Business Development Manager – East Africa

JOB TITLE: Business Development Manager – East Africa

DEPARTMENT: Retail

REPORTING TO: Regional Director – SADC Region

LOCATION: Johannesburg

ADDITIONAL INFO: Travelling required, 60% of the time in the territory

TERRITORY: East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania & Uganda)

PURPOSE OF POSITION

Maximize sales of GVR products and services with assigned accounts (example: Independents) within East Africa Region. Grow revenue, market share, and profitability in assigned accounts across all product and service lines through all channels served by the account.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Sales Strategy

• Manage all aspects of GVR’s business and relationship with customer, focused on senior/central management within the accounts, striving to develop a sustainable competitive leadership position through the application of our integrated product and service solutions.
• Collaborate with business unit executives to establish and execute on the sales strategy for the region.
• Develop specific sales plans to ensure growth both long and short-term.
• Present and build lasting relationships with customers in the region.
• Lead the internal stakeholders and act as a consultant in providing solutions to the customer’s satisfaction.

Funnel Management

• Establish GVR’s leadership position by developing an intimate knowledge and understanding of the customer’s needs.
• Cultivating close working relationships with key buying influencers in all departments.
• Lead and coordinate relationships at affiliate level/head office level with Local GVR sales team.
• Develop account strategy for growing revenue, share, and profitability in all product and service lines.
• Prepare 3-year strategic plan for accounts as well as annual sales plan.
• Coordinate programs and projects with GVR commercial and product development teams.
• Communicate account needs within GVR to facilitate proper prioritization and application of resources.
• Lead negotiation of contracts for products and services leveraging internal GVR resources (legal, finance, etc).

Value Selling and Pricing

• Understand target customers, their buying process, and key motivations to help optimize our sales approach.
• Work with marketing to build and communicate unique value propositions.
• Understand our solutions differentiation to effectively position and sell against competitive offerings.
• Understand the value that our products create for customers and help shift the conversation from price to value, leveraging data.

GVR Account Management

• Drive growth of strategic accounts.
• Grow the customer base through key account engagement and via new channels.
• Position does not have any direct reports but routinely provides functional direction to the broader commercial team about account updates.
• Primary interaction outside the company is with customer’s management and other personnel in the areas of Senior management, Finance, IT, Engineering, Construction, Marketing and Procurement.

Customer Service

• Develop and maintain relationships with customers, regulators, market participants and business partners.
• Manage East Africa orders meticulously through strong collaboration with globally placed manufacturing facilities.
• Coordinate customer product training.
• Ensure overall customer satisfaction throughout the buying journey, by coordinating the right level of support from marketing, engineering, operations, global manufacturing facilities, and after sales support.

Technical and Commercial Knowledge

• Continuously expand knowledge of products, services, and features within our portfolio by collaborating with marketing and engineering.
• Stay current with developments in the retail, automation, and fleet industries, both locally and globally, to be a great subject matter expert for customers and the business.

DELEGATION OF AUTHORITY

As per the Delegation of Authority (DOA), section/role/approval.

POSITION RELATIONSHIPS

Internal

• Sales
• Marketing
• Engineering
• Operations
• Global Manufacturing Facilities
• Center of Excellence

External

• Oil companies
• Regulatory bodies
• Industry bodies
• Competitors

MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE (INDICATORS)

Leading

• Funnel size, shape, speed, and success.
• Proposals submitted.
• Customer engagement.
• Funnel growth within the accounts.
• Sales results by product line.
• Penetration of new Products/Services.
• Attainment of growth targets for revenue.
• Quality of 3-year strategic plan and annual sales plan.
• Customer satisfaction with account representation.

Lagging

• Revenue growth.
• Number of retail sites and fleet accounts.

PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Education/Achievements

• Business Degree or equivalent.

Experience/Knowledge

• At least 5 years of sales or Business Development and/or marketing experience.

Specific Skills

• Negotiation skills: great at navigating customer negotiations, considering both short term and long-term implications, and landing deals that are win/win for the customer and the business.
• Presentation skills: comfortable presenting in front of customer groups with diverse backgrounds (commercial, technical, senior executive).
• Analytical skills: comfortable consuming customer, market, and business data to derive insights useful in driving business growth and solving business problems.
• Technical expertise.
• Budget management.
• Responding to RFP/Tenders.
• Developing and driving action plans.
• Solution sales.
• Self-motivated and great interpersonal skills.