Business Development Manager - East Africa at Corteva

Purpose

Serves as the interface between the Commercial and IFS functions in East Africa. Interprets the technical needs of users, influencers, channel partners, and the local Corteva Commercial team regarding Corteva products. Translates local needs into questions to be answered by projects and communicates inputs to Field Scientists for awareness. Supports district/region/territory sales’ goals of existing products by providing technical and demand generation support. Supports the sales development through training, coaching, and best practice improvement for distributors’ sales reps in Crop Protection.

Interacts With Closely With

East Africa Marketing Team, Sales Manager, IFS, Regulatory, Local Product Concept Teams, Legal and key market influencers & Stakeholders.

Skills

Agronomy and business experience in relevant geography. Good listener and interpreter of views from a wide range of inputs. Strong communication skills to transfer knowledge across the network and within the region. Working knowledge of sales and marketing skills. Innovative in focus.

Key Responsibilities

• Marketing Support
  
  • Identifies gaps, follows up, and proposes future business opportunities and actions.
  • Summarizes and disseminates competitive product information.
  • Represents local customer needs to the local product concept team.
  • Represents and supports Marketing needs to sales organization.
  • Contributes to the development and refinement of local positioning for new & existing products
• Product support
  
  • Provides product support to the business as defined by local team and prioritized by leadership.
  • Gives biology know-how support for existing products, regarding technical transfer, labels, etc.
  • Implements Endorsement Strategies with distributors, dealers, retailers, and end-users.
  • Assists with plots and field days as needed within the districts.
• Sales Support
  
  • Coaches the contractors/ Distributors personnel on pre-call planning, demand generations and sales a, and proper product positioning.
  • Provides technical support to the commercial team to achieve sales goals at district level (trainings, field days, technical materials in presentation slides, etc.)
  • Designs for accuracy, sales tools, product positioning guides, competitive positioning strategies.
  • Establishes and builds relationships with local influencers, commodity groups, consultants, and associations.
• Technical Training and Support
  
  • Works with Technology Transfer to transform the information generated by Integrated Field Scientists / R&D into applicable information for the commercial organization.
  • Manages technical training of key distributors.

Qualifications

Experience and Qualifications:

• Tertiary qualifications in B. Agric, B.Sc. Agric, B. Tech or B.Sc. with an agricultural background with minimum 5-year experience in related field
• Fluency in written and spoken English & Kiswahili will be an added advantage
• Extensive experience in an autonomous technical and sales role, preferably crop protection.
• Sound corporate business acumen, including strong communication and relationship development skills
• Familiarity with the key Pesticides distribution networks, Agricultural exporters, big farmers and key Agricultural business influencers.