Head of Commercial – Freight Forwarding

Role Description:

• The Head of Freight Forwarding Commercial SSA is responsible for developing the business within assigned industry verticals in SSA, focusing on new customers, geographic development, and Freight Forwarding sales activities across the SSA Region.
• This role will involve leading the creation of trade lane strategies and products, leveraging Freight Forwarding and other relevant capabilities in the Region, and developing specific products to enhance trade through key assets and capabilities in the Region. This role will foster design build and integrate products and solutions that bring Africa to the world to Africa.
• Responsible for integrating sales and operations planning for accurate strategy development and forecasting, and providing relevant reporting to stakeholders to guide and measure sales strategies and impact.
• Collaboration and integration with Regional and Global business development teams will be key, and the role will require strong focus on innovation, customer satisfaction, team leadership and managing key strategic Regional accounts.
• In addition he/she will be tasked with maintaining and growing the existing book of business for the defined regional accounts through successful contract renewal strategies and addressing scope change opportunities commercially within the existing business. 

Responsibilities:

• Lead the creation, implementation, and oversight of a comprehensive business development and sales strategy for the Freight Forwarding capability for our client. This includes identifying new market opportunities, cultivating customer relationships, and driving sales growth to achieve and exceed revenue targets. Ensure strategic alignment with organizational goals and maintain a competitive edge in the market through innovative solutions and effective execution.
• Lead the development and implementation of trade lane strategies and products, and ensure multiple regional interactions and integration. Oversee the discovery, planning, and execution of these strategies and creating, defining, and monitoring key initiatives.
• Ensure that external regions are aligned to the trade lane strategies and multi-regional trade lane teams are established to drive aligned outcomes.Design and develop solutions for products that enable increased trade across the Region, and deploy sales teams and/or industry vertical solution teams accordingly.
• Develop strategies and solutions that enable FF to become the integrating capability across both regions and capabilities within regions – measurement of share of wallet captured for FF customers must increase 9through the development of cross selling strategies)
• Integrate sales and operations planning within the SSA Freight Forwarding capability, and also with the broader SSA commercial and global commercial teams to ensure we drive the SSA end-to-end strategy and optimise the sales teams that we have in place.
• Oversee the accurate and timely reporting of business development and sales performance metrics. This includes preparing regular reports, analyzing data to identify trends, and providing actionable recommendations to sales teams and other stakeholders to inform strategic and operational decision-making and ensure alignment with business objectives.
• Oversee and provide guidance to branch level sales teams, leveraging their data and insights to develop and refine products and solutions that align with market demands and drive business growth.
• Foster and maintain collaborative relationships across departments and external stakeholders to align business development and sales strategies with organizational objectives. Drive cross- functional teamwork to enhance market penetration, customer satisfaction, and revenue growth.
• Act as the Develop and distribute a monthly trade lane pack containing critical insights for the sales team.
• Identify and analyze specific products, trade flows, and customer data in monthly reports to facilitate regional connectivity and strategic planning.
• Act as custodian for SSA trade lane data and ensure the accuracy and relevance of data through regular maintenance and updates to support informed strategic decision-making. Develop and distribute a monthly trade lane pack containing critical insights for relevant stakeholders and sales teams.
• Meet and exceed financial growth targets for the assigned industry verticals, countries and expand our geographic and solutions offering footprint with these accounts across our client's service portfolio.
• Identify and develop relationships with key decision makers at all levels within a customer.
• Maintain understanding of customers’ expectations relative to operational solutions, costs and results.
• Understand the customer's business (strategically, operationally, financially).
• Understand the customer's buying process and identify all influences, intimately understanding their requirements.
• Maintain an up-to-date pipeline of current and future opportunities, quantifying number of opportunities, value of the opportunity and managing the probability to win.
• Coordinate RFQs for new business opportunities and renewals of existing business with assigned accounts engaging other functions as required and own the commercial relationship and contract negotiations.
• Follow the internal commercial process, procedures and thresholds.
• Support commercial, pricing and freight desk functions.
• Partners with colleagues in other regions on broader opportunities for select customers.
• 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 policies and procedures
• Drive the development of a healthy, high performance culture across the Commercial capability, in alignment with our client's cultural objectives.
• Lead the our client's Technology agenda, including key digital projects such as defining and supporting the implementation of best-in-class commercial/sales processes and systems (e.g. CRM – Customer Relationship Management, etc.).
• Ensure, contribute and manage the implementation of continuous improvement, health, safety and sustainability best practice projects relevant to the Commercial capability.
• Interpret and ensure compliance to relevant regulatory requirements.

Requirements:

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in business administration for Freight Forwarding and Logistics
• Proven track record of having consistently achieved on a sales quota at a relevant scale 

EXPERIENCE

• Have a minimum of 8 years’ experience within the transport, logistics, or freight forwarding industry, or similar service industry
• Significant sales experience • Leading and managing a team
• Work experience in Africa for at least 5 years
• Experience in Freight Forwarding Industry across multiple verticals
• Exposure to and working knowledge of all facets of contractual requirements 

SKILLS

• 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. In-depth understanding of the freight forwarding and logistics industry, including knowledge of international trade regulations, shipping practices, and market dynamics.
• 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.
• 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 and PowerPoint.
• Flexibility to travel - You are ready to travel between 40 - 50% of the time. Languages - You speak and write fluent English – additional languages are a bonus.