Area Sales Manager

Role & responsibilities

The Area Sales Manager (ASM) is responsible for driving primary and secondary sales within the assigned territory by appointing and managing distributors, expanding market coverage, ensuring effective retail execution, and achieving monthly sales targets. The role requires strong market development capabilities, excellent distributor management skills, and the ability to lead frontline sales activities while ensuring high visibility and availability of the company's products.

Key Responsibilities

Achieve monthly, quarterly, and annual sales targets.

• Appoint, develop, and manage distributors to ensure profitable operations.
• Drive secondary sales through effective distributor sales teams.
• Expand numeric and weighted distribution by increasing retail coverage.
• Ensure product availability, visibility, merchandising, and execution of trade schemes & corporate rolled out programs.
• Implement beat plans and monitor Daily Sales Reports (DSR).
• Identify new business opportunities and open new retail outlets.
• Track competitor activities, pricing, promotions, and market trends.
• Manage distributor inventory, stock rotation, and order planning.
• Monitor collections, outstanding payments, and distributor ROI.
• Conduct regular market visits with distributor sales representatives.
• Recruit, train, and motivate distributor sales staff.
• Ensure effective implementation of sales promotions and new product launches.
• Submit timely sales reports, market intelligence, and forecasting.

Qualifications

Graduate in any discipline (MBA preferred).

• 8-10 years of FMCG sales experience.
• Experience in General Trade distribution is mandatory.
• Knowledge of distributor operations and territory management.
• Strong negotiation, communication, and analytical skills.
• Proficiency in MS Excel and sales automation applications.

Desired Competencies

Sales planning and execution.

• Distributor appointment and management.
• Team coordination & retail execution excellence.
• Problem-solving, decision-making, market intelligence, and analytical thinking.
• High level of ownership with an entrepreneurial mindset & result orientation.