Sales Manager (Merchant Acquisition & Growth)

Cernis is hiring on behalf of our client, Costonomy.ai, a high-growth venture-backed AI startup helping food businesses optimize operational costs, automate procurement intelligence, and improve profitability. As Costonomy expands its merchant footprint across India's top metros, we're looking for hungry, street-smart field sales professionals to lead frontline restaurant partner acquisition.

As a Sales Manager, you will own the end-to-end acquisition, activation, and growth of standalone restaurants, cloud kitchens, and regional food brands within your assigned cluster. This is an intensive on-field, consultative sales role where you act as a trusted business partner to F&B owners diagnosing cost challenges, demonstrating measurable ROI, and closing long-term merchant partnerships.

What You'll Own & Deliver:

• Territory Cluster Ownership: Own a dedicated micro-market; map, pitch, and onboard high-potential restaurants, cloud kitchens, and regional outlets
• Consultative Field Selling: Conduct face-to-face meetings, run live platform demos, and present margin-improvement models to restaurant decision-makers
• Full Lifecycle Pipeline Management: Prospecting, pitching, contract negotiation, merchant onboarding, and go-live activation
• F&B Problem-Solving: Understand restaurant economics (food costs, supplier margins, procurement leakages) and position Costonomy as a mission-critical profit engine
• Target Achievement: Deliver against monthly onboarding quotas while maintaining disciplined pipeline trackers and CRM updates
• Market Intelligence: Channel competitor dynamics and merchant feedback to sales and product leadership

What We're Looking For:

• 2–5 years of on-ground B2B field sales, merchant acquisition, or business development, ideally within food-tech or the restaurant ecosystem
• Proven track record of meeting or exceeding monthly merchant acquisition targets
• Strong consultative pitching and negotiation skills with restaurant owners
• Comfort with Excel/Google Sheets (VLOOKUP, pivot tables, pipeline trackers) and discussing ROI metrics
• High resilience, bias for action, and excitement about daily field work

What's on Offer:

• High-visibility frontline role in a venture-backed AI startup
• Direct mentorship from founders and seasoned commercial leaders
• Clear promotion paths into Senior Sales Manager and Area Sales Manager roles
• Competitive compensation plus attractive performance incentives