Head of Commercial Business Development & Sales (Sub Region)

Role Description:

• You Will be instrumental in growing our client's existing offering within an end-to-end supply chain (across multiple capabilities inclusive of P&T).
• This role will be responsible for the leadership, strategic alignment, business development (revenue growth) and commercial coordination within our client's SSA (sub-region> portfolio and will work closely with business and capability leaders to develop end-to-end solutions and products for their BCO’s and principals.
• This role will also lead the connection of our client's SSA to other regions and the co ordinate activities from the global pillar/s.
• The role will directly contribute towards the SSA Regional revenue and appropriate financial targets. The role links and provides client solutions leveraging our client's capabilities in the sub-region.
• Responsible for integrating sales and operations planning for accurate commercial strategy development and forecasting, and providing relevant reporting to stakeholders to guide and measure sales strategies and impact. 

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development, implementation, and management of a robust business development and sales strategy for the SSA with our client. This entails identifying and capitalizing on opportunities in new and existing geographies and markets. Define and tailor the capability offerings for the sub-region to ensure optimal market penetration, customer acquisition, and retention. Cultivate strong customer relationships to drive sales growth, aiming to meet and exceed revenue targets. Additionally, provide active oversight and management of regional sales resources to ensure the effectiveness of commercial teams and the achievement of strategic objectives.
• Correctly define the capability basket for the sub-region to drive growth.
• Foster and maintain collaborative relationships across departments and external stakeholders to align business development and sales strategies with organizational objectives.
• Serve as a point of integration between logistics and P&T commercial streams so as to ensure that there is a consolidated regional commercial strategy which is aligned and understood by all commercial and key business stakeholders.
• Set strategic direction for the SSA commercial capability aligned to our client's SSA, and Group strategies and KPI’s, and cascade strategic priorities into the sub-Region.
• Develop and implement commercial strategies to grow the business, working closely with operational teams and relevant stakeholders to use all capabilities effectively and drive the SSA end-to-end strategy.
• Establish and align the required Commercial structures for SSA to support the team's goals and drive high performance. Ensure that the structures are correctly focused and aligned to avoid duplication and wasted efforts, whilst promoting collaboration and end to solution selling.
• Turn regional strategies into clear business plans for capabilities and/or countries. Plan and execute effective sales strategies, ensuring cooperation between different teams in the sub-Region.
• Design and develop capability and cross-capability solutions for products that enable increased trade across the sub-Region, deploying sales teams accordingly.
• Oversee the accurate and timely reporting of business development and sales performance metrics for the sub- region. Prepare regular reports, analyze data to identify trends, and provide actionable recommendations.
• Oversee and guide capability sales teams, leveraging their data and insights to develop and refine products and solutions that align with market demands and drive business growth.
• Grow revenue by finding new business opportunities, building pipelines, and developing innovative capability solutions for key customers.
• Design and develop specific products that allow us to differentiate from the market given our combination of capabilities across P&T and logistics – where applicable ensure that these are integrated with trade lane strategies so as to enable the connection of SSA to the world
• Participate and support customer reviews to support and build strategic client accounts and manage strategic relationships.
• Develop strategies to penetrate key accounts, gain rates, renewal rates and client profitability. Drive customer attraction and retention strategies to improve on key accounts customers loyalty as well as existing business expansion.
• Highlight and develop leads for solutions team, inclusive of client readiness, data availability and the required local knowledge- facilitate the efficient execution (sell, design, commercialise and implementation) of large commercial solutions.
• Where required be the custodian of post implementation reviews ensuring that desired solution (internal and external) – has been achieved
• Understand the customer's business (strategically, operationally, financially) and their buying process to identify all influences and requirements. Identify and develop relationships with key decision makers at all levels within a customer.
• Integrate with key commercial strategic projects to deliver targeted outcomes
• Develop tender and contract management processes to protect margins and support regional and global RFP processes.
• Manage RFPs for new business and renewals of existing business. Ensure comprehensive, accurate, and compelling responses to RFPs that address client requirements. Facilitate effective collaboration between internal teams, including business development, costing, finance, and operations to ensure that RFP’s are submitted timeously.
• Ensure all RFP responses comply with company policies, legal requirements, and industry standards.
• Support the management of strategic client contracts, including changes in scope, terms, rates, and service agreements.
• Identify and analyze specific products, trade flows, and customer data in monthly reports to facilitate regional connectivity and strategic planning.
• Continuously evaluate industry, market and technology trends to assess the potential impact on business opportunities. Make recommendations and drive key projects to leverage opportunities
• Pro-actively work with leaders to ensure that the positioning of capabilities are clear and defined to maximize growth opportunities. Drive awareness of solution features, capabilities and outcomes to enable strong value for clients and drive meaningful growth and profitability for the sub-Region.
• Own the sub-Regional Commercial innovation agenda and the new solution development process and evolve the client’s perception of our client's ability to innovate.
• Align processes and exchange across the sub-Regional commercial team to ensure all opportunities are captured and cross selling is maximised
• Manage the SSA Commercial budget to ensure that the strategic deliverables are adequately budgeted for
• Ensure effective fiscal management in compliance with Company standards
• Analyse monthly financial performance indicators and trends, make necessary adjustments to ensure profitability for the Region, and submit required reports timeously
• Lead the our client's HR agenda, including the effective management of workforce planning, recruitment, learning and development, performance management, reward and recognition, talent management, and employee relations in line with Group policies and procedures • Drive the development of a healthy, high performance culture across the Commercial capability, in alignment with our client's cultural objectives.
• Set and implement operational excellence standards for the Commercial team, driving continuous process improvement.
• Support digital projects to implement best-in-class commercial/sales processes and systems (e.g., CRM).
• Continuously evaluate industry, market, and technology trends to assess their impact on business opportunities and drive/support key projects where required. 

Requirements:

QUALIFICATIONS

• Relevant post-graduate degree

EXPERIENCE

• Have a minimum of 8 - 10 years’ experience within the transport, logistics, or supply chain industry
• Significant sales experience across multiple capabilities and with a proven success of selling integrated end to end solutions
• Work experience in relevant SSA sub-Region
• Exposure to and working knowledge of all facets of contractual requirements

SKILLS

• Thorough understanding of logistics and supply chain industry
• Demonstrated success introducing existing and new/emerging solutions into various Head of Commercial Business Development & Sales (Sub-Region) Page 3 of 5 countries/regions/industry verticals
• Customer Relationship Management: Builds enduring and rewarding customer relationships and actively manages customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Business Expertise/ Acumen: Applies in-depth knowledge of the economic, commercial and political issues to build and grow the business with impactful outcomes and influence industry performance; anticipates industry trends
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop and implement strategic business development plans that align with company objectives and market trends, including identifying growth opportunities and competitive positioning.
• Sales Leadership: Strong leadership skills to effectively manage and motivate sales teams across multiple locations, setting clear goals, providing coaching, and driving performance to achieve revenue targets.
• Customer Relationship Management: Builds enduring and rewarding customer relationships and actively manages customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Business Development: Analyse new and existing clients, their needs and able to formulate possible solutions that could meet these needs, based on an in-depth understanding of company service offerings. Able to navigate through potential client organisations, identifying decision-makers, uncovering their unmet needs, and concisely demonstrating the value that business development can add to their organisations. In-depth understanding of market and client segmentation & profiling as well as the analysis of market trends, as well as understanding of the sales cycle and process, including facilitating a deal to closure.
• Contract Management Knowledge: Provide expert level guidance through efficient solutions. Influences stakeholder engagement through a process of monitoring and tracking and facilitates acceptance and review to guide policy formulation, execution and integration into practices. Directs and influences policy formulation and implementation towards an integrated institutional policy framework to promote a common goal and institutional objectives.
• Strong communication skills: You are an exceptional listener. You communicate clearly. You write exceptionally well and you speak eloquently. You can explain just about anything to anyone. You’re comfortable on the phone or to groups of people – at any level. You are incredibly tactful when delivering the facts.
• Problem solving: You enjoy solving problems. Getting to the root cause. You love taking on difficult challenges and finding creative, innovative solutions. You don’t get flustered easily. If you don’t know the answer, you’ll dig until you find it.
• Exceptional critical thinking skills: you can identify gaps in logic and underlying causes of issues; You think on your feet. You like learning new things, and you can learn quickly.
• Strong collaborator: You can work independently because you self-manage, with limited direction and guidance, but you also enjoy collaborating across dynamic and multi-cultural teams and are personable, helpful and incredibly organised.
• Results oriented: You are proactive in handling competing priorities and meet your deadlines and commitments; you always demonstrate a “can do” positive attitude.
• Confidentiality: You consider and protect the confidentiality of company data at ALL times.
• IT skills: You are highly proficient in the full Microsoft Office Suite: Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Visio.
• Flexibility to travel: You are ready to travel between 30 - 50% of the time across the globe to our operations to perform audits on site.
• Languages: You speak and write fluent English – additional languages are a bonus, in particular Arabic, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Hindi.