Program Manager | Estuary World

Company: TopHawks

Client: Estuary World

Function: Sales & Business Operations

Industry: Premium FMCG / Beverages / Alcobev-Adjacent

Location: Delhi(NCR)/Mumbai / Bengaluru / Ahmedabad initially; role may evolve to Pan-India oversight

Employment Type: Full-Time

Experience: 610 Years

Reporting To: Program Director / Business Head

Team Management: Cross-functional field sales, team leaders, ASMs, KAEs and support functions

Travel: High travel requirement across assigned markets

TopHawks is looking for a high-calibre Program Manager Sales Outsourcing to lead the execution and operational governance of a strategic sales outsourcing program for Estuary World, a premium blending-water and beverage portfolio.

The Program Manager will be responsible for converting the agreed sales strategy into disciplined, measurable and scalable market execution across General Trade, Modern Trade, HoReCa, Institutional/Corporate Gifting and related channels.

This is a business ownership role, requiring an individual who can operate at the intersection of sales, distribution, field operations, key-account management, people management, analytics, technology and client governance.

The successful candidate will be expected to build a high-performance operating rhythm, drive distribution and sell-through, identify execution gaps, manage escalations, improve field productivity and ensure that the Estuary program delivers against agreed business KPIs.

The role will initially support the 3-city pilot across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, with the program designed to subsequently expand across Priority-1 markets and potentially toward a 220–260 member field and management organisation in Year 2.

Key Responsibilities

1. Program Ownership & Business Delivery

- Own the day-to-day execution of the Estuary World sales outsourcing program across assigned markets.
- Translate annual and phase-wise business objectives into actionable city, channel, team and individual-level targets.
- Drive achievement of distribution, availability, strike rate, sell-through and productivity objectives.
- Ensure that agreed operating plans are executed consistently across markets.
- Identify business risks, bottlenecks and growth opportunities and proactively implement corrective actions.
- Build scalable operating processes that can be replicated as the program expands into new cities and states.
- Maintain strong commercial discipline and ensure resources are deployed against the highest-value opportunities.

1. Field Sales & Distribution Management

- Drive execution across General Trade, premium retail and other assigned channels.
- Monitor outlet acquisition, distribution expansion, order generation and replenishment.
- Ensure appropriate outlet segmentation, beat planning and territory allocation.
- Drive retailer education and adoption of the Estuary product proposition.
- Monitor stock availability and minimise stock-outs across priority outlets.
- Work closely with distributors and stockists to ensure healthy primary-to-secondary sales flow.
- Ensure new outlet onboarding progresses from identification to first stock delivery within defined SLAs.
- Analyse territory productivity and recommend manpower/resource reallocation wherever required.

The proposed operating model uses tighter field spans, with FSEs covering approximately 35–45 outlets per beat, Team Leaders supervising 9–10 FSEs and ASMs owning city/cluster-level distribution accountability.
1. HoReCa & Key Account Execution

- Support acquisition and development of premium bars, restaurants, hotels, clubs and other on-premise accounts.
- Drive strategic account penetration and ensure active stocking and serving of Estuary SKUs.
- Monitor bartender/retailer training and product education initiatives.
- Track account-level performance, order frequency, SKU penetration and repeat business.
- Coordinate with HoReCa Key Account Executives to develop city-level account acquisition plans.
- Identify high-value hospitality clusters and recommend targeted market-entry strategies.

1. Corporate Gifting & Institutional Sales

- Drive the development of institutional and corporate gifting opportunities during relevant seasonal windows.
- Monitor lead generation, proposal conversion and order closure.
- Build structured corporate prospecting and follow-up mechanisms.
- Track wedding, event, hospitality and corporate gifting opportunities.
- Ensure festive-season pipelines are built sufficiently in advance rather than relying solely on inbound demand.

The Estuary strategy specifically calls for structured outbound corporate campaigns ahead of the Diwali/New Year gifting period and a repeatable annual-account conversion model.
1. Team Leadership & Performance Management

- Lead, coach and develop field sales managers and frontline teams.
- Establish clear KRAs, KPIs and performance expectations for every layer of the organisation.




