General Manager - Commercial Strategy - Automotive

Position Description:

Role: General Manager: Head Commercial Strategy.

Location: Andheri, Mumbai.

Reporting Into: Sr. General Manager (Head - Non - Vehicular Business & Commercial Strategy).

Purpose of the Position:

- The Head of Commercial Strategy is a pivotal senior leadership role that defines how the OEM competes and grows commercially - across markets, channels, and customer segments.

- This role translates corporate vision into actionable commercial plans, drives revenue performance, increases market share through micro - markets, improves channel efficiency & profitability, expand sales/service network, improve customer experience, transform sales & marketing process/system through digital/AI, improve marketing effectiveness and builds the commercial capabilities required to win in a rapidly transforming automotive landscape.

- Key intent is to integrate all commercial functions and measure them through common KPIs.

- Further, this role also asks for establishing transformation office/war - room to implement and govern sales/marketing/network/customer experience initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

Sales & Network Excellence/Customer Experience:

- Create sales & marketing strategy as per corporate vision. Align all key stakeholders and derive strategic imperatives for sales, marketing, network and customer experience.

- Design short - term and mid - term interventions for sales, marketing, network excellence and run the commercial performance cadence - weekly forecasts, monthly reviews.

- Build commercial dashboards and reporting frameworks.

- Identify underperformance risks early and orchestrate corrective action across micro - markets.

- Foster a data - driven, customer - centric commercial culture across the organization.

- Lead pricing strategy and discount governance to protect brand positioning and margin.

- Define market entry and expansion strategies for new geographies and customer segments.

- Drive the agency model and DTC transition strategy in collaboration with external partners.

- Define powertrain mix, variant strategy, and trim - level positioning by market.

- Own product lifecycle commercial management from launch planning to end - of - life.

- Develop EV adoption incentive strategies and value - chain commercial models.

- Build and govern the competitive intelligence function across all key markets.

- Design service and sales network expansion plan & execution strategy.

- Help service design optimal bay capacity and productivity requirements.

- Translate macro and market trends into actionable commercial strategy adjustments.

- Commission and synthesize market research, pricing benchmarks, and demand analysis, strategic insight to Sales, Marketing, and Product to sharpen competitive response.

- Complete digitalization of sales process in company and at dealerships. Identify used case for AI adoption in sales and network processes.

- Drive customer experience and network transformation initiatives (e.g. digitalization of sales & service customer experience process, establish model dealerships as per global benchmarks, dealer engagement, dealer profitability, footprint expansion).

- Establish transformation office & PMO and governance mechanism to implement sales excellence/network transformation /customer experience initiatives.

Marketing:

- Process establishment for smooth transfer of marketing initiatives to sales team.

- Work closely for new market development.

- Work with zonal marketing teams for hyperlocal demand creation and make sure all stakeholders are engaged (dealers, sales team, CX team etc.).

- Complete digitalization of Martec and customer nurturing process.

- Design and deploy service marketing.

Stakeholder Management:

Internal Stakeholders:

Sales:

- Work closely with national sales heads, zonal heads and regional managers to understand ground level problems and for implementation of new initiatives related to micro - market and other sales excellence.

- Interact with S&OP team for improving sales planning/schemes.

Marketing:

- Establish smooth transfer of demand creation initiatives to ground level sales team.

- Integrate zonal marketing team with zonal sales team & dealerships for hyperlocal demand creation.

Network Team:

- Network head/Zonal Network heads for expansion and driving expansion & channel profitability.

Service Team:

- To drive service experience, improve bay productivity and expansion of footprint.

Customer Experience Head & Team:

- To drive transformative & digital initiatives for sales pipeline management, complaints, customer feedback, call centre & training.

External Stakeholders:

- Channel Partners to improve sales effectiveness & experience.

- Customers.

- Govt. agencies.

- Vendors.

- Consultants.

KPI's:

Quantitative:

- Market Share Improvement in Key Markets & Products.

- Optimization of FME & VME.

- Channel growth and expansion.

- Improvement in Product Contribution Margin.

- Demand Creation (e.g. additional enquires through market/business development).

Qualitative:

- Draw and alignment of vision & roadmap for commercial strategy with all stakeholders.

- Readiness of digital/AI first processes for CX, Network, Sales & Service and Marketing.

- Seamless working processes across marketing, commercial function and dealer network.

- 100% sales pipeline management process adoption across levels.

Personal Profile:

Education: B.E/B.Tech. / MBA.

Experience:

- 15 to 20 years of sales/marketing/network experience in Automotive Industry.

- Relevant experience: Management Consulting Experience Preferred.

- Strong experience across Sales/Marketing/Network Development in Automotive Industry, topped with Management Consulting experience.

- Ability to Implement and Execute Strategic Plans in real scenarios.

- Cross - Functional understanding of Commercial value chain.

- Credible and demonstratable experience of having brough about change/impact in previous roles.

- Experience of leading Transformation Projects, involving multiple Functions and Stakeholders.