Managing a store, a branch, an agent is difficult, and managing the business activity of a region is even more difficult. That's why a Regional Manager usually faces a lot more challenges than other positions.
For large-scale companies and enterprises, a Regional Manager is a very important position to ensure the smooth and profitable distribution of products/services in an area. However, the important role comes with heavy responsibilities and challenges in the profession. In this article, Navigos Search will share with you what challenges a Regional Manager has to deal with and how to become a professional Regional Manager. Readers, stay tuned!
1. Scope of work of a Regional Manager
Regional Manager is a person who is responsible for all business activities, product/service distribution, personnel, etc. of his business in the assigned area.
The scope of work of a Regional Manager has many similarities with other middle management roles. However, the biggest difference is that the scale and business decisions will be more strategic and visionary to expand the market and develop the brand.
The specific duties of the Regional Manager are as follows:
- Make business plans, direct the implementation, supervise the plan in the assigned area.
- Set up and monitor KPIs of assigned stores, restaurants and branches.
- Monitor business activities, manage all internal issues.
- Recruit, hire new managers and supervisors.
- Train and guide new managers and supervisors.
- Ensure compliance with company policies and operational guidelines.
- Resolve complaints and all problems with customers and partners.
- Manage administration, human resources and offer improvement solutions.
- Approve the proposal of the store, restaurant or branch manager.
- Analyze business situations, market trends, competitors, other influencing factors,... to establish and adjust reasonable and effective plans.
- Receive reports from subordinates, prepare documents, report on the situation and results of business activities in the area to send to superiors.
Huge responsibilities a Regional Manager has to take
2. What are the challenges a Regional Manager has to deal with?
The job of managing a store, a branch, a store has been difficult. And for a Regional Manager it is even more challenging and difficult:
Too much inventory
In terms of regional management, distribution management often encounters out-of-stock and inventory issues. Out-of-stock is when the market demand is great but the product is not available at the stores, shops or agents. If this situation persists, it will push customers to choose competitors' products/services to meet their needs. This causes businesses to gradually lose customers and lose market share.
If the inventory is too high, it causes great waste for businesses and customers. The cause of this situation can be that the salesperson tries to sell “as much as possible” to achieve sales targets, the goods are not displayed at all sales locations, the product is not liked by the users (due to the unreasonable prices, poor quality, poor packaging, ...)
Regardless of the cause, if too much inventory is left, the distributor will have to spend a lot of money on preservation. Meanwhile, some other sales locations lack goods to provide to users. This is a big difficulty for Regional Managers and requires them to control the problem well to have a reasonable direction to adjust production and business activities.
Poor leadership and management system
For enterprises operating in the field of production and distribution, sales and marketing staff play a key role in expanding and controlling the market. But how does a Regional Manager know their staff are serious about their work? Currently, there are still many managers who manually monitor employees through methods such as: calling, hiring supervisors, receiving distribution newspapers, branch managers, etc. These methods can bring effective results but at the same time are a waste of time and money.
In the era of strong internet development, top managers all apply technology to effectively manage work and human resources. This is a smart choice for a Regional Manager to easily control everything even without being physically present at work.
Monitoring sales locations
Areas and regions are the point of contact between businesses, users, customers and are the place to effectively exploit information about the market, habits, purchasing routines ... However, in reality, some businesses still think that just by delivering the product or service down to each area for the manager then the whole process is done. It is this mistake that has made the area sales competitiveness become lower than its competitors.
A Regional Manager should always closely monitor sales situations, goods consumption, inventory, product display, service advertisement, etc. From which, he or she will have accurate data. Then they can report to enterprises to come up with appropriate production, business and distribution strategies.
Slow order processing
Another difficulty is slow order processing, which is caused by manual work methods and operations in the business. The whole process was recorded by books, which caused too much "dead" time. It even takes days to process the product/service before being reported to the Regional Manager.
In the situation that businesses are competing very fiercely, if products/services are not available in the region, it will give competitors the opportunity to dominate the market. The requirement at this time for the Regional Manager is to improve the speed of order processing and eliminate manual operations in the working process.
Unsuitable management tools
Today's businesses all have their specific management tools. But choosing the right solution for business and production is not easy. If the management software is not suitable, it will cause losses and lead to poor performance monitoring. Therefore, depending on the field and industry in which the business is operating, the Regional Manager can consider proposing and choosing the most appropriate application or software to maximize work and personnel management.
There are a lot of challenges a Regional Manager has to encouter
3. An excellent regional manager will not back away from any difficulties
An excellent Regional Manager will always strive to overcome all difficulties and challenges in the profession. To do this, he or she needs to bring together the following key elements:
Strong expertise
A Regional Manager must be knowledgeable about the business, data analysis, familiar with the principles of performance evaluation, understand the process and how to optimize the operation of each business in a region, be proficient in business administration software (ERP),...
To gain solid professional knowledge, applicants pursuing Regional Manager jobs should choose to study at universities with majors in Business Administration, Economics, Marketing, Finance,...
Work experience
Many businesses require candidates to have at least 3-5 years of work experience in the business or related field. This ensures the candidate can well take on the role of a Regional Manager.
Skills and qualities
In addition to professional capacity and experience, this position also requires candidates to practice many important skills and qualities such as impressive communication, the ability of motivating employees, organization and leadership, business acumen, excellent decision making skills, problem solving skills,...
4. The promotion route of the Regional Manager
Starting from a salesperson position, Store Manager or Branch Manager will give you the opportunity to become a sales supervisor, continue to accumulate experience to advance to the position of Regional Manager. With strong experience and high capacity, the Regional Manager has the opportunity to be promoted to the position of senior leadership, Regional Sales Director, National Sales Director,...
A Regional Manager currently has an income of tens of millions of dong per month and many attractive benefits. The opportunity for advancement in the profession is great, requiring them to make constant efforts. And when they reach a higher position, they will receive an income that is a desirable number.
The opportunity for advancement is great
5. Looking for Regional Manager jobs at Navigos Search
When you are confident with your ability and realize that you have met the professional standards required from a Regional Manager, do not hesitate to send your CV to Navigos Search for the opportunity to become a potential candidate in the application database. Established in 2002, Navigos Search is currently the leading recruitment agency for mid-level and senior-level personnel in Vietnam.
The strength of Navigos Search is that we have a team of extremely professional consultants, deeply understanding the value of human resources. Navigos Search conducts interviews to assess candidates' capabilities as well as listen to candidates' needs and expectations.
Based on the recruitment process along with the candidate's capacity, experience and labor market situation, the specialist will conduct a search and discuss the most suitable employer.
Navigos Search acts as a connection to support candidates with negotiating and advising on salary and benefits. After the candidate receives the invitation letter and confirms to join, the vacancy will be closed, we continue to follow closely to make sure candidates "achieve success after joining the company".
Find your dream job quickly at Navigos Search
Besides, with 375,000+ senior candidates, 85,000+ senior management level candidates available and optimal recruitment solutions, Navigos Search is confident to be the leading "talent hunter" in Vietnam today. Navigos Search has supported hundreds of thousands of businesses and corporations with the best human resources and millions of candidates, helping them get the best quality jobs.
Right now, if you are looking for Regional Manager jobs or would like to be notified when any suitable jobs are available, please send your CV to us for being quickly contacted. If your company is in need of recruiting personnel, especially Regional Manager positions or other middle and senior positions, please contact Navigos Search to find the most potential candidates. Navigos Search always strives to support candidates and businesses to reach their dreams through the number 1 professional recruitment service in Vietnam!
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