- Conduct structured performance reviews and productivity interventions.
- Identify high performers and build succession pipelines.
- Address underperformance through documented Performance Improvement Plans where required.
- Work with recruitment and HR teams to maintain a healthy hiring pipeline.
- Ensure attrition is proactively managed and replacement SLAs are achieved.
- Drive a culture of accountability, data-driven decision-making and execution excellence.
- Conduct regular joint-working and field coaching with managers.

1. Distributor & Retailer Relationship Management

- Develop strong relationships with distributors, stockists, premium retailers and strategic trade partners.
- Monitor distributor productivity, coverage, inventory and order fulfilment.
- Identify distributor gaps and recommend corrective actions.
- Support distributor onboarding and territory expansion.
- Resolve retailer and distributor escalations within agreed SLAs.
- Ensure trade schemes are communicated and executed accurately.
- Monitor scheme effectiveness and recommend optimisation based on sell-through data.

1. Sales Analytics & Business Intelligence

- Own the daily/weekly/monthly sales performance dashboard.
- Analyse distribution, weighted distribution, strike rate, stock-outs, merchandising compliance and sell-through.
- Identify trends, exceptions and underperforming territories.
- Convert data into actionable recommendations for business leadership.
- Establish city-wise and channel-wise performance benchmarks.
- Develop productivity dashboards for FSEs, TLs, ASMs and KAEs.
- Track target versus achievement and establish root-cause analysis for gaps.
- Present business insights rather than merely reporting numbers.

The program's KPI framework includes numeric and weighted distribution, strike rate, stock-out incidence, merchandising compliance, sell-through velocity, HoReCa active accounts, corporate gifting conversion, field productivity and attendance/journey compliance.
1. Sales Force Automation & Technology

- Ensure high adoption and disciplined usage of TopHawks' proprietary field-management platform.
- Monitor geo-tagged attendance, GPS-verified journeys, outlet visits, order booking and field productivity.
- Ensure real-time field data is accurately captured.
- Review dashboards to identify productivity and compliance gaps.
- Use technology-led insights to improve field deployment and sales execution.
- Ensure all relevant operational and commercial data is available for client reporting.

The technology stack provides geo-tagged attendance, GPS-verified journey tracking, photo-verified merchandising compliance, order/stock visibility and real-time distribution and sell-through dashboards.
1. Client Management & Governance

- Act as a key operational interface between TopHawks and Estuary World.
- Establish strong working relationships with Estuary's commercial and operational stakeholders.
- Prepare and lead weekly operational reviews.
- Prepare monthly business reviews covering KPI performance, distribution, sell-through and key initiatives.
- Support quarterly strategic reviews and phase-gate discussions.
- Present performance, risks, corrective actions and growth opportunities to senior stakeholders.
- Ensure client commitments are tracked and delivered within agreed timelines.
- Manage escalations with speed, ownership and transparency.
- Maintain executive-level communication without compromising operational detail.

The governance structure includes weekly operational reviews, monthly business reviews and quarterly strategic reviews, with the Program Director serving as the principal senior-account interface.

1. Process Excellence & Continuous Improvement

- Build SOPs, playbooks and operating mechanisms for scalable sales execution.
- Identify process inefficiencies and implement corrective measures.
- Standardise successful city-launch models before replication.
- Conduct periodic process audits.
- Establish best practices for outlet acquisition, distributor management, field productivity and account development.
- Drive continuous improvement through structured PDCA/root-cause-analysis methodologies.
- Ensure program expansion is driven by performance evidence rather than headcount alone.

Key Performance Indicators The Program Manager will be measured on a combination of business, operational, people and client-service KPIs, including:

- Distribution growth
- Weighted distribution
- Outlet acquisition and activation
- Strike rate
- Average productive calls/visits
- Sales and order-booking achievement




- Sell-through velocity
- Stock-out reduction
- Distributor productivity
- HoReCa active-account growth
- Corporate/institutional sales pipeline and conversion
- Merchandising compliance
- Field attendance and journey compliance
- Team productivity
- Attrition and replacement performance
- Recruitment turnaround
- Client satisfaction
- Timely submission of MIS and governance reports
- Corrective-action closure rate

The program's formal SLA framework requires, among other commitments, field replacements within 10 working days, first response to retailer/HoReCa issues within 24 hours, resolution/escalation plans within 72 hours, and corrective action plans within 7 days for KPI shortfalls.

