Divisional Sales Manager at RCL Foods

Job Description    
RCL FOODS is on the hunt for a Divisional Sales Manager to effectively drive the divisional sales team, ensuring effective accounts management and professional customer relationship management that achieve customer and Vector sales objectives, KPIs, and targets. This individual will be responsible for maintaining and growing the relationships with defined key accounts that translate into increased sales volumes and expanded product lines.

Minimum Requirements    

• Degree in Management, Business Administration, and/or Marketing
• Valid Code EB drivers’ license
• 10 years experience in a Marketing and Sales function that includes managing complex and/or significant customer relationships and key/national accounts with at least 5 years in a Management Role
• Extensive experience in Sales & Management of large teams across various sites and/or geographical areas
• Experience in the FMCG industry will be preferred 

Duties & Responsibilities    

Divisional Strategy Formulation and Implementation

• Formulate short- and long-term (3-year) divisional strategies to deliver sustainable, profitable growth by key customers.
• Prioritize products and initiatives by customers within the division based on demand.
• Ensure alignment across plans and with the supply side of the business.
• Participate in the S&OP product forecast process to drive improved forecast accuracy.
• Determine the tone and direction the divisional team takes in its approach to working with key customers
• Drive the achievement of targeted sales growth.
• Evaluate and monitor competitors and their activities and formulate proactive responses when required.
• Perform rigorous product analysis and allocate budget accordingly.
• Work collaboratively across cross-functional teams to align demand and supply across the company.
• Drive the achievement of strategic and operational targets.
• Participate in the Vector commercial planning process through the development of an annual customer business plan.
• Manage and penetrate key accounts at all levels, develop relationships that enable the achievement of divisional and customer plans and objectives, and lead all Vector cross-functional team activities related to such accounts.

Account Management

• Ensure that all accounts are profitably serviced for the company to achieve sales and revenue goals.
• Analyze sales statistics to determine business growth potential.
• Monitor and analyze sales and market trends.
• Develop proposals, negotiate terms and conditions, and implement contractual agreements for key accounts with accountability for delivering strong financial results.
• Plot the annual and long-term objectives for responsible accounts and ensure all volume, distribution, and profit targets are met.
• Coordinate multi-disciplinary teams to ensure smooth and efficient operations and delivery of all services to key account customers. This includes demand plotting and delivering products.
• Review key account performance set targets, and develop joint business plans to improve effectiveness and set maximum profit margins.
• Manage sales administration to ensure smooth and effective sales activity from plotting, calls, order, delivery, and after-sales activity.

Client Relationship Management

• Manage all aspects of account profiles, including performance history as well as customer forecasts.
• Ensure that customers have up-to-date knowledge of new products, market trends, and performance statistics.
• Develop and maintain strong work relationships with key opinion leaders in the market to inform future planning and sales focus.
• Manage the presentations to and negotiation with key accounts.
• Drive the awareness and understanding of customers’ budgets, goals, and needs and the impact on Vector.
• Drive the nature and extent of all communications with customers.
• Manage client utilization and product adoption rates through new business opportunities.
• Drive multi-disciplinary teams to provide key customers with market intelligence and other value-added services.

Market and Customer Insight Maintenance

• Identify divisional priorities and market and customer knowledge gaps to help set research needs.
• Participate in determining an appropriate customer research budget.
• Participate in market and customer research.
• Analyze and track market and customer trends and in-market measures at the customer and divisional levels, such as distribution, share, price, and merchandising performance.
• Identify business implications and make recommendations.

Division Planning and Execution

• Lead an annual divisional management planning process to create customer-specific promotional plans.
• Participate in determining annual marketing objectives and strategies and advertising and promotion spending.
• Lead divisional performance reviews.
• Estimate ROI for key divisional initiatives and evaluate plans post-execution.

Pricing Guidelines Management

• Participate in setting new product pricing to extract maximum value for Vector and key account customers.
• Track brand pricing across customers within the division.
• Recommend pricing corrections.
• Understand how customer spending is allocated.
• Recommend improvements to create greater value.

Financial Management

• Participate in recommending base and stretch financial goals for the broader sales team.
• Manage and control the divisional sales budget.
• Understand key drivers of profit and loss and actively support the achievement of financial targets including driving profitable product mix, maximizing profitability, and identifying business opportunities.
• Identify business risks to achieving the sales targets.

Organizational Efficiency

• Implement and simplify appropriate business processes to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency in support of key account requirements.
• Support corporate strategy alignment and business update meetings.

Divisional Leadership

• Lead and develop staff within the context of the Labour Relations Act, Employment Equity Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, and the Skills Development Act.
• Monitor staff performance and provide regular feedback.
• Manage staff activities, ensuring service levels are met and protocols are adhered to.
• Coach and support staff where necessary to achieve objectives.
• Manage staff leave and general time management issues in line with organizational deliverables and standards.
• Manage and deliver on succession plans to enable the development of a future generation of leaders and specialists and ensure optimal turnover and retention levels are maintained.
• Champion staff training and development through the utilization of available training opportunities or contributing to the development of new training solutions in collaboration with national training specialists.
• Conduct regular performance appraisals with subordinates.
• Establish sound staff and labor organizing and communication structures and systems.
• Lead the team towards meeting the strategy and targets through regular communication and utilization of the full organizational talent management toolset.
• Drive employment equity within the team to ensure that diversity is achieved at all levels and that statutory targets and requirements are met.
• Develop and manage high-performance multidisciplinary teams to
• solve problems within the Food Services market.
• Conduct regular meetings and ensure that records are kept and shared across the team and that action plans agreed to within team meetings are delivered upon.

Location: Westville

Closing Date: 8th, March 2022