What education should a commercial director have? Who is a commercial director: responsibilities and functions

is a person who, through his actions, mobilizes, controls and directs the company’s personnel to achieve maximum profit. Depending on the direction of activity of a production or trade organization, the requirements for the qualities and abilities of a candidate for this position and the functional responsibilities of the commercial director of the enterprise may differ slightly.

The role and main tasks of the commercial director

Despite the importance of this figure in the enterprise management system, his responsibilities and functions are not always clear. Most often, people from the purchasing department apply for this position. Who, if not a sales manager, knows the specifics of communication with clients, has experience in concluding contracts, and understands the peculiarities of his organization.

In general terms, the responsibilities of the commercial director of an LLC are as follows:

• long-term and short-term profit planning;
• effective management and control over the implementation of current tasks by the sales department;
• providing information;
• setting tasks for all departments of the enterprise;
• control of division directors;
• determination of the organization's marketing policy;
• communication with key clients;
• interaction with shareholders and partners;
• control over the fulfillment of obligations and contracts of your enterprise related to business activities;
• coordination of the work of departments.

Depending on the area of ​​activity of a particular enterprise, the above list may be supplemented or reduced. In any case, an applicant for this position must have a certain set of qualities.

Characteristic qualities of the candidate

The responsibilities and peculiarities of the position occupied in the organization require from a specialist not only the ability to focus on results. The ability to make decisions in a difficult situation, conflict management skills, stress resistance and loyalty, responsibility and honesty, creativity and the ability to defend one’s own opinion must be possessed by a professional department head. These skills are especially needed by top managers of trading companies.

One of the important qualities is the presence of charisma and leadership abilities. The commercial director, whose responsibilities are specifically stated in the employment contract, must be able to captivate a team of employees and encourage people to work actively. Experienced personnel officers recommend hiring a professionally mature person, over 30 years of age, for this position. Such a specialist, making informed decisions, will be able to guide and train his subordinates and employees of related departments, leading them in the direction necessary for the company.

A candidate for this vacancy must have and understand the company’s own goals and objectives, among which the main one is regular profit making. A person must have a high level of responsibility and breadth of thinking, because his position is associated with coordinating the work of all leading departments and controlling the flow of cash receipts.

And, of course, this specialist simply cannot be not proactive, not communicative, irresponsible and not purposeful.

Responsibility for the finances and economics of the trading company

In many organizations, the responsibilities of the commercial director of an enterprise overlap with the functions of the financial director. Both of these specialists plan, direct and supervise the company's purchasing, marketing and financial activities. Any decisions and actions of a commercial director must have an economic justification and be aimed at making a profit both at the moment and in the future.

Being, in fact, the first deputy of the organization's chief executive, literally his “right hand, eyes and ears,” the head of the procurement department must work closely with management. The commercial director, whose responsibilities may vary slightly from company to company, reports directly to the business owner or general manager. The position of this top manager is relevant for companies that produce and sell any goods in large volumes.

At large-scale enterprises, the commercial director is entrusted with solving global issues related to the constant increase and improvement of financial performance, with the development of measures aimed at this.

Commercial director: responsibilities and functions in a trading company

The main job of this employee in this case is to promote the brand and products of the enterprise on the market in order to make a profit. To achieve these goals, work is organized in several directions:

• determination and construction of marketing policy;
• control over accounts receivable;
• formation of procurement and sales plans, supervision of their implementation;
• selection and training of a sales team;
• creation of a motivation system and certification of managers;
• sales process inspection;
• monitoring customer requests.

The responsibilities of the commercial director of a trading company additionally include planning and managing assortment policy, knowledge of logistics and the basics of product distribution, interaction with key clients that are important for the enterprise, and participation in negotiations that are important for the organization.

Analysis of sales across the entire assortment line, profit and turnover for each position, seasonality and stability of income, functions of a leading merchandise specialist - all this is in charge of the commercial director. Job responsibilities may vary slightly depending on the specific profile of the company, but the main activity is aimed at consolidating the company’s position in the market and increasing income.

A commercial director may have different areas of activity depending on the company’s industry, profile and scale of its activities. However, in any case, it plays a key role in the enterprise management system. He oversees the strategic planning of the company and the implementation of the sales plan, builds relationships with suppliers, determines sales and logistics channels, controls budgeting in this area, and also coordinates the implementation of the marketing strategy. It is this top manager who is responsible for the formation of the final performance indicators of the enterprise, including the maximum increase in the revenue side of the budget.

Often, the commercial director maintains close ties with shareholders, since he plays one of the key roles in the management of the company. In organizing training for salespeople, the commercial director collaborates with the HR director. In determining the sales strategy, pricing policy and other issues, the commercial director collaborates with the financial director.