Candidate Profile

Must-Have Experience
- 6–10 years of relevant experience in Sales, Sales Operations, Field Sales, Sales Outsourcing, FMCG, Premium FMCG, Beverages, Alcobev, HoReCa or Retail Distribution.
- Proven experience managing geographically distributed sales teams.
- Strong experience in distributor management and market expansion.
- Demonstrated experience managing sales targets and operational KPIs.
- Experience managing Team Leaders, ASMs or equivalent middle-management layers.
- Strong client-facing and stakeholder-management experience.
- Strong command of MIS, Excel/Google Sheets and sales dashboards.
- Experience using SFA/CRM/field-force automation platforms.
- Willingness to travel extensively across markets.

Preferred Experience Candidates with experience in any of the following will be strongly preferred:
- Premium spirits / beverages / mixers
- FMCG sales outsourcing
- General Trade and Modern Trade
- HoReCa / On-Premise sales
- Distributor-led business models
- Corporate gifting / institutional sales
- Multi-city or Pan-India sales operations
- Premiumisation-led categories
- Sales transformation / market expansion programs
- Managed services / outsourced sales environments

Core Competencies

Commercial Acumen

Ability to understand revenue drivers, distribution economics, trade margins, productivity and sell-through.

Leadership

Ability to lead managers and frontline teams through clear expectations, coaching and performance accountability.

Analytical Thinking

Strong ability to interpret sales data, identify patterns and convert insights into action.

Execution Excellence

Highly disciplined approach to planning, tracking, follow-up and closure.

Stakeholder Management

Comfortable working with CXO-level/client stakeholders, distributors, retailers and frontline teams.

Problem Solving

Ability to independently diagnose operational issues and build practical corrective-action plans.

Communication

Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills.

Technology Orientation

Strong comfort with SFA, CRM, dashboards, Excel and data-driven sales management.

Ownership Mindset

Should operate with a "business owner" mentality, rather than a task-execution mindset.

Educational Qualification

Mandatory: Graduate degree in any discipline.

Preferred: MBA/PGDM in Sales, Marketing, Business Administration, Operations or related discipline.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 90 days, the successful candidate should be able to:

- Establish strong command over the assigned market and sales organisation.
- Build a predictable operating rhythm across field teams.
- Improve data accuracy and SFA adoption.
- Establish clear visibility of distribution, productivity and sell-through.
- Identify and close critical execution gaps.
- Strengthen distributor and retailer relationships.
- Create a high-accountability culture within the team.
- Deliver reliable weekly and monthly business reviews.
- Contribute materially to the successful transition from pilot to the next phase of the Estuary expansion plan.

Why Join This Program?
- Opportunity to manage a strategic Pan-India sales transformation program.
- Exposure to a premium, differentiated beverage category.
- Opportunity to work with a high-growth brand associated with a major global spirits ecosystem.
- Direct exposure to senior client stakeholders.
- Opportunity to build and scale a multi-city sales organisation.
- Ownership across sales, distribution, people, technology and business governance.
- Strong career progression opportunity as the program scales nationally.

Ideal Candidate We are looking for a high-energy, commercially sharp and execution-oriented sales leader who is equally comfortable reviewing a distributor's secondary sales, coaching a frontline manager, analysing a dashboard and presenting a business review to senior client stakeholders.

The ideal candidate should be data-driven but field-oriented, strategically capable but operationally hands-on, and comfortable owning outcomes in a high-growth, multi-city workplace.

If you believe you can build a high-performance sales organisation and turn a differentiated premium product into measurable market presence, we would like to hear from you.

📌 Program Manager (Delhi)
🏢 Translucent Pixel Otter
📍 Delhi