A leading multinational consumer products company is seeking to fill the role of Reserve Accounts Manager in its Nairobi operations. This position is within the sales function, a critical arm of the organization that thrives on building strong relationships, driving market expansion, and sustaining brand presence across diverse global markets. The company’s sales team operates across different channels and geographies, utilizing consumer insight and digital platforms to reach new customers and deliver growth. The Reserve Accounts Manager role is central to advancing the company’s vision of becoming the most trusted and respected consumer products company worldwide while reinforcing its leadership in the Kenyan luxury beverages market.
This opportunity presents an ideal platform for experienced commercial managers who aspire to excel in highly competitive markets, lead transformative teams, and deliver breakthrough performance in a challenging yet rewarding environment.
Position: Reserve Accounts Manager
About the Function
The sales function plays a pivotal role in the success of the business. It is responsible for connecting with customers, understanding their needs, and ensuring that the company’s iconic brands continue to thrive in established and emerging markets. The Reserve Accounts Manager will join the team with the objective of driving commercial success specifically within the luxury (Reserve) brands segment of the Kenyan market.
The role will contribute to positioning the company as the best performing consumer products organization, ensuring it wins at the point of choice while remaining competitive in a dynamic marketplace. This involves combining strategic insight, customer engagement, and executional excellence to deliver sustainable growth.
Job Purpose
The Reserve Accounts Manager is responsible for spearheading the transformation of the Kenya Reserve team into the best FMCG account management team in Africa. The incumbent will play a key role in delivering commercial objectives, fostering customer relationships, and embedding a culture of excellence in account management. The role requires balancing strategic leadership with hands-on customer engagement, ensuring that Reserve brands are strongly positioned in the Kenyan market.
Key Responsibilities
- Customer Engagement
- Own, develop, and drive relationships with customers while aligning commercial agendas with broader organizational goals.
- Engage customers through negotiation, joint planning, and execution of strategies that deliver mutual growth.
- Promote collaboration and partnerships with customers that are built on trust, respect, and commercial success.
- Ensure customer management capability is continuously developed within the Reserve team.
- Account Management
- Develop and implement customer business plans that align with the sales and marketing strategies of the company.
- Translate marketing and brand strategies into simple, actionable, and impactful account-level initiatives.
- Ensure executional excellence at the outlet level across all regions, with priority brand activities effectively activated in the customer base.
- Identify persuasion initiatives and outlet priorities to drive targeted implementation.
- People Management
- Provide leadership to the Reserve team by setting clear goals, monitoring performance, and delivering constructive feedback.
- Build team capability through structured coaching, mentoring, and sharing of best practices in account management.
- Foster a culture of inclusivity, collaboration, and accountability within the team.
- Inspire, motivate, and support team members to exceed commercial targets and professional development goals.
- Commercial Strategy and Execution
- Deliver against the commercial agenda within the assigned account channel, ensuring targets are consistently met or exceeded.
- Ensure the company remains competitive by understanding and adapting to complex trading environments, including pricing, negotiations, and channel strategies.
- Interpret sales and marketing strategies and communicate them in a powerful and simple manner for execution within customer accounts.
- Drive improvements in planning, development, and implementation of brand objectives and strategies through customer insights.
- Cross-functional Collaboration
- Work closely with commercial, marketing, supply chain, OTC, and distribution teams to align strategies and deliver unified business objectives.
- Ensure effective collaboration that results in cohesive planning and execution across functions.
- Promote the customer’s perspective internally to strengthen customer-focused strategies and initiatives.
Experience and Skills Required
The Reserve Accounts Manager position requires extensive experience and skills that demonstrate success in demanding sales organizations. The following areas of expertise are essential:
- A relevant bachelor’s degree.
- 5–8 years’ experience gained across commercial and other functions, with cross-functional exposure considered an advantage.
- Proven success in highly demanding sales organizations, ideally within FMCG and alcoholic beverages industries.
- Strong knowledge and demonstrated delivery in challenging trading environments, with an understanding of channel management, pricing strategies, negotiations, and strategic development.
- Experience in managing customer accounts across various levels of sophistication, including national and key accounts as well as field sales.
- Proven track record in negotiation and conflict resolution with powerful customers.
- Ability to resolve conflict-filled situations effectively.
Flexible Working Statement
The company values flexibility as a cornerstone of success. Employees are encouraged to discuss what flexibility means for them to ensure their wellbeing and work-life balance are supported from the first day of employment.
Diversity Statement
The organization celebrates diversity and inclusion as integral to its mission of celebrating life, every day, everywhere. Employees are welcomed and valued for who they are, and an inclusive culture is fostered to embrace people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational background, experiences, and mindsets.
The ambition is to build one of the most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. By championing inclusivity and diversity, the company aims to shape the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the globe.
Additional Information
Worker Type: Regular
Primary Location: KBL
Additional Locations: None specified
Job Posting Start Date: Active
Application Deadline: September 19, 2025
Job Requisition ID: JR1117380
Conclusion
The Reserve Accounts Manager role is a dynamic opportunity for individuals with proven expertise in account management, customer engagement, and leadership in competitive markets. The role offers the chance to lead transformation within the luxury brands category, build strong customer partnerships, and contribute significantly to the company’s vision of sustainable growth in Kenya.
