Head National Sales

WAE India; Sector 10; On-site; INR 9,000,000 - 14,000,000; Full time

Job summary

WAE India is seeking an accomplished sales leader to drive growth in its premium coffee and tea vertical for modern workplaces across India. You will build a national sales engine, win high-value enterprise accounts, and expand multi-location deployments with disciplined sales discipline and strong customer engagement.

You will lead strategic accounts from discovery to closure, align with operations and procurement, and develop a capable regional team to repeat success as WAEs premium offering

Qualifications

• A strong and demonstrable record in enterprise sales and business growth.
• Proven ability to lead geographically distributed sales teams across India.
• Experience scaling an emerging business, expanding a premium category or building a substantial institutional customer base.
• Direct experience winning strategic accounts and negotiating multi-location agreements.
• Strong understanding of enterprise procurement and stakeholder decision-making.
• Commercial ownership encompassing revenue, margins, forecasting and collections.

Responsibilities

• Lead pan-India commercial growth of WAEs premium coffee and tea vertical for modern workplaces.
• Convert early market traction into a scalable, profitable business through strategic account acquisition and expansion within existing enterprise relationships.
• Develop and execute a national sales strategy with clear priorities for customer acquisition, geographic expansion, revenue and margins.
• Build and lead a national sales organisation with regional teams, targets, and governance.
• Coach the team in consultative selling, pricing discipline, and account expansion; stay involved in strategic deals.

Job description

Business Vertical: Coffee & Tea | Premium & Super-Premium Workplaces

Market Coverage: Pan India

The Opportunity

The proposition is proven. The next mandate is scale.

WAE is a leading player in the water segment, serving more than 900 Tier I clients across India. Building on this foundation, we have entered the premium and super-premium workplace beverage segment with a proposition that brings together carefully sourced coffee and tea, precision brewing systems, and dependable service.

Successful pilots have validated the offering, and client acquisition is underway. We now seek an accomplished sales leader to accelerate this momentum, build a strong national team, and establish WAE as a preferred beverage partner for discerning workplaces.

Our ambition is to compete for enterprise preference alongside established names such as Blue Tokai and Lavazza, with a distinctive offering defined by beverage quality, brewing consistency, customer experience and commercial credibility.

This is an opportunity to take an emerging business with demonstrated customer acceptance into its next phase of growth and build it into a national market leader.

Role Purpose

Lead the pan-India commercial growth of WAEs premium coffee and tea vertical for modern workplaces.

Convert early market traction into a scalable, profitable business through strategic account acquisition, expansion within WAEs existing enterprise relationships, disciplined sales execution, and the development of a high-performing national team.

Position the offering as an integral part of a premium workplace experience, with a compelling combination of product quality, brewing expertise, equipment performance, and service reliability.

1. National Growth Strategy and Execution

Develop and execute a national sales strategy for the premium and super-premium workplace segments, with clear priorities for customer acquisition, geographic expansion, revenue, margins and recurring business.

Build on the learning from completed pilots and initial customer wins to identify the most promising customer profiles, solution configurations and commercial models.

Prioritise corporate headquarters, global capability centres, technology campuses, financial institutions, professional-services firms, premium coworking environments and other workplaces with a strong commitment to employee and guest experience.

Translate the growth strategy into quarterly sales plans, regional targets and individual accountability.

2. Premium Positioning and Consultative Selling

Articulate a compelling value proposition that connects the quality of coffee and tea with the standards and aspirations of the customers workplace.

Lead sales conversations around provenance, sensory quality, brewing precision, consistency, presentation and servicesupported by a sound understanding of customer economics.

Equip the sales team to compete credibly with established premium beverage brands and specialist workplace providers.

Protect the positioning through appropriate account selection, professional demonstrations, consistent communication and disciplined pricing.

3. Strategic Enterprise Account Acquisition

Personally lead high-value opportunities from stakeholder engagement and solution development through tasting sessions, proposals, negotiations and closure.

Build relationships with decision-makers across Administration, Facilities, Procurement, Human Resources, Workplace Experience, Finance and senior leadership.

Understand the customer’s current beverage arrangements, employee expectations, consumption patterns and operational requirements. Develop tailored proposals that demonstrate both experiential and commercial value.

Secure multi-location agreements and create a structured pathway from initial deployment to wider enterprise adoption.

4. Development of WAE’s Existing Client Relationships

Build a focused account-development programme across WAE’s base of more than 900 Tier I clients.

Work with existing relationship owners to identify suitable premium beverage opportunities, access decision-makers and develop coordinated account plans.

