business across the automotive / passenger vehicle segment, with primary ownership of wholesale dealer finance, inventory funding and dealer inventory management. The role will focus on managing OEM / dealer relationships, optimizing dealer inventory funding and utilization, driving wholesale disbursements, and supporting retail lending as a secondary business vertical.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Wholesale Dealer & Inventory Funding - Primary:

- Manage wholesale financing for automotive / passenger vehicle dealers, including inventory / floor-plan funding and working capital facilities.

- Build and maintain strong relationships with OEMs, dealers, dealer principals and regional sales teams.

- Monitor dealer-wise inventory levels, stock ageing, funding requirements, utilization and repayment cycles.

- Drive optimum utilization of dealer funding limits and identify opportunities for increasing wallet share.

- Track vehicle inventory from invoicing / stocking through sale and liquidation, ensuring timely funding and repayments.

- Identify excess / aged inventory and work with dealers / OEM teams to improve inventory rotation and reduce funding exposure.

- Drive onboarding of new dealers and expansion of the funded dealer network.

- Achieve zonal wholesale disbursement, portfolio growth and revenue targets.

2. Dealer Relationship & Business Development:

- Conduct regular dealer visits to understand inventory, cash-flow and funding requirements.

- Develop strong relationships with dealer principals, finance teams and OEM stakeholders.

- Support OEM-led dealer financing programs, schemes and business initiatives.

- Identify new business opportunities across existing and prospective dealer networks.

3. Credit & Portfolio Coordination:

- Coordinate with Credit, Risk and Operations teams for dealer limit setup, renewals, enhancements and exceptions.

- Facilitate credit proposals and ensure timely documentation, KYC and limit activation.

- Monitor portfolio quality, overdue exposure, limit utilization and dealer-level concentration.

- Provide market and dealer feedback to Credit / Policy teams for better underwriting and risk management.

4. Retail Lending - Secondary:

- Support retail vehicle financing business through the dealer network.

- Drive cross-sell and retail disbursements across passenger vehicle loans.

- Coordinate with retail sales and credit teams to improve conversion and turnaround time.

- Ensure effective utilization of the dealer network for both wholesale and retail opportunities.

5. Business & MIS Management:

- Track zonal disbursements, dealer funding utilization, inventory ageing, portfolio outstanding and collections.

- Analyse dealer-wise business performance and identify growth / leakage areas.

- Ensure adherence to company policies, regulatory requirements and responsible lending practices.

Candidate Profile:

- 20 - 25 years of experience in automotive finance / NBFC / BFSI.

- Strong experience in wholesale dealer finance, inventory funding, floor-plan finance or dealer working capital.

- Proven experience managing automotive / passenger vehicle dealer networks.

- Strong understanding of dealer inventory, stock ageing, inventory cycles, funding limits and utilization.

- Experience working with OEMs and dealer principals is preferred.

- Exposure to retail vehicle finance will be an added advantage but should not be the primary experience.

- Strong business development, relationship management and portfolio management capabilities.