Functionality of the profession

1. Together with the general director and shareholders - long-term and current planning of the company’s work, ensuring the effective use of its resources;

2. Together with the CEO and shareholders - developing a strategy to expand the portfolio of brands, searching for new opportunities to develop the company’s presence in the market and free niches for the company’s products;

3. Determining the company’s trade policy, taking into account market research and past sales indicators, determining the geography of the company’s work, formulating and implementing regional sales strategies;

4. Creation and training of an effective sales team;

5. Selection of sales channels, creation and / or management of a distribution network, dealer network, management of the direct sales department;

6. Sales planning, responsibility for fulfilling the sales plan;

7. Coordination of work (or direct participation in work) with key clients, including negotiations;

8. Together with the marketing department - development of assortment and pricing policies, various programs to increase sales (trade marketing: special promotions, including budgeting; discounts; bonus programs, etc.). It is the commercial director who is responsible for the successful implementation of these programs and policies;

9. Organization of logistics - delivery, warehouses, packaging, etc. The key point of the logistics function is forecasting and planning future needs, creating the necessary structure for the delivery of goods, as well as finding new suppliers of transport and warehouse services;

10. Participation in the development of the company’s budget for the financial year (including marketing and sales budgets), approval of budgets and monitoring of their implementation;

11. The commercial director is also responsible for commercial procurement, smooth work with suppliers, selection of suppliers and services, coordination of all supply issues.

12. Organization of a system for advanced training of sales managers.

Features in companies of different industries

Features in companies of different sizes

If the company is small, then the functional responsibilities of the commercial director partially include marketing. Thus, in a small company of any profile, the functions of sales, purchasing and marketing can be the responsibility of one specialist. The number of departments subordinate to this top manager may vary depending on the specifics of the business. How to create a commercial department and manage it professionally, read the publication Executive.ru. In a large company, the three above areas are supervised by line directors who report to the commercial director.

Candidate requirements: competencies

Experience working effectively in the industry. Experience in effective sales work. Higher education, preference in economics or business. Advantages include knowledge of quantitative methods and fluent English. An MBA is also an added advantage.

A commercial director must constantly work to improve his skills. Regularly attending various types of training and seminars in your field will be a definite plus.

Candidate requirements: personal qualities

Responsibility and result orientation, excellent negotiation skills, communication skills, ability to manage a team, thoroughness, structure and consistency in work, leadership qualities, ability to make decisions in non-standard situations, ability to generate new ideas, strategic thinking, entrepreneurship, stress resistance, high performance .

Compensation level

Range from $5 thousand to $15 thousand per month depending on the size of the company and its location. The bonus for commercial directors is usually not lower than 20% of the base remuneration, the most common rate is 25-50%, sometimes up to 100%. The bonus calculator can be tied to the implementation of the sales plan. Additional conditions may be included in the bonus calculator: expansion or updating of the product line, sales growth in a certain segment or region, return on sales indicators.

How to determine the functionality of a company's commercial director? What to write in a job description for a commercial director? What are his responsibilities? What is beyond his competence? The answers to these questions may vary from company to company. Eat three main factors influencing the duties and powers of the commercial director:

• Company size: the larger the company, the more strategic tasks the commercial director faces;
• Clients of a b2b or b2c company, the simpler the product and the sales process, the less the commercial director is concerned with specific sales and the more involved in building a system and marketing;
• Availability of production– the less the company creates itself and the more it engages in sales, the greater the functionality of the commercial director.

Of course, there are many more company features that influence functions and responsibilities of a commercial director, such as: the participation of the commercial director in the founders, family ties, high leadership qualities and the participation of the head of the commercial unit at the stage of formation of the company, but we will not be able to evaluate all of them. Let us dwell on those functions that are most often prescribed in job descriptions for the commercial director of a company.

Functional responsibilities of the Director for Commercial Affairs:

1. Development of a commercial strategy for the enterprise.

The company's positioning, price segment, long-term and short-term goals, plans and ways to implement sales plans are determined.

2. Organization of interaction between commercial and other units in the company.

All employees are involved in sales in the company. Even the actions of the secretary and technical support specialist will influence the success of sales. The task of the commercial director is to ensure the actions of non-selling departments so that they help, and do not hinder, sellers and sales managers.

3. Determination of sales channels.

Select the most promising channels. Define performance criteria. Protecting your business from having only one channel and constantly developing existing channels is one of the main functions that affects the stability of sales.

4. Formation of an algorithm for the operation of each sales channel.

For a sales channel to be effective, it is necessary to determine the business processes through which sales occur in the channel. Write down these algorithms and consolidate them in the instructions. And the most important thing: make sure that these algorithms work and are not a pile of documentation that interferes with business.

5. Operational control of sales managers.

Even with a perfectly designed strategy, victory depends on the actions of each soldier. A tactical task that determines the success of the entire strategy: how to ensure that outsiders do not interfere with the leaders’ ability to pick stars. And the solution, or rather not the solution to this problem, is the scourge of most companies in Russia.

