Simply Sales Talk: What's a regional sales manager?

Tuesday, October 06, 2015 Jes SimplySalesTalk 7 Comments

I finally got to be a Manager.

I have lots of queries about my job and what I do. It's only logical as it's really uncommon in the workplace. Not all industries have them and only some companies have regional sales manager. If your company only have an office in one of the SEA countries, then high chance that they will have a regional sales manager.

A regional sales manager do sales regionally instead of just locally.

It's really a huge region with lots of growth potential.

Singaporeans have a distinct advantage in that we are highly educated, can speak English better and our passports does not require VISA in SEA except Myanmar. Compare that to my Indian boss who needs a VISA for all the SEA countries, he can't really travel in short notice and sometimes, the VISA does not reach him on time.

My company only have an office in Singapore so from here it serves as its HQ. For Singapore customers, they are easy, I can visit them anytime. For the other countries that require us to do sales, I cannot deal with them on my own. I will not be able to attend to the overseas customer frequently and build a relationship with them. Most times, their English is really not so good and they are more comfortable speaking in their native language.

Here comes the position of a distributor, also known as a trader, a middle man. A distributor distributes our products and they are mostly exclusive resellers. They serve to bridge the gap between the overseas manufacturers and local end users. They will help to book our accommodation, settle the logistics to bring us to our customer's place, liase with the drivers and plan the schedule. They will entertain their customers, push our products and attend to complaints immediately. Even in Singapore, we do have a distributor as they help us to keep stocks in their warehouse, collect and push for payments and give credit accordingly.

Majority of the time spent sleeping in transport..

So I can just slack right? NO! My job is to give them my support. I track their sales progress and push them to do more. I find out why we have lost business and grill them on how to get it back. I give them price support if needed and technical support when they bring me to visit their customers. I give them clear directions on which products to promote and educate them on the benefits of the products so that they are equipped to compete. Their sales numbers are my KPI so I will have to work closely with them.

Besides that, weekly and monthly reports are common and of course a summary is required after every customer visit. It's not just fun when I go overseas, the reports are a dreary chore but it's good that I consolidate the information gathered and reflect on the sales direction.

Am I boring you?

I hope this sound interesting because it's a job with excellent exposure in terms of different cultures but also in terms of managing the distributors. I got lucky in my current job because it's a niche product that I have previous background in and I have the upper hand on that. Now the tricky part is to work with the distributors and not by getting sales based on my own effort. I am quite happy with this job and I hope to do well.

I have finally become the small fish in the big pond but let's see if it's worth it.