Area Sales Manager

Satya Narain Kesho Ram; Purnia; On-site; INR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Mitthu mouth fresheners, jaljeera, supari in Bihar seeks an Area Sales Manager to own the rural distribution. This field-based role covers nine districts with a network of distributors and four Sales Officers.

You will design the go-to-market plan, build and prune the distributor network, recruit and mentor the SO team, and drive velocity across outlets while ensuring data is captured in the system.

Qualifications

• 3–10 years in FMCG field sales with at least 3 years handling rural/semi-urban distributor territory as ASM/ASE/Senior TSI
• Personally appointed distributors and closed non-performing ones
• Managed a team of 6+ Sales Officers, including hiring/exits
• Bihar or eastern UP market experience, knows mandi towns and transport realities
• Comfortable using an Android app for reporting and can read an Excel sheet of numbers
• Hindi fluency essential; working English for written reporting

Responsibilities

• Own the go-to-market plan for the territory and sequence districts/market points
• Build and prune the distributor network; appoint new distributors; enforce stocking discipline
• Build and run the SO team; recruit, train and exit SOs; monitor beat adherence
• Drive velocity in existing width; targeting sampling and visibility at counter level
• Operate through the internal sales/stock tracking system; weekly HO reviews

Skills

FMCG sales

Rural distribution

Team leadership

Distributor onboarding

Android app

Excel

Hindi fluency

Tools

Android app

Excel

Job description

Area Sales Manager Rural Distribution

Company: Mitthu mouth fresheners, jaljeera, supari

Base: Purnea or Bhagalpur (field-based). Lucknow HO visit every 45 days.

Reports to: Director

Directly manages: 4 Sales Officers today, across 9 districts. Building this to 10–12 is part of the mandate.

Travel: 20–26 days/month in market. This is not a desk role.

Why this role exists

We sell through a super stockist distributor SO retailer chain across nine districts: Purnia, Katihar, Araria, Kishanganj, Supaul, Madhepura, Saharsa, Bhagalpur and Banka. The network is live and billing.

It is also being run by four Sales Officers. That is roughly two districts per man, which means most of the territory is being touched occasionally rather than worked, and nobody can tell you which parts. What we do not have is a single person who owns the plan: which markets get worked in what sequence, which distributors are worth keeping, where the SO’s day actually goes, and whether the offtake number on the sheet is real.

Territory knowledge today sits with individual Sales Officers. When an SO leaves, the area’s performance leaves with him—we have watched this happen. This role exists to build the team the territory needs and to move that knowledge into the company.

The mandate

1. Own the go-to-market plan for the territory

• Sequence which districts and which market points get worked, in what order, with what expectation.
• Set the beat plan for every SO—a permanent journey plan, not improvised routes.
• Decide the width vs. velocity call per market: where we push more outlets, where we push more offtake per outlet.
• Own the district-level number and defend it monthly with reasons, not adjectives.

1. Build and prune the distributor network

• Assess every existing distributor on capacity, credit behaviour, coverage willingness and infrastructure, and replace the ones who are just a godown.
• Appoint new distributors in gap markets; negotiate ROI, coverage commitment and stocking norms upfront.
• Enforce the 15-day stocking discipline. No loading. Billing must track consumption, not our own pipeline.
• Handle claims, returns and market damage cleanly enough that distributors stop treating it as a negotiation.

1. Build and run the SO team

• Size the team properly: work out how many SOs each district actually needs against outlet count and beat days, and make the case district by district.
• Recruit, train and exit SOs. Taking the team from four to the right number is the first year’s most important deliverable.
• Review daily beat adherence, productive calls, lines per call and new outlet addition weekly, not monthly.
• Work with each SO in market at least two full days per month, on his beat and on his counters.
• Ensure every SO’s territory data lives in the system, so a handover costs us a week and not a quarter.

1. Drive velocity in existing width

• Run targeted sampling in specific markets with a defined before-and-after read. Sampling is a velocity tool with a measurable outcome, not a spend line. We will provide a Trade Marketing Executive under you to coordinate these efforts.
• Identify slow-moving outlets and fix the cause: wrong SKU, wrong visibility, wrong retailer margin or the wrong retailer.
• Own visibility execution at counter level for our formats.

1. Operate through the system

• All planning, reporting and review run through our internal sales and stock tracking platform. Field observations that never enter the system do not exist.
• Submit a weekly written review to HO covering what moved, what did not, and what you are changing.

What you will be measured on

Metric

Why it matters

• Unique billing outlets per month (by district)
• Real width, not claimed width
• Offtake per outlet per 15 days
• Velocity—the number we actually manage
• Distributor stock days on hand
• Proof the 15-day discipline is holding
• SO productive call % and beat adherence
• The engine that drives both above
• New distributor appointments meeting ROI norms
• Network quality
• Continuity of area sales through SO handover
• Whether territory equity moved to the company
• Market returns and damage as % of dispatch
• Discipline in the pipeline

What we are looking for

Must have

• 3–10 years in FMCG field sales, with at least 3 years handling a rural or semi-urban distributor territory as an ASM, ASE or Senior TSI.
• Has personally appointed distributors and closed non-performing ones, not just managed inherited ones.
• Has managed a team of 6+ Sales Officers, including hiring and exits, and has recruited SOs personally rather than receiving them from HR.
• Bihar or eastern UP market experience. Knows the mandi towns, the wholesale pockets and the transport realities.
• Comfortable using an Android app for reporting and can read an Excel sheet of his own numbers.
• Hindi fluency is essential; working English for written reporting.

Preferred

• Background at HUL, ITC, Dabur, Emami, Britannia, Parle, Balaji, Priyagold, Anmol, Ghari or a comparable rural-strength company.
• Impulse or low-unit-price category experience (confectionery, mouth freshener, snacks or sachets).
• Experience opening a market where the brand was previously unknown.

What this role is not

This is a planning and command role. If the person we hire ends up personally working counters to make his own number, we have hired the wrong person. Working with an SO on his beat to coach and audit is the job. Becoming the tenth SO is not.