Associate Business Development Manager - Malaysia & Singapore

The Hershey Company; Johor; Remote; MYR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading consumer goods manufacturer is seeking a Business Development Manager to manage sales growth and distributor relationships in Malaysia. This role involves executing sales plans, ensuring effective trade marketing strategies, and aligning local strategies with regional goals. The ideal candidate will have strong sales and financial skills and at least 5 years of relevant experience. Excellent collaboration and communication skills are essential, along with proficiency in MS Office tools.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in a progressive CPG company.
• Strong sales management and financial skills with market understanding.
• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal.

Responsibilities

• Manage business objectives with sales target plans.
• Coordinate marketing and sales activities implementation.
• Develop Joint Business Plans for key customers.

Skills

Sales management

Financial skills

Problem-solving

Strategic thinking

Communication skills

Tools

MS Office (Excel, PowerPoint)

Job description

Location: Malaysia

Work Set-up: Remote

Summary:

This role manages the full commercial performance of Singapore & Malaysia, operating through one distributor per market as per current setting. The main focus is driving sales growth, including customer & channel-level planning, achieving financial targets (mainly net sales, gross profit, market share), and leading distributor relationships.

Key responsibilities include developing and executing sales plans, managing topline delivery, and ensuring efficient market coverage. The role also oversees trade marketing strategies to align with sales priorities and secure excellent execution. It ensures key supply chain metrics are met, focusing on order planning, fulfillment, delivery, and customer-level on-shelf availability.

The Business Development Manager acts as the primary contact for key customers across modern and traditional trade, representing the company with distributors and local partners. A core part of the role is guiding and developing distributor teams to ensure strong in-market execution and capability building.

Close coordination with regional Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain teams is essential to align local strategies with business unit goals. Strong commercial acumen, market insights, and distributor management skills are critical for success.

The role operates in a global context, requiring skills for cross-cultural team collaboration.

Summary of Major Duties:

Business Objectives/Strategy & Implementation

• Manage business objectives with sales target plans (NS, GP) by identifying potential category growth and business opportunities to meet goals.
• Coordinate marketing and sales activities implementation.
• Leverage distributor operations, drive Route-To-Market (RTM), and enhance in-store excellence through strategic alignment.
• Deliver channel strategies in CVS and SPHP with appropriate assortments, communication, and activation plans.
• Establish clear 'where to win' and 'how to win' strategies across trade, customer, category, and shopper programs with defined marketing, sales, and financial goals.
• Monitor progress and communicate strategy execution with stakeholders.

Customer & Distributor Management

• Work with the modern trade/key accounts team to develop mutually beneficial Joint Business Plans (JBP) for key customer prioritization.
• Manage distributor relationships, driving joint business performance.
• Ensure fair trade terms and effective management of activities and trade expenditures.
• Oversee trade spend budget, monitor actuals vs. budget, and adjust plans to meet business objectives.
• Define KPIs to measure sales and trade marketing goals, ensuring strategies are executed effectively.
• Manage sales analysis, administration, trade marketing, promotions, and merchandising systems.

Finance & Supply Chain

• Co-own and co-lead the execution of a healthy P&L for the market, including brands, channels, and customers.
• Align financial deliverables with marketing strategies.
• Implement control and audit processes within sales and with distributor partners.
• Understand distributor financials and influence their financial strategies.
• Plan and execute optimal inbound supply chain operations in partnership with internal teams.
• Ensure timely delivery of stock at the right price, maintaining product freshness and quality, and improving supply chain KPIs.

Job Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience, preferably in a progressive CPG company; candidates from research agencies or consulting will also be considered.
• Strong sales management and financial skills with market understanding.
• Proven influencing skills internally and externally.
• Problem-solving ability and experience dealing with ambiguity.
• Strategic thinking, storytelling, and presentation skills.
• Ability to analyze and synthesize data for insights.
• Excellent collaboration and conflict management skills.
• Strong project planning and management skills.
• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Proficiency in MS Office tools, especially Excel and PowerPoint.