Head of Business Development - Africa

Position: Head of Business Development Africa

Industry: Engineered, Technical, Specified product

Sector: B2B - Mining & Allied Sectors

Location: UK or Africa Based plus travel as required with role

Package: Basic Salary up to £100K plus significant bonus and benefits package

Background

Our client is a profitable privately owned organisation, operating out of a well invested into state-of-the-art production and assembly facility in Yorkshire. The business is the market leader in its field and has shown year on year growth in a highly competitive and challenging B2B market sector. They operate as a direct 3rd party product distributor and installer as well as a manufacturer, assembler, distributor and installer of their own finished products. They operate globally with a client base that includes sectors such as Mining, Transport (Bus / Coach Operators and O.E.M’s), Waste & Recycling, Construction, to name a few. The business is heavily invested into strengthening its Commercial leadership team and as such have identified a need to recruit a highly experienced Sales and Business Development professional to drive growth across Africa.

The Role

In addition to the head office in Yorkshire they have satellite offices in both Europe and Africa and this role is tasked to define and shape the organisation’s commercial strategy for all Africa activities and in doing so drive revenue growth and profitability across the region. The business has a presence currently in Africa serving the mining sector. Working closely with the marketing teams as well as conducting market research you are tasked to build a strategy that will:

• Get the business closer to its current mining customer base and in doing so get a deeper understanding of their commercial needs and aