Director Comstor - Partner Management

About the Role

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Overlay responsibility for all sales and marketing targets for the Comstor Line of Business Africa. Responsible for the delivery of the combined Comstor line of business budgets across Africa through effective interface and management of vendor relationships, and the horizontal management of the sales and businesses across the regions.

• Own and drive the Comstor Business Strategy for the specific regions

• Increase the profitability of Comstor Africa by sourcing new channel partners and business opportunities whilst ensuring that the existing business is maintained.

• Adhere to, and demonstrate Comstor's value proposition: "Comstor is a dedicated value-added distributor of Cisco networking, collaboration, security and data centre solutions through a global network of speciality resellers. Our teams create unique programmes and provide exceptional financial and technical support to accelerate the business of our partners."

• Engage with existing vendors to further develop Comstor's presence within the industry.

• Negotiate additional targeted vendors enhancing our portfolio and resulting in incremental revenue and optimal profit.

• Grow Comstor Market Share as measured by revenue and market opportunity.

• Provide thought-leadership for the relevant line of businesses, teams and their customers.

• Develop a strong Comstor Business community across the Comstor Brands.

Managers ensure employees work together to deliver the right service at the right time. Ensuring the staff are happy and effective in their roles so that the business can run smoothly, organising and delegating workload as well as monitoring them to make ensure tasks are completed correctly.

Heading up Sales Teams and providing leadership towards the achievement of maximum profitability and growth, in line with company vision and values, this role is responsible for the development and performance of all sales activities with total ownership on delivery of the vendor sales team budgets.

Responsible for the overall coordination, functional management, and leadership sales activities of the Vendor and Sales Teams. Establish annual and monthly sales objectives, by team, in coordination with the company's business plan.

Your Key Responsibilities

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Overall ownership of Comstor LOB Sales Plan and P&L.
• Overall ownership of the vendor relationship and management of the creation of business and marketing plans aligned to drive vendor objectives and enhance business coverage.
• Plan, drive and track achievement of the set budgets in terms of revenue and margins on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
• Track and ensure that the teams' sales and technical certifications are maintained to achieve vendor accreditation
• Track and achieve vendor driven targets to maximize franchise profitability
• Proactive measurement of Comstor performance via market share reports as well as internal reporting to understand coverage gaps, performance issues (if any) and set rectification measures as required.
• Set measurable KPAs in collaboration with the team and engage them to achieve said goals.
• Facilitate channel partner and internal training in line with business plans and strategic objectives.
• Meet and communicate with key channel partners to understand their business strategies and ensure mapping of the relationship at all levels within the channel partner organization i.e. management, sales, technical, operational and finance.
• Engage with the team to address escalated issues both internally (operational, financial, pricing) or externally with the partners and vendor.
• Generate and share reports with peers, management and vendors on business, product, territory and technology trends.
• Inventory Management: Review with the product team on stock ageing to comply with the stock ageing metrics as defined, on stock rotation, obsolescent stock and stock ordering levels.
• Review sales pipeline with Business Unit team and vendor sales teams on a weekly basis
• Participate in monthly management meetings as required.
• Leverage market and group intelligence to develop new vendor alliances.
• Promote, and lead by example, inter Business Unit collaboration with regards to opportunities and to cross-sell and up-sell.

Teams Support

• Provide leadership, direction and coaching for the Business Practice Leads across all the Comstor brands.
• Develop solid forecasting processes with the teams and manage on a weekly and monthly basis to provide input to the overall business forecast.
• Work with the teams to ensure solid customer messaging in-line with the strategy.
• Help develop the skills of the individuals in order to execute on the strategy.
• Assist in strategic customer engagements.
• Support the local engagement with the vendors including Quarterly Business Reviews.
• Improve the quality of our customer base resulting in increased volumes, revenue and profit.

Marketing

• Engage with the marketing team, vendor and sales to develop compelling programs and initiatives, while ensuring the plans strictly adhere to both Westcon-Comstor and Vendor Compliance requirements.

• Maintain competitive awareness of other vendor products and other distribution activities.

• Provide input to regular marketing bulletins to communicate all products, services, pricing and promotional activities.

• Ensure the vendor's products are represented effectively and accurately.

• Ensure Comstor representation at customer events.

Administrative

• Contribute to weekly, monthly & quarterly sales meetings.

• Present Executives with relevant reports and analysis.

• Maintain and develop own knowledge of Comstor Africa vendor portfolios.

Qualifications / Requirements

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Education/Certification

• Master's degree, MBA, or other relevant fields, strongly preferred
• 10 years or more experience in management in an international business setting
• Fluent in English Language

Knowledge

• A well-rounded knowledge of vendors and the value their technologies provide.
• Extensive experience in the IT Industry.
• Thorough understanding of the IT Distribution Channel and it's players.
• Knowledge and experience of Distribution channel business development programs.
• Use advanced technology concepts to link Comstor's offering to solutions in the customer's business.
• Excellent Computer literacy.

Finance:

• Financial Literacy - An understanding of Distribution P&L account.
• Experience of working in a multi-currency environment including hedging, price adjustments and uplifts, vendor and customer rebates and ability to demonstrate strategies to maximize profit margin.
• Understanding of Sales Operation and Logistics best practice.

Sales:

• A successful sales track record.
• A thorough understanding of the sales cycle - particularly of large solution sales.
• Strong business acumen and experience. Able to demonstrate sound commercial judgment to influence vendors, partners and co-workers at executive level.

Values

Demonstrates and embraces Westcon-Comstor values of Partnership, Integrity, Ambition and Accountability.

Measures of Success/Metrics

• Significant growth in revenue and profit of specific vendors.

• Expansion of the Comstor Africa Businesses.

• Quarterly objectives as agreed with line management.

• Creating a stable work environment for teams.

• Effectively leading and developing the team.