Distributor Account Manager – Digital Industries, India
Location: Pune, Delhi, Bangalore (and other primary industrial hubs)
Purpose:
Define and drive the regional Distribution Channel Strategy for Siemens Digital Industries (DI). Achieve aggressive sales growth, expand market share, and hit regional revenue targets by cultivating high-performing, profitable, and strategic industrial distribution partnerships. As the primary commercial relationship owner, the Distributor Account Manager is responsible for driving both primary sales (Sell-in: Siemens to Distributor) and secondary sales (Sell-through / POS: Distributor to local machine builders/OEMs, panel builders, System Integrators, contractors, and industrial MRO accounts). The role orchestrates channel expansion into emerging industrial clusters, maintains strict commercial and inventory discipline (stock turns, DOH, buffer stock), mitigates channel conflicts, and leads distributor sales and technical enablement. By aligning partner competencies with Siemens' industry-leading automation, PLC, and drive technologies and digitalization solutions, the Distributor Account Manager strengthens local market reach, elevates brand shelf-space, and ensures consistent, scalable business growth across the assigned territory.
Main Responsibilities:
1. Distribution Channel Strategy, Network Planning & Partner Governance
- Formulate & Execute Distribution Strategy: Develop and implement comprehensive annual regional distribution business plans (ABP) tightly aligned with the Digital Industries portfolio
- Distributor Network Mapping & White-Spot Expansion: Continually assess regional industrial coverage; map industrial clusters to identify geographic and vertical white spots; recruit, onboard, and develop specialized automation and drive distributors to maximize local market penetration.
- Commercial Governance & Agreement Structuring: Establish and govern annual distributor commercial agreements, credit terms, tiered discount structures, Special Price Agreements (SPAs), and performance-linked quarterly/annual growth rebates to drive profitable volume growth.
- Channel Mindshare & Shelf-Space Ownership: Cultivate trusted executive relationships with distributor business owners and leadership teams, ensuring Siemens Digital industries command dominant shelf-space, priority stocking, and mindshare over competing brands.
- Channel Conflict Management & Rules of Engagement: Establish, uphold, and govern clear Rules of Engagement (RoE) between industrial distributors, System Integrators, and Direct Accounts, eliminating price cannibalization, protecting partner margins, and ensuring healthy channel co-existence.
- Distributor Profiling & Tiering: Evaluate and categorize distribution partners based on technical capability, financial health, sales force competency, and warehouse infrastructure, establishing tailored development roadmaps for each partner tier.
2. Sales Realization, Inventory Management & Demand Fulfillment (Sell-in & Sell-through)
- Drive Primary (Sell-in) and Secondary (Sell-through) Sales: Own the complete distribution revenue realization cycle—driving high-velocity flow/run-rate business and balancing distributor stock replenishment (Sell-in) with actual market consumption (Sell-through / POS) across Digital Industries portfolio
- Optimize Inventory Health & Stock Profiling: Guide distributors on optimal inventory profiling, core product stocking matrices, fast-moving catalogue items, Days of Inventory on Hand (DOH), and buffer stock levels; proactively monitor, manage, and liquidate aging and slow-moving stock.
- Order Fulfillment & Supply Chain Collaboration: Collaborate closely with internal customer service, logistics, and factory supply chain teams to track order backlogs, monitor component lead times, expedite critical customer dispatches, and ensure high on-time delivery (OTD) performance.
- Special Price Agreements (SPA) & Project Pricing: Rigorously evaluate, structure, and steer distributor SPA and project discount requests, balancing aggressive market win-rates against regional price realization, margin thresholds, and price stability.
- Working Capital & Credit Risk Management: Partner with commercial and finance teams to actively monitor distributor credit lines, receivables aging, payment discipline, and cash flow health, ensuring complete financial compliance and minimal credit risk.
- Counter & Walk-in Sales Velocity: Accelerate over-the-counter and catalogue sales velocity for standard automation and drive components by establishing rapid quotation and dispatch workflows within distributor branches.
3. Market Penetration, Technical Enablement & Channel Demand Generation
- Distributor Technical Enablement & Competence Building: Drive systematic technical training and certification programs for distributor sales engineers, application specialists, and counter staff on product sizing tools (including but not limited to TIA Selection Tool, DT Configurator), basic PLC engineering (TIA Portal), drive parameterization, and competitive conversions.
- Counter Marketing & Point-of-Sale (POS) Branding: Elevate distributor branch, counter, and showroom visibility through professional product demo boards, live interactive demonstration kits, promotional displays, and point-of-sale branding to capture walk-in and trade demand.
- Distributor Counter Days & Customer Tech Clinics: Co-host regular 'Distributor Counter Days', product clinics, and technical workshops to introduce new PLC, HMI, and Drive innovations to local contractors, machine builders, panel builders, and plant maintenance teams.
- Joint Customer Engagement & Field Sales Support: Lead joint field sales calls with distributor sales teams targeting local machine builders (OEMs), panel shops, and industrial MRO accounts to qualify opportunities, position technical value, and secure deal conversions.
- Promotional Blitzes & Secondary Demand Campaigns: Design and deploy focused regional promotional campaigns, trade incentives, product bundle packages (e.g., Micro-PLC + HMI + Drive starter kits), and digital outreach programs to stimulate secondary demand.
- Competitive Intelligence & Voice of Market: Continuously monitor and report competitor moves—including pricing trends, distributor discount levels, stock availability, and lead-time dynamics from competitors (Rockwell, Schneider Electric, ABB, Mitsubishi, Omron, Delta)—providing actionable feedback to regional leadership.
4. POS Analytics, CRM/PRM & Channel Operations
- Point-of-Sale (POS) Data Management & Analytics: Enforce disciplined, timely, and granular POS data reporting from all authorized distributors; analyze secondary sales data to uncover end-customer buying patterns, vertical demand trends, repeat orders, and untapped accounts.
- Demand Forecasting & S&OP Alignment: Translate POS consumption trends, channel inventory levels, open pipeline, and run-rate signals into high-accuracy rolling monthly and quarterly sales forecasts, directly feeding regional Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP).
- PRM & CRM System Excellence: Ensure comprehensive logging and tracking of distributor master data, SPA approvals, project registrations, pipeline opportunities, and performance metrics within PRM (Partner Relationship Management) and Salesforce CRM systems.
- Distributor Performance Scorecards & Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR): Conduct structured, data-driven Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) evaluating distributor performance against key KPIs—including sales targets, POS growth, stock turns, new customer acquisition, training certifications, and policy compliance.
- Market Development Fund (MDF) Governance: Oversee the allocation, execution, and ROI tracking of Market Development Funds (MDF) allocated for distributor marketing initiatives, trade shows, promotional literature, and customer engagement events.
Required Knowledge/Skills, Education, and Experience:
- Education Qualifications: B.E. / B.Tech in Electrical / Electronics / Instrumentation / Mechatronics Engineering. A Post-Graduate Diploma along with experience in Distribution and Supply Chain Management is a strong advantage.
- Professional Experience: Minimum 10+ years of demonstrable experience in Channel Sales / Distribution Management, with a proven track record of handling authorized industrial distributors in the Industrial Automation, PLCs, Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs / AC Drives).
- Distribution Economics & Commercial Acumen: Deep expertise in industrial distribution business models, including Sell-in vs. Sell-through dynamics, distributor working capital, inventory turn ratios (DOH), commercial rebate structures, discount cascading, and credit governance.
- Automation & Drives Technical Depth: Strong working knowledge of Digital industries portfolio - including but not limited to Factory Automation & Motion Control architectures: PLCs (micro, compact, and modular), HMIs, Variable Frequency Drives (standard and modular VFDs), Servo systems, Decentralized I/O, Industrial Ethernet (Profinet), and digital selection tools (TIA Selection Tool, Sizer/DT Configurator).
- Channel Leadership & Conflict Resolution: Demonstrated leadership in cultivating high-trust relationships with distributor business owners/principals, driving team motivation, and resolving multi-channel sales conflicts with diplomacy and commercial firmness.
- Analytical & Operational Capabilities: Strong competency in analyzing POS datasets, sales funnels, and inventory reports using CRM/PRM platforms (Salesforce) and MS Excel / PowerBI; exceptional communication, presentation, and collaborative negotiation skills.
