Microsoft Product Manager - Midrand at Rectron South Africa

Primary Objectives:

• Management of the product lifecycle, by gathering and prioritizing the product and customer requirements, defining the vision and working closely with suppliers, to deliver winning products and solutions to the market.
• Effectively working in conjunction with sales, marketing, and technical support teams ensuring that customer satisfaction and revenue goals are met.
• Ensure that all product and marketing efforts support Rectron’s overall strategy and goals.
• Effectively communicating with the chosen supplier and ensuring that all requirements are met, and providing proper feedback to the sales team, finance, and marketing where applicable.
• Take responsibility for recruiting customers to build up the customer base. By achieving this objective, you will be required to provide regular training for the sales team as well as customers on your product suite.
• Ensure that you will be the largest contributor in terms of customer recruitment on your product line and will need to personally cement relationships with the bulk of your customer base.
• Facilitate with marketing dept., for driving all go to market activities on your product line, within Rectron. (in accordance with Rectron’s full product offering, strategy and customer requirements) This includes PR, Advertising, Social media, relationship building activities, Trade marketing and direct communication where necessary.
• Enthusiasm in spending time in the market to understand their problems and find innovative solutions for the broader market. In conjunction with this is it your prerogative to spend time understanding industry trends and key developments.
• Understanding the competitive market, both supplier and Rectron competitors with regards to pricing, unique selling points, differentiators etc.
• Ability to communicate professionally within all areas of the company.
• Identifying and liaising with marketing communications to define the go-to-market strategy, helping them understand the product positioning, key benefits, and target customer. You will also serve as the internal and external evangelist for your product offering, working with the sales channel and key customers.
• Effectively relay all information from the Supplier and will be Rectron’s main point of contact with the Supplier. Act as a point of first reference for all product related queries.
• You will be measured on Revenue and stock holding as well as GP percentage and it is imperative that you manage this and make sure that it is communicated to all incumbent staff.
• It is extremely important that you spend the majority of your time in communications with customers in order to educate and advise them on strategies for their businesses.
• Liaising with your counterparts in the branches ensuring that they have all the available information required, in order to support you in their own customer recruitment activities.
• Providing an SLA for internal and external queries in terms of responding to email and telephone calls on time. In order to facilitate and assist you with this, you each need to nominate a second person as a backup for you when you are not available.
• Interacting closely with management to report decisions regarding the product.

Education/Qualification

• Matric or
• Higher education – Diploma /Degree

Skills & Competencies

• Strong sales ability
• Excellent customer relationships
• Motivated by additional sales
• Ability to work under pressure
• Well-disciplined individual
• Excellent project management skills
• Strong organisational skills & business acumen
• Attention to detail

Experience (experience required for the job)

• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in sales and/or product management
• Detailed understanding of turnover and profitability, sales cycle, aged stock and key products
• Driver’s license
• Effectively communicate to Sales team to achieve set objectives and deliver on turnover and margin requirements. 
• Define the product strategy and roadmap.
• Set pricing to meet revenue and profitability goals.
• Prepare product forecasts, and constantly monitor inventory levels.
• Propose an overall budget to ensure success.
• Work with channel partners, to understand market changes and demands
• Manage product training.
• Effectively work with Sales Managers and business units within Rectron to ensure efficient communication and sell-out.
• Seek and actively promote new consumer channel opportunities.
• Meet and exceed total shipments in all product categories.
• Focus on new business development and emerging markets.
• Manage the entire product line life cycle from strategic planning to tactical activities.
• Specify market requirements for current and future products by conducting market research supported by on-going visits to customers.