Regional Commercial Manager – Eastern Africa at Saint-Gobain

Job purpose

To plan, execute and manage business development activities in order to achieve profitable sales growth, assist merger and acquisition targets, sales growth and account penetration within East Africa by being responsible for customer satisfaction and market share within the region.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement sales and business development strategies for complex, solutions-based sales within East Africa in order to achieve profitable growth
• Participate in important negotiations with key stakeholders and assist in negotiations with difficult customers.
• Provide direction and assistance to the sales team in soliciting new customers, preparing bids, and customer retention strategies.
• Assess opportunities for and driving new product introductions across the Group offering to meet customer requirements and achieve revenue targets
• Develop markets for new and existing products to attain revenue targets
• Assist with mergers and acquisitions as well as toll manufacturing and making recommendations for the region so as to attain acquisition targets
• Analyse growth drivers in the respective markets and align the business to capitalise on opportunities around such areas as projects versus Route-To-Market
• Develop marketing and sales collateral in order to capture targeted market and or/accounts
• Identify business growth/ promotion platforms around the markets and liaising with the respective internal stake holders to enhance and optimise growth opportunities
• Analyse current business and RTM to highlight gaps and recommend avenues for improvement to maintain/ grow current business - customers, product categories
• Manage key accounts relationships to enhance the retention thereof
• Work with internal and external stakeholders to align the business towards servicing the key accounts to enhance customer service and customer retention
• Grow customer base
• Grow products portfolio with local/regional/cross-trade products.
• Diversify cross-trade sourcing while developing Exports from SSA Entities
• Understand market segments and propose differentiated strategy for each
• Strict enforcement, control and follow up of credit policy to limit risk of late or no payment.
• Explore business development opportunities with key accounts and execute for attainment of revenue targets
• Manage key accounts debtors to ensure timely payments.
• Explore opportunities for partnerships with key accounts and ensure implementation for business growth
• Participate in Habitat platforms and sector platforms to ensure that the BU broadens SG solutions and offers solutions according to segments/ sectors
• Craft and drive the implementation of business growth strategies and activities so as to meet revenue targets
• Manage systems and processes for acquisition target identification, opportunity mapping and implementation through the Group Business Development function.
• Develop, manage the regional budget and also provide input and make recommendation on the budget
• Develop and implement action-orientated monthly reports
• Manage key accounts relationships and processes so as to enhance service levels and attain revenue targets

Required skills and knowledge

• 8 years’ experience in sales, key accounts management and business development
• Knowledge of construction industry especially the built environment
• Knowledge of construction and technical products
• Sound business acumen
• Thorough understanding of the East African markets
• Strategic orientation
• An understanding of project management
• Ability to work in a highly collaborative environment including ability to influence and establish effective networks.
• Profound negotiation Skills
• High-level of Emotional Intelligence (Influencing skills, Interpersonal awareness, Resilience and Composure)
• Ability to create and manage a team of direct reports
• Good planning and self-organisational skills to ensure workloads are managed effectively
• Ability to conduct service forums, hosting key stakeholders
• Competent user of MS Office, MS Projects, MS Teams, CRM Tool
• Analytical, with ability to resolve queries
• Ability to create, manage and develop a team remotely.

Qualifications

• Tertiary qualification (B-Degree) in Sales/ Marketing/ Architecture
• Post-Graduate qualification is an added advantage