Assistant Key Account Manager

About the Role

Unilever is seeking an Assistant Key Account Manager to join their team in Jeddah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role involves managing sales, negotiations, and order facilitation for assigned customers at the store level, ensuring alignment with the Customer Business Plan (CBP) and channel strategy. The position focuses on building strong customer relationships by understanding their operations, addressing performance gaps, and identifying new growth opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver the Customer Business Plan and develop corrective actions for performance shortfalls or upsides based on short-term plan execution.
• Conduct sales and negotiations within agreed parameters set by the NKAM/KAM for customer relationship strategy, managing the process end-to-end within relevant stores, including pricing, order placement, delivery, and administrative tasks.
• Optimize the claims management process, ensuring end-to-end TTS execution from forecasting to accrual, validation of claims, dispute resolution, and timely customer payments.
• Ensure Perfect Store execution by Field Sales through data analysis of PS scores and integrate learnings for continuous improvement.

Promotional Planning and Execution

• Manage total trade spend, terms and conditions, and transfer of funds and budgets in alignment with business objectives.
• Determine promotional tactics, frequency, and attributes, leveraging TPO to optimize plans for customers/region.
• Review promotional plans with a focus on pre-evaluation of all TTS spend to maximize ROI.
• Confirm promotional details with customers, identify opportunistic promotional activities, and manage changes to rebates and live rates.
• Analyze profit pools and review CCD building blocks (non-promotional plan).
• Update the annual plan through monthly review of the promotional grid, feeding into the S&OP cycle (volume and TTS).

Internal Customer Management

• Collaborate with the operations team to manage day-to-day operational execution, including Perfect Store ownership, to minimize stock issues, damaged goods, and claims, while ensuring stock rotation and avoiding high inventory levels.
• Build the S&OP forecast in alignment with the KAM/NKAM on turnover assumptions, budgets, and channel strategy.
• Agree on activities with Category Teams when performance gaps occur against the CBP before finalizing with customers.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Proven negotiation track record at a Customer Facing Management level.
• Experience working across multiple business teams and balancing multiple priorities.
• 5-10 years of relevant experience.

People Development

• Implement CD Capability building priorities and focus on skills to future-fit the people and business.
• Identify and execute pilots/experiments to build in-market edge and develop new team capabilities.
• Onboard new hires, interns, and movers to customer dynamics and Unilever Ways of Working.
• Foster a culture of purpose and lifelong learning.