- Role
- Territory Sales Officer
- Experience
- 4–7 years in general trade, including distributor handling
- Location
- Gurugram, with regular travel across the territory. Field role.
Who we are, and why we exist
Ashnoor is a mustard oil brand run by a family that has been in this trade since 1998. For twenty years we sold other people's oil across a counter in Agra. That is long enough to learn which names a shopkeeper reaches for without being asked, and which ones he has to talk a customer into. In 2018 we put our own name on a bottle.
That is a harder thing than it sounds. A family does not walk in and ask for mustard oil. They ask for the one they had last time — wahi wala dena. Earning that one sentence is the entire business. It is why we would rather be plain about what is in the pack than clever about what it does. We make no health promises and no miracle claims. We promise the same oil, in the same pack, every time, carrying a batch code that leads back to a person who answers for it.
We are still a small house. These roles are open because the work has outgrown the people doing it — not because a deck said to hire. Whoever takes these seats will set how a young brand behaves for a long time.
So, who are we looking for?
The Area Sales Executive owns a beat. This role owns the territory those beats sit in — which means you own the distributor network, the width of our reach, and the health of the numbers underneath it.
Most territories fail quietly, not loudly. The distributor's stock ages. Claims pile up until nobody wants to open the file. Coverage looks fine on paper because the same forty outlets are billed every month while sixty others were visited once and never again. Schemes get heavier each quarter to hold a number that stopped growing on its own. None of that shows up in a monthly total until it is expensive.
This role exists to keep that from happening — and to grow the territory honestly while it does. You will appoint distributors, and you will also be the one who says a distributor is not working out and handles it properly.
What you’ll be owning
The distributor network
Appointing, onboarding and running the distributors in your territory. Their working capital, their stock cover, their claim file, their delivery discipline. When one is not working, you say so early and you handle the change cleanly — no stranded stock, no outlet dropped in the middle of it.
Width and depth, as two separate numbers
How many outlets bill us at all, and how much each one takes. It is easy to grow one and quietly lose the other. You will watch both, and you will be able to say which of the two a given month's growth actually came from.
The team on the beats
You will guide the Area Sales Executives working under your territory — beat plans, targets set against the season rather than against last month, and days spent in the market with them rather than reviewing them from an office. Their development is part of your job, not a side effect of it.
Schemes, and what they actually cost
You will propose schemes and then own their arithmetic — what it cost per case, what it bought, and whether the volume stayed after it ended. A scheme that has to be repeated to hold its own number is not a scheme, and we would like to hear that from the person who ran it.
Stock health across the territory
Ageing, rotation, damage and returns. Mustard oil keeps well, but a carton stacked wrong in a hot godown for a season is a complaint waiting to reach a kitchen. You keep the oldest stock moving first and you flag what should not go out at all.
The territory's plan, written down
A month-on-month view of where growth comes from — which towns, which distributors, which pack sizes — and an honest read of what is not working. Presented plainly enough that a person who has never been to your territory understands it.
What we’re looking for
4–7 years in general trade FMCG sales, with at least two years handling distributors directly. Edible oil or staples is a strong advantage. Experience opening a new market for a young brand counts for more here than years spent riding an established one.
Beyond the years
- You have appointed a distributor and you have also ended one — and you know that the second is the harder skill.
- You can read a distributor's stock and claim position and tell whether the relationship is actually healthy.
- You have led field people and you know the difference between reviewing a number and working a market alongside someone.
- You are literate with numbers — coverage, ECO, lines per bill, cost per case — and you can explain any of them to someone who does not live in a sales report.
- You will travel. The territory does not get understood from Gurugram.
You’re probably not right for this if
- Your experience is entirely with a brand that already had pull, and the distributors mostly came to you.
- You would rather manage a number than manage a market — this seat requires both, and the market comes first.
- You are uncomfortable delivering bad news early. Here that is the most valuable thing you can do.
How we’ll know you’re doing this well
Billing outlets grow without the scheme spend growing to match. Distributor claims stay current instead of ageing into a dispute. Your Area Sales Executives get better at the job while working for you. Stock ages less. And your monthly read of the territory turns out to be right often enough that we plan against it.
Hiring here is free at every stage. Ashnoor never asks a candidate for money — if anyone does in our name, it is fraud.