Prioritise customers where WAE’s established credibility, service relationships and understanding of workplace operations can support meaningful commercial engagement.

Ensure the beverage proposition earns its place through quality, relevance and execution, while benefiting from the trust already established by WAE.

5. Pan-India Sales Team Development

Build and lead a national sales organisation with the capabilities required for premium enterprise selling.

Recruit and develop regional sales professionals and key account managers who can engage discerning customers, communicate product value and manage complex sales cycles.

Establish clear territories, account ownership, targets, review routines and performance expectations.

Coach the team in consultative selling, beverage presentation, competitive positioning, negotiation, and account expansion. Remain personally involved in strategic deals and important customer relationships.

6. Conversion, Deployment and Account Expansion

Use the successful pilot experience and early customer wins to develop a repeatable sales-conversion process.

Deploy demonstrations, tastings and selective trials where they resolve a specific customer requirement or advance a qualified opportunity. Define success criteria, decision-makers and commercial next steps at the outset.

Coordinate with beverage specialists, Operations and Technical Services to ensure that customer commitments translate into consistent delivery.

Develop each acquired account through additional sites, expanded beverage programmes, renewals and referrals.

7. Portfolio and Customer Experience Development

Provide structured market feedback to product, sourcing and operations teams on coffee and tea preferences, brewing formats, equipment requirements and service expectations.

Help shape differentiated offerings for executive offices, employee cafs, collaborative spaces, meeting areas and high-consumption workplace environments.

Ensure commercial proposals accurately cover the relevant combination of beverages, brewing equipment, consumables, training, maintenance and replenishment.

Preserve the quality of the customer experience as the business expands across locations.

8. Revenue, Profitability and Commercial Discipline

Own sales achievement, gross margin, pipeline quality and commercial performance within the assigned mandate.

Negotiate pricing and contract terms within approved authority, taking account of equipment investment, consumption commitments, service requirements, payment terms and account profitability.

Work with Finance to assess deal economics and ensure that growth is supported by sound capital deployment and timely collections.

Build a healthy balance of new customer acquisition, recurring consumption revenue, retention and account expansion.

9. Market Presence and Strategic Partnerships

Build relationships with premium workplace operators, facility-management companies, workplace consultants and other relevant enterprise influencers.

Work with Marketing to turn successful deployments into credible case studies, customer references and focused account campaigns.

Represent the business at relevant industry forums, curated tastings and customer engagements.

Track competitor activity and evolving workplace preferences, translating market intelligence into practical improvements in positioning and execution.

10. Sales Governance and Leadership Reporting

Maintain disciplined CRM usage, accurate opportunity stages, and realistic sales forecasts.

Conduct regular reviews of regional performance, strategic accounts, conversion rates, margins and team productivity.

Present clear business updates to leadership, identifying growth opportunities, operational dependencies and corrective actions.

Ensure sales commitments remain aligned with product capability, service capacity and approved commercial terms.

Preferred candidate profile

Essential Experience

• A strong and demonstrable record in enterprise sales and business growth.
• Proven ability to lead geographically distributed sales teams across India.
• Experience scaling an emerging business, expanding a premium category or building a substantial institutional customer base.
• Direct experience winning strategic accounts and negotiating multi-location agreements.
• Strong understanding of enterprise procurement and stakeholder decision-making.
• Commercial ownership encompassing revenue, margins, forecasting and collections.

Preferred Industry Background

Experience in premium coffee, speciality coffee, professional brewing systems, premium tea, workplace beverage programmes or closely related institutional food and beverage businesses.

Experience with brands or businesses competing in the premium segment—including organisations such as Blue Tokai, Lavazza or comparable providers—would be relevant.

Candidates from adjacent categories should demonstrate an ability to sell a premium proposition and scale a service-supported, recurring‑revenue business.

Leadership Attributes

• A builder’s mindset with the discipline to scale.
• Personal credibility with senior enterprise customers.
• Appreciation of beverage quality and the ability to communicate its value.
• Strong negotiation and commercial judgement.
• A hands‑on approach to strategic selling and team coaching.
• The ability to work effectively across product, marketing, finance and operations.
• Willingness to travel extensively across India.
• Integrity, accountability and ownership of customer commitments.

Qualifications

A graduate degree is required. An MBA or postgraduate qualification in Sales, Marketing or Business Management is preferred. Demonstrated success in sales leadership and business expansion will carry substantial weight.

The Mandate

Take a validated premium beverage proposition with early customer traction and build the sales engine for national growth. Bring the leadership to develop the team, the credibility to win discerning customers, and the commercial discipline to turn momentum into a strong, enduring business.