Job Description

Role Background
Oorja is seeking a Sales Associate to oversee service sales and utilisation for the entire Eastern UP region. You should bring a minimum of 3-4 years of sales experience, preferably selling services to rural or low income customers. You will be stationed in multiple field locations and cover all of our sites (currently: 152 solar projects) in eastern UP. You will lead the team's efforts in promoting irrigation and milling service sales and be responsible for meeting utilisation and sales targets. The focus will be on delivery of pushing up monthly sales at existing solar irrigation projects, supervising Operators, and leading rural marketing efforts. The ideal candidate will bring a proven track record of achievement in a high-growth venture or entrepreneurial position. You should be comfortable having daily touch points with groups of farmers, have good knowledge of traditional marketing techniques, and have strong organisational and analytical skills. You should be able to work under pressure to meet targets and timelines and have the ability to supervise and coach others. Prior knowledge of billing/payment options and POS systems suited to under-banked customers will be an advantage. You should have excellent spoken and written communication skills in Hindi.

Key Duties

• Day-to-day management, coordination, and supervision of the field teams (current size: 5); monitor and help teams reach their set KPIs; coach and mentor team members to overcome challenges
• Devise and implement strategies to increase asset utilisation, sales, and collections efficiency
• Schedule and make regular visits to sites, Operators, customers and partners
• Implement advertising and marketing strategies
• Effectively use sales and other data provided to diagnose under-performing assets
• Strive to achieve high customer satisfaction and retention.

Roles & Responsibilities
As a Sales Associate, you will be expected to serve a key role within our Sales & Collections team. Your responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Data Analysis & Diagnosis

• Regularly analyse sales and utilization data for each site, village and district to understand patterns and trends, using Sales Data Dashboard, PCRs, etc.
• Reconcile data with field observations, reports from Sales team and Operator and customer feedback
• Diagnose reasons for lower utilisation and promptly find and implement solutions to address them
• Prepare reports with financial profitability insights for different sites, customer profiles and geographical regions.

Promotion of Service Utilisation

• Execute quarterly sales plans and targets assigned by senior management in order to increase customer base and drive up sales volumes per asset
• Make regular in-person visits to all solar project sites, in order to meet with Operators, customers, and the community and check on asset security and integrity
• Build meaningful relationships with customers to understand their needs, aspirations, and challenges; devise solutions to improve customer satisfaction and improvement of service offerings
• Lead marketing and brand-building efforts, such as door-to-door campaigns, putting up canopies in project site villages, distribution of flyers, getting village walls painted, displaying explainer videos, explaining benefits of services and running campaigns; monitor the success of these campaigns; ensure new leads are passed on to the BD team
• Add new members to existing sites; mobilize inactive members to use the service; convince active members to use more often, in order to achieve high customer retention and reduce churn rate
• Assist with and coming up with solutions for more effective scheduling of services
• Ensure assets are not sitting idle for instance because of technical fault, borewell issues, dispute with Operator, etc.; recommend sites to be relocated, as a last resort
• Come up with and implement incentive plans, discounts, recognitions, rewards and other monetary and non-monetary benefits for both the Operators and customers, with approval from management; communicate prices and promotions to customers and Operators
• Promote cooperation and mutual understanding between the company, its representatives, Operators, customers and the community; promptly resolve disputes; ensure all customers are treated fairly, while acting to protect the interest of the company at all times
• Take immediate and strict action to address, resolve or report occasional instances of theft, vandalism or non-cooperation from the community
• Ensure other organisations working on similar lines are not installing solar pumps next to Oorja's sites; flag possible instances of competition at current or prospective sites
• Ensure solar panels are cleaned at least once every 10 days and reported promptly
• Coordinate with Farmer Advisory team to ensure all customers are being trained on cultivating a third season and diversifying to water-intensive high value crops.

Operator Training & Supervision

• Oversee the hiring and training of new Operators; allocate the assets each Operator should handle; ensure each Operator is handling sufficient but not excessive number of assets;
• Work closely with each Operator on a 1:1 basis, monitoring their actions (hours they are present at the site, ensuring they are not facilitating or involved in water theft, offering services to all customers, actively mobilizing non-members to use the service, charging and recording the correct tariff, honestly and correctly recording the sales, etc.)
• Retrain Operators periodically to help improve their performance; ensure Operators are operating the service fairly and following company procedures
• Remove and replace Operators that are never present or not performing.

Team Leadership

• Allocate the sites that each Sales Assistant should handle, based on geographical proximity
• Set goals and periodic targets based on KPIs set by senior management
• Motivate, coach and support Sales Assistants to reach their targets and their own KPIs; provide feedback, monitor progress, and participate in performance reviews
• Lead weekly team meetings; ensure effective use of time and participation by all team members
• Monitor and approve team members' reporting hours, location, expenditure, leave, cooperation with other team members, etc.

Payment Collections

• Oversee and ensure on-time and efficiency cash sales and payment collections, accurate recording of transactions, cash reconciliation and deposit in company bank account
• Lead the digitisation of cash payment records and integration of new digital payment methods (mobile money, online banking, etc.)

Other Responsibilities

• Identify additional revenue streams from pumping water (when not needed for irrigation), such as for use in fish ponds, mango orchards, drinking water, filling of government tankers, etc.
• Devise and implement tests of other secondary use of solar PV when pumps are not running
• Experiment with underground pipes and other water distribution or pipe rental methods
• Motivate the community members to shift to online / mobile transactions instead of cash
• Provide the management with weekly updates and monthly progress reports, insights and opportunities to expand the business
• Perform any other duties as assigned from time to time by management.

Qualifications & Skills

• 3-4 years of relevant professional experience in business in rural India
• Master's degree in Sales & Marketing, Agribusiness, Commerce, or other relevant discipline
• Proficiency with computers; ability to analyse data in MS Excel and PPT and use Google Sheets
• Native fluency in Hindi (verbal and written); knowledge of English is a plus, but not required
• Excellent active listening skills; confident communicator with good persuasion abilities
• Ability to motivate, coach and influence others
• Well organised with good documentation and reporting skills
• Entrepreneurial, motivated, and self-starting candidate
• Street-smart with the ability to solve problems effectively
• A team player, with ability to work independently with minimal supervision
• Track record of producing results on time in a fast-paced environment
• Curiosity, team spirit, commitment and passion for the social and environmental challenges that drive Oorja's work
• Valid driver's license and ownership of a motorcycle and laptop.

If this opportunity appeals to you, please send your application by filling the brief online application form before 2nd August 2024 here - www.oorjasolutions.org/apply-now/

Job Type: Full-time

Work Location: In person

Application Deadline: 02/08/2024
Expected Start Date: 16/09/2024