Jobs at Pula

Overall Objective:

• This is a new role and you will be given the responsibility and freedom to build our communications strategy for our national and international partners across platforms and media.
• You will be given the pen to shape our language, develop the look and feel of our company, collaborating closely with every business unit and external stakeholders to ensure the timely, successful, and high-quality publication and amplification of our initiatives in the right fora.
• You will raise to profile of Pula to be recognized as a global brand Insuretech, comparable to brands such as Lemonade, Descartes and Wefox and comparable to established national and international insurers such as Old Mutual, Allianz and Axa.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement the company communications strategy, including annual reports, social media campaigns,  impact materials for partners, op-eds and development of a conference agenda of key industry events for key staff.
• Develop and write original content and direct creative execution to provide a consistent, targeted, and impactful message across all communication channels.
• Organize and -where relevant- accompany key partner field visits, organize and publicize payout events, organize roundtables and support the communications aspects of any workshops of our different departments where needed.
• Upgrade and update the Pula website as well as manage and grow Pula’s social media accounts (Twitter/X, LinkedIn, amongst others )
• Oversee and direct the work of external designers, photographers, and other media-production specialists to ensure the production of compelling and effective communication materials.

Required Skills:

• Amazing written and visual communication skills built over the last 5-10 years as an in-house communication, marketing or other relevant role or working for an external dedicated marketing/ PR agency. 
• You have a proven ability to communicate ideas across formal platforms (e.g. op-ed, briefs, and presentations) and informal platforms (e.g. social media) and have the work samples to show for it. 
• You are as comfortable writing a piece from scratch as editing a piece developed by a technical colleague.
• You are comfortable developing quick designs yourself as well as working with designers for larger deliverables and have a portfolio of work to prove it.
• You have a religious dedication to deadlines and are not bashful about chasing down your deliverables from others to ensure your news doesn't get ‘stale’.
• You are comfortable getting a quote from the minister of agriculture, and have a pair of boots ready to get into the farm. 
• You are tenacious and resilient. You are able to be politely persistent to get that quote from the Minister or get the right pictures from the photographer in Bangladesh who you have never met in person.
• Pula is a remote-first company. It is critical to be self motivated and to have good time management
• Willing to travel up to 30% of the time to see our work in action so you can tell our stories based on your first hand knowledge.

go to method of application »

• You must be passionate about having meaning in your work. Willing to go the extra mile to evangelise the importance of agriculture insurance in transforming the lives of millions of smallholder farmers across multiple stakeholders from the political elites, to the Government systems, to development agencies all the way down to the farmer. For you to be successful at the role, one must consider it their mission - “how you will be remembered”. Whilst at it, you will be rewarded very well as we believe in “doing good and doing well”. When impacting hundreds of millions of farmers, our mantra is that those successful in the mission must be dollar millionaires in the end. At Pula, good deeds are rewarded. 

In this role you'll;

Expand your networks and influence Pula’s positioning in the region

• Constantly building deeply entrenched relationships that will enable one to understand client needs, gather market intelligence and build a credible pipeline of opportunities. To succeed in the role, one must incredibly enjoy building new relationships and leveraging on relationships to achieve your goals.
• Effectively communicate value propositions through presentations and proposals
• Act as the Pula spokesperson in the region.
• Using knowledge of the market and competitors in the regions, identify and develop the company’s unique selling propositions and differentiators.

Business Development

• Defining Commercial targets in your region and ownership of the results.
• Research, prepare and execute a sales plan focused on delivering new and recurring revenues through partnerships with agro-input companies and the public sector.
• Develop pipeline and continuously mature & qualify opportunities in order to increase Pula’’s market share and to enable achievement of sales target.
• Generating and qualifying new leads and using different approaches to penetrate prospective clients in your region. You are expected to qualify opportunities, know which deals to work on, and which ones to pass on.
• Progress prospects through a defined sales process to eventual contracting and implementation.

Customer Relationship Management

• Manage and nurture existing client relationships across a wide range of stakeholders including commodity associations, farmers’ aggregators, insurers, government and private companies.
• Manage the handover of new customers to the operations team for the implementation of the solution.

What you need to be successful

• X years of experience

Education

• X years of leadership experience
• Demonstrated skills
• Other experience
• Language
• Technical skills
• Personality traits

Nice to have

• Behavioural Skills. You must be self-directed, work well alone or in a team structure, highly results oriented, and willing to learn and expand his/her technical and product knowledge base through formal education, professional training, and self-study.
• You have knowledge and understanding of dealing with C-suite executives with excellent communication and presentation skills, integrity and impeccable professionalism.
• Sales and or consulting experience in the area of agriculture: seed / fertilizer / agrochemical industry or related is a significant advantage.
• Experience and knowledge in the insurance industry will place you at an advantage.
• You have the ability to use data and KPIs to make management decisions.
• You are fully comfortable with sales CRM platforms, Google Drive applications such as Google Sheets, Google Docs etc.
• Fluent English and local language skills

How your role will be broken down

Relationship building : 25%

• Can build relationships with stakeholders rapidly and can expand into new networks quickly. Having deep rooted existing networks and relationships is a plus. Passionate about building and maintaining relationships.

Resilient: 20%

• Can navigate deal complexity and will not give up until the deal is signed. Tenacious. A self starter. Recovers quickly from tough situations. Anticipates and plans for complexity.

Intensity: 15%

• Hungry to close deals, has a point to prove and looks to prove that point at Pula.
• Builds their profile and therefore reputation around Pula and the Pula products. They do not want to fail therefore will do what it takes for Pula to succeed.

Coachable: 10%

• Adaptable: Is eager to learn and grow in their skills and ability. Is resourceful to close any skills and knowledge gap. Openly receives and shares feedback.
• A consummate learner.

Gravitas: 10%

• Charming. Has a confident, comfortable presence. Can sit across from a PS, Minister and hold his own and pitch without assistance.

Street Smart: 10%

• Can understand and map the stakeholders, identify and test champions, structure the deal, problem solve and find another way when the deal gets stuck.

Communication :10%

• Can confidently convert information internally and externally adjusting quickly between written and verbal communication as situations call for it. Follows through on action points from conversations and can succinctly summarize the progress required to progress a sale.