Jordan, Lebanon & Syria Market Development Head

Job Purpose:

As part of the continuous evolution of the NALT cluster and operating model, the role will combine 3 of the top NALT Markets, Jordan, which is a stage 3 market with lots of opportunities for growth and white spaces, along with Lebanon and Syria which are respectively stage 2 and 1 markets, with a very developed Confectionary, food and Petfood categories.

The role is responsible for developing and executing Mars strategy in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria by building and leveraging the Mars Snacking distributors’ organization and capabilities to win with our multi-category portfolio across the channels and customers. Moreover, the role will be overseeing our RTM transformation projects over the coming years.

The role will develop the markets vision and strategy together with Marketing, Customer Growth and LEVANT business team to define category plans and investment frameworks. In addition, the role is critical in partnering with key stakeholders across Mars and the distributor to build the distributor capabilities, customer relationships and mutual profitability.

This role will be directly and indirectly responsible for building a highly performing team and inspiring and engaging the distributor sales organization to deliver the market objectives, execution guidelines and perfect store ambitions.

The role represents Mars in the assigned market and acts as ambassador to drive Mars culture and Five Principles within the distributor organizations.

The role reports into the Levant sales director and is a key member of the LEVANT Business Team.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Market Strategy:

- Lead the development of the 3-year growth strategy for Jordan, Lebanon and Syria to deliver against the market’s growth and profitability aspirations

- Develop and deploy the markets SIA in line with overall NALT and MEA SIA

- Develop the go to market strategy with right distributor network to best deliver on the levers of the overall strategy.

Business and Financial Performance

- Deliver against our aspirations for category growth through flawless execution of our Perfect Store and physical availability strategy.

- Accountable to deliver the operating growth plan & P&L Shape objectives. Includes the delivery of NSV, MAC shape and Market contribution.

- Accountable for trade budget management and optimization. To include channel customer, and local promotional strategies.

Line Management and Team Leadership

- Responsible for recruiting, retaining and developing a high performing capable and engaged market development team (TDS)

- Accountable for building strong talent pipeline and culture that highlights the benefits of personal career development and a pool of best-in-class functional expertise.

- Motivate and inspire the market leader to deliver both the teams and the wider sales agenda.

- Builds an effective and high performing team across the extended teams of distributors creating strong morale and encouraging and facilitating open dialogue.

Distributor Relationship

- Build strong relationships with the distributors’ key stakeholders and facilitate multifunctional relationships with the Mars back-office team.

- Support and enable the distributors’ GM / Sales Director to deliver the Mars Market priorities and objectives.

- Ensure the delivery of the sales target for the Mars unit / categories periodically and annually

Distributor Organization Development

- Work closely with the GM / director of the distributors to design the most effective distributor organization structure with the right level of staffing to enable future growth aspirations.

- Leverage Customer Growth and Strategic Demand teams to up skill the capabilities of the distributor organization with strong customer and category programs.

- Work closely with Mars P&O and distributors HR functions to ensure proper team compensation, incentives and effective line management to drive team overall engagement.

Channels & Customers development

- Lead the development and implementation of channel strategies in the assigned market.

- Develop a strategic relationship with the top three customers.

• Co-develop and execute the optimum field sales coverage model which is grounded in strategic insights e.g. ability to influence customer, strategic importance and delivers differentiated outlet coverage across all channels based on cost-to-serve analysis/SCM priorities

- Drive excellent execution and delivery of picture of success ambitions through the implementation of category and shopper centric initiatives with key partners in the assigned markets

Cross functional Collaboration

- Lead the market demand planning (forecasting) process together with Market Collaboration manager and have the prime accountability on delivering S&OP+ KPI’s and deadlines regarding assigned markets.

- Collaborate with Mars central supply team on replenishment process and with distributor logistics organization regarding inventory management and customer service levels.

- Drive customer and distributor centricity across the CBU and Customer Growth team and ensure the integration of the distributor key resources in the Mars customer and category planning process.

Partner with the Customer Experience team to ensure the delivery of appropriate tools and solutions which enable the field sales team to deliver a best-in-class customer experience and excellent execution.

Education & Professional Qualification

+10 Years of sales experience in FMCG/consumer products with strong leadership and field sales experience.

Knowledge/Experience

• Significant and diverse sales, customer and leadership experience preferably with both internal and external sales forces and demonstrated ability to work through others in a resourceful and inspiring manner to deliver business results.
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• Strong track record of developing and executing visions and strategies that clearly measure the performance against defined KPI’s, taking action to address gaps and strive for continuous improvement.
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• Ability to navigate complex situations and challenge the status quo with a can-do attitude. Self-reliant, decisive and resilient and able to respond and adapt to a fast moving, swiftly changing environment.
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• Experience of developing best-in-class efficient coverage and resource models which optimize physical availability, conversion and ROI for the company and the customer, adopting a continuous improvement mindset to identify opportunities for enhancement.
• People leadership of a cross-functional and remote team(s) with demonstrated ability to build capability, develop talent and engage associates.
• Commercially and financially astute with a deep understanding of the retail environment/marketplace and proven business judgement with an understanding of the commercial impact of one’s own decision making.
• Experience in areas such as (but not exclusive to): Field Sales, Distributor Management, Route to Market, Strategic National Accounts, Customer Marketing, Category Leadership beneficial.