Abhishek Sood

• A result-oriented professional with over 10 years of experience in Sales & Marketing field; specifically, in Packaging Materials such as Flexible Packaging, Labels, Tube Laminates, FBB/SBS Paper Packaging Boards, and managing clients on PAN India level 
• Provided in-depth analysis of markets, industry trends, competitors & clients to improve strategic plans and decision-making
• Pipelined sales based on market research, network management, and client references; planned and prepared approaches, pitches, and proposals, participated in pricing and work order negotiation
• Collaborated with assigned inside sales representative to develop an overall territory account plan to maximize opportunities and generate sales activity with customers and partners
• Investigated prospective accounts in targeted markets, pursue leads, and follow through to a successful agreement
• Possessed understanding of target markets, including industry, company, project, company contacts, and which market strategies can be used to attract clients
• Managing the involvement of company personnel, new product development, and factory teams, including support, service, and management resources, in order to meet partner performance objectives and partner expectations
• Proactively leads a joint partner planning process that develops mutual performance objectives, financial targets, and critical milestones associated with a productive partner relationship
• Familiar with unmet needs of the end user and worked with the New Product Development and Product Management, teams, to develop sustainable differentiated solutions that will be valued by the entire value chain

Aug’20 – Present: JK Paper Ltd., New Delhi as Key Accounts and Business Development Manager

Responsibilities & significant accomplishments:

• Supervising a portfolio of 140 Crores/annum, with key customers developed within the last 2 years.
• Onboarded new brand owners like- Godfrey Phillips India, Mother Dairy, Page Industries, Micro Labs, Aurobindo Pharma, and many more.
• Managing North, South, and East Regions of India.
• Targeting and converting leading brand owners in Pharmaceutical, Home & Personal Care, Wines & Spirits, Foods & Beverages, Quick Service Restaurants, Electronics, E-Commerce.
• Working with clients like Nestle, Reckitt, Dabur, Himalaya; Cavinkare, Mc'Donalds & Yum Brands, and many more.
• Negotiating contracts with key clients and meeting established deadlines for the fulfillment of each client's long-term goals.
• Acting as the main point of contact between key clients and JK internal teams.
• Communicating and collaborating with the advertising, design, marketing, sales, and logistics departments to ensure that key clients’ needs are met.
• Mounting end customers (brand owners) and tie-ups for specifications nominations in the North/South/East Zones of India.
• Executing client research and identifying opportunities for account growth, account penetration, and market expansion.
• Safeguarding improvement in product development on feedback received from end customers and benchmarking against competitor’s products.
• Functioning on the launch and scale-up of new products developed by JK Paper Ltd.
• Steering workshops at customer's sites to help them understand existing portfolios, new developments, industry trends, and new advancements.
• Administering market intelligence regarding competitor’s activities, market prices and trends, product-wise sales, demand, and supply and reporting the same to upper management.

   PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE 

Jun’17 - Mar’20: Avery Dennison India Ltd., Gurugram as Business Development Manager -Home & Personal Care

Responsibilities significant accomplishments:

• Amplified the penetration of pressure-sensitive materials and grew Avery Dennison's share based upon a deep understanding of the Home & Personal Care market segment's packaging needs throughout India.
• Supervised Strategy development for Home & Personal Care segment throughout the Country.
• Operated closely with leading Brand owner's teams across the decision-making unit to drive decoration transfer from other labeling technologies to pressure-sensitive labeling technology and had Avery Dennison products specified for their product packaging.
• Ensured relationships throughout the ecosystem (end user, design house, container manufacturer, converter, equipment, and consumable manufacturers) to drive the above objective.
• Functioned closely with product management and sales team on optimization of the Product portfolio - Sales, Profitability, SKU optimization, and multi-generation product plan aligned regionally and nationally wherever possible.
• Managed Market communications development with Marcom (translating from global/local where necessary and possible.

Dec’14 – May’17: Huhtamaki, New Delhi as B2B Client Servicing Officer - Tube Laminates (Northern Region)

Responsibilities & significant accomplishments: 

• Managed 21 new clients in the Northern Territory from the date of joining.
• Upsurged in the monthly value and volume turnover to an average of 3.5 Cr /month as against last year's base of 2 Cr /month.
• Operated as a single point of contact between the customer and Huhtamaki departments.
• Worked to establish Huhtamaki as a competent supplier for various packaging applications of end customers.
• Facilitated Troubleshooting on complaints from both internal and external customers & ensured better performance.
• Monitored the entire operations and managed a customer base of 30 against 16 (at the time of accepting the territory responsibility).
• Gathered the assigned yearly value and volume target set at the beginning of FY 16-17.
• Provided information regarding value and volume growth of 52% and 56% respectively.
• Examined the development of new clients in North, who contributed approx. 35% of the total monthly business.
• Networked with marketing, operations, purchase, and packaging development teams of clients.
• Recognized the packaging trends, competitive scenario, and completion of the information/feedback loop to help formulate products/services & strategies to maintain the company's leadership status in the packaging industry.

Jun’12 – Dec’14: ITC Ltd., Chandigarh, J&K and Himachal Pradesh as Area Sales Executive 

Responsibilities & significant accomplishments: 

• Supervised a team of 32 members, 28 salesmen, 2 team leaders, and 2 PSRs to drive channel sales.
• Established excellence in generating a revenue of 1.2 Crore in Q4 FY 13-14 against 60 Lacs in Q4 12-13.
• Honored with the Best Launch Execution Market Award for the Launch of Vivel Skin Nourishing Range, reviewed by the Regional Sales Manager of ITC Ltd. in 2013.
• Captured bulk Civil Supply orders of Soaps around 5 Tons through regular meetings and follow-ups with the higher government department officials.
• Won PCP KA VIRAAT Contest as ‘Leading Area Executive’ for the Northern area district out of 78 executives for Personal Care Products.
• Expertly developed markets in Himachal (Shimla Section), Jammu City & J&K Upcountry.
• Worked with premium brands like Fiama DI Wills, Superia, Vivel, Engage, Mangaldeep, AIM Matches & Homelites Matches.
• Smeared appropriate strategies to promote products across various channels/ levels using proper tools through trade inputs, merchandising, and customer contact.
• Influential in building up of New Stockiest channel in the assigned territory & Salesforce team development.
• Functioned for areas in Himachal and Jammu upcountry.
• Promoted new launches like Vivel Skin Nourishing Range & Engage Deodorant brand for ITC Ltd., in Jammu Section.

Preserved a database for all the claims and RFA’s of the distributors and ensured their timely submission to the finance department of the company.