6. Assessing the performance of the unit and implementing measures to improve results.

It is impossible to build an ideal sales system once and for all. It is important to measure results, innovate, measure again, adjust and do it constantly. Stopping is equivalent to death...

7. Connection to work with key clients.

The famous Pareto rule: 20 percent of customers generate 80 percent of revenue. It is these 20% that the commercial director must personally control; of course, depending on the size of the company, he will control from 1 to 50% of clients.

8. Organization of training for managers.

It is the responsibility of the commercial director to build a training system for new and existing managers. Sometimes personal participation in training managers is necessary.

9. Work with company suppliers.

In a trading organization, this is a sacred duty. In a manufacturing company, the production unit can also handle deliveries, but the commercial director must control this process, since cost is important when selling.

First of all, the commercial director is responsible for all issues related to clients and the main profit of the company. But there is always confusion about job responsibilities of a commercial director.

The fact is that in different companies, commercial directors perform different functions. Also, two different positions are very often confused - commercial director and sales director. The maximum segment where a commercial director can work is the simultaneous management of sales, logistics, purchasing and marketing services. It is also often thought that the responsibilities of a commercial director only include managing the sales department.

Where the skills of a commercial director may be required

Today, there are a lot of available vacancies for this position, but the requirements for a commercial director are not small. The specificity of vacancies for this position is that they have been open for a very long time. This leads to the conclusion that the search itself and further selection of candidates takes a very long time. Also, vacancies are very often vacant due to the fact that new commercial directors cannot stay in their place for long (up to a year of work). All this is due to the complexity of building relationships with the founders of the company.

Most often, the vacancy of a commercial director is open in loosely structured companies in Russia. The reason is that such companies have never had commercial directors until now. The volume of operations within the company is increasing in volume and managing the company using the same methods becomes practically ineffective. As a result, the company's owners are trying to increase the company's efficiency level by attracting experienced managers and commercial directors.

It also happens that during the entire existence of the company, it had only one commercial director, who was one of the founders of the company or an employee who worked from the beginning of the company’s opening, and then was promoted to general director and now a new commercial director is required. In this case, strict requirements will be imposed on the new candidate - management literacy, new methods to achieve the goal.

If we are talking about structured companies, then in this case the mood or personal sympathies will play a lesser role than the level of professionalism. In this situation, the commercial director is a person who performs clearly defined functions in the structure of the company’s business processes.

Most often, only Western companies have any clear requirements for education or skills. As for Russian companies, they just want to find a “wizard”. That is, they need a person who will come and personally solve all the problems and raise the company to a new level.

Main responsibilities of a commercial director

The main responsibilities of this position include the following:

• The commercial director must organize the management of the logistics of the enterprise, as well as engage in storage, transportation and further marketing of products.
• The director must coordinate the development and draw up long-term plans for logistics and subsequent sales of products.
• Manages the development of all regulations and quality standards for manufactured products.
• Recommends further development strategies to department managers and financial department specialists. Controls their quality of work.
• Responsible for the timely submission of estimate and financial documents, calculations, reports on the implementation of the set plan.
• Monitors financial and economic indicators and the expenditure of funds
• Responsible for negotiations on behalf of the company with various counterparties of the company on any business or financial activities
• Acts on behalf of the company at auctions, exchanges, advertising campaigns and other events

It is also worth noting (as we said above), in some companies the responsibilities of a commercial director may differ. His responsibilities may also include:

• Developing a plan to promote a new product or service
• Discussion of the budget and its calculation together with the General Director
• Control all distribution channels
• Creation of a program for material motivation of enterprise employees
• Participate in the creation of a new personnel policy for the company
• Monitor sales reporting
• Conduct negotiations with clients
• Develop new pricing policy methods
• Make final decisions on advertising campaigns

It is worth noting here that if a person applies for this position in a foreign company, he may be required to:

• MBA diploma
• Have a good command of English
• Have at least five years of experience in a leadership position

Functions of a commercial director

As we have already understood, the main tasks of a commercial director are the organization and direction of the activities of all divisions that are located in his segment. It is worth saying that his responsibilities directly depend on the specifics of the company’s industry and the size of the organization.

In the course of his work, the commercial director interacts with various heads of different departments of the company. This list may include: accounting, marketing department, IT, logical service, financial department. Most often, the main functions of this position are joint strategic planning with different departments, the formation of marketing, pricing, financial, and personnel policies. He is also obliged to control the sale of goods and plan further sales. Its functions include monitoring the competitive environment and the market for goods and services. The commercial director must also expand and control all relationships with suppliers and form the budget for the entire commercial unit.

Personal skills of a commercial director

It’s worth going into more detail here, since personal qualities are one of the key points when choosing a person for this position. The personal qualities of a commercial director should include a special management style, delegation of authority, and skills in interacting with company employees. Naturally, such a position requires a high level of communication skills and the ability to properly manage staff. Any company will be interested in people who have general management skills and the ability to organize forecasting and budgeting.

Despite the above, each company has its own criteria by which the personal qualities of a commercial director are assessed. Everything will directly depend on the current goals of the company and the period of its development. So, it all depends on the life cycle that the organization is currently in. Depending on this, the requirements not only for management positions, but also for all employees of the company change. We will talk about each life cycle of a company, and what personal qualities a commercial director should have in each cycle.

Initial stage of development

The person must have successful experience in building business models for companies from scratch. He must be able to form a new experienced team. Among personal qualities during this period, innovation, creativity, rigidity in decisions, and structure will be valued. At this stage, the commercial director must be able to quickly and efficiently make the necessary decisions. Have an objective point of view to combat competitors.

The rise of the company

During this period, sales are growing, there are already ideas for future periods in general market trends and plans for development in organizational terms. In this case, company owners most often need a person with successful experience in structured companies, who has considerable experience in optimizing all business processes. During this period, the director must be able to quickly and competently delegate authority and have a methodical approach to any problems. Already at this stage, thoroughness and consistency in performing work are more valued. It is necessary to deeply study each problem in order to find the most effective and less expensive solution. At this stage, the director must adhere to normative guidelines and be committed to systematically promoting the goal.

Job responsibilities commercial director– this is, first of all, the organization of product sales, which means planning, negotiations, control of managers, etc. In our sample job description for a commercial director, we also provided for such a function as enterprise supply management.

Job description of commercial director

I APPROVED
CEO
Last name I.O. ________________
"________"_____________ ____ G.

1. General Provisions

1.1. The commercial director belongs to the category of managers.
1.2. The commercial director is appointed to the position and dismissed by order of the general director.
1.3. The Commercial Director reports directly to the General Director.
1.4. During the absence of the commercial director, his rights and obligations are transferred to another official, as announced in the order of the organization.
1.5. A person who meets the following requirements is appointed to the position of commercial director: higher professional education and at least 3 years of management experience in the relevant field.
1.6. The commercial director must know:
- commercial, civil, financial legislation;
- profile, specialization, features of the enterprise structure;
- prospects for the technical, financial and economic development of the enterprise;
- procedure for developing business plans;
- basic principles of financial planning;
- the procedure for concluding and formalizing business and financial contracts.
1.7. The commercial director is guided in his activities by:
- legislative acts of the Russian Federation;
- Charter of the organization, Internal Labor Regulations, other regulations of the company;
- orders and instructions from management;
- this job description.

2. Job responsibilities of the commercial director

The Commercial Director performs the following duties:
2.1. Organizes management of the material and technical supply of the enterprise, activities for storage, transportation and marketing of products (sale of goods, provision of services).
2.2. Coordinates the development and preparation of long-term and current plans for logistics and sales of products (sale of goods, provision of services), financial plans.
2.3. Coordinates the development of regulations and standards for logistics (inventories of material and technical resources), quality standards for products (goods, services), storage of finished products (goods), standards for inventories of finished products (goods).
2.4. Provides recommendations and advice to managers and specialists in financial planning, marketing, sales; controls their work.
2.5. Ensures the timely preparation of cost estimates and other documents, calculations, reports on the implementation of logistics plans, sales of finished products (sale of goods), and financial activities.
2.6. Exercises control over the financial and economic performance of the enterprise and the expenditure of financial resources.
2.7. Conducts negotiations on behalf of the enterprise with counterparties of the enterprise on economic and financial transactions, concludes economic and financial agreements on behalf of the enterprise, and ensures the fulfillment of contractual obligations.
2.8. Participates on behalf of the enterprise in fairs, auctions, exchanges, exhibitions for advertising and sales of products (goods, services).

3. Rights of the commercial director

The commercial director has the right:
3.1. Represent the interests of the enterprise in relations with government agencies, third-party organizations and institutions on commercial issues.
3.2. Establish job responsibilities for subordinate employees.
3.3. Request from the structural divisions of the enterprise information and documents necessary to fulfill his official duties.
3.4. Participate in the preparation of draft orders, instructions, directions, as well as estimates, contracts and other documents related to resolving commercial issues.
3.5. Submit proposals for improvement of work related to the responsibilities provided for in these instructions for consideration by management.
3.6. Require the management of the enterprise to provide organizational and technical conditions and prepare the established documents necessary for the performance of official duties.

4. Responsibility of the commercial director

The commercial director is responsible for:
4.1. For failure to perform and/or untimely, negligent performance of one’s official duties.
4.2. For failure to comply with current instructions, orders and regulations on maintaining trade secrets and confidential information.
4.3. For violation of internal labor regulations, labor discipline, safety and fire safety rules.