Head of Retail Sales

ABOUT ADGRID

AdGrid is an early-stage, stealth-mode AdTech–FinTech company based in Gurugram, building a platform at the intersection of advertising technology and financial infrastructure. We are a small, fast-moving team hiring the people who will help shape the company from the ground up.

THE ROLE

We are looking for a retail sales leader to own and scale AdGrid's business across India's retail ecosystem. You will set the national go-to-market strategy, build and lead the field sales force, drive end-to-end deployment of our devices across thousands of kirana counters, and own both the acquisition and the retention of the merchants we serve.

This is a role for someone equally strong at strategy and execution — and exceptional with people. You design the plan and run the beat with your team on the ground. You know how to read a market, how to speak to a kirana owner, a distributor, a market association and a modern-trade buyer differently, how to win merchants away from the competition, and how to keep them. You carry yourself well in a business meeting, and you build relationships that last.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the national retail strategy: market prioritisation, territory design, coverage and beat plans, and density targets.
• Build the acquisition and activation playbook, and refine it as the market responds.
• Plan phased rollout into new cities and markets, from pilot to scale.
• Crack new markets: read why merchants adopt or resist, and build the plan to tap any geography.
• Convert local merchants and retailers from competitors, and win share in contested markets.
• Stay ahead of the competition on proposition, pricing input, and on-ground execution.
• Drive onboarding of new merchants at pace and at quality.
• Push activation and usage, not just sign-ups; move merchants from onboarded to actively transacting.
• Own retention and farming of the base: build the retention strategy, reduce churn, and grow throughput per counter.
• Own device deployment across the retail ecosystem end to end; from planning and installation to activation, uptime
• and servicing.
• Make sure every deployed device is live and earning, and build the deployment plan geography by geography.
• Coordinate closely with operations and supply for readiness, replacements and field support.
• Build genuine, lasting relationships with merchants, distributors, and market and trade associations.
• Represent AdGrid in business meetings, partnerships and negotiations, and tailor how you present to whom you are speaking.
• Open and grow channel and distribution partnerships where the model needs them.
• Build, hire and lead the field sales organisation (Territory / Area Managers and the executives under them); set targets, incentives and the operating rhythm.
• Coach in the field, and own team ramp, productivity, retention and bench strength.
• Own the numbers end to end: a tight daily/weekly/monthly review cadence, accurate forecasting, budget for your patch, and funnel and field productivity tracked through dashboards and CRM.

KEY SUCCESS METRICS

• Merchants onboarded and live, against plan.
• Activation rate and time to activation.
• Active, transacting merchant base, and retention/churn.
• Devices deployed, live, and uptime across the base.
• Throughput and revenue per counter.
• Field-force productivity (per-executive output, beat adherence).
• Coverage and density expansion, and new-market rollout.
• Team hiring, ramp time and attrition.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Strong depth in retail/field sales, selling into Indian retail and kirana counters.
• Background in one or more of: FMCG distribution sales, fintech merchant sales, or SaaS/solution sales to retail.
• Proven experience building and leading a full field sales force and owning its number — a multi-layer team, not an individual-contributor track.
• A genuine mix of strategy and execution: you can design the plan and run the beat yourself.
• Exceptional relationship and communication skills — you read a room, adapt your approach to different retail formats and stakeholders, and carry a business meeting with confidence.
• Comfortable with a field-heavy role, including regular time in the market and travel across geographies.
• Judgment-led use of AI and modern sales tools (CRM, dashboards, outreach): faster output and sharper decisions, but you own the numbers and the quality of what ships.

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates may send their resume to [HIDDEN TEXT]. In a few lines, tell us about a field sales force you have built, and one retail market you have cracked or won from the competition.