Redesigning a sales director into the head of e-commerce

A small food distributor took direct control of its main online grocery storefront, and its sales director, who had run offline B2B sales, was to lead the channel. The first version of the plan treated digital marketing as extra duties on top of sales. For a job redesign that does not work, so the role was redesignated in full.

Industry context

Food distributors that sell through online grocery platforms are, in effect, running an e-commerce business: product listings, conversion, email flows, paid social, and demand forecasting tied to stock. In a small company the person who takes that on is usually someone senior who has never done it before.

What changed and why CCP applied

Offline B2B sales leadership was removed from the role. In its place came e-commerce management, funnel analytics, cart recovery and email automation, paid social, testing and forecasting. The salary did not change, which is common in job redesign: the point is a different job, not a promotion.

Our strategy

Job redesign requires the new responsibilities to be the primary duties of the role, not additional tasks. The initial plan had digital marketing sitting alongside the existing sales remit, which would have read as an expanded job rather than a redesigned one. In our consultation process, we aligned the redesigned scope task by task with the company’s move into e-commerce, with sales leadership moving out of the role, and formal redesignation letters were issued so the employment record matched the new role. When the assessor asked for further evidence, the answers came from the same task-level documentation.

OJT activities included

• Building a conversion funnel dashboard for the online storefront.
• Adding trust signals to product pages and measuring their effect.
• Setting up cart recovery and other automated email flows.
• Running A/B tests and building a demand forecast linked to stock.

Outcome

Role

Sales director redesigned into digital marketing and e-commerce director

Pathway

Job redesign reskilling, digital marketing

Status

Approved; claim submitted after the three-month programme

Strategic value

The company’s main sales channel run by someone trained for it, with salary support during the transition

Key takeaway

In a job redesign, the new work has to be the job, not something added to it. If the old responsibilities remain part of the role, the assessor will read it as the same role with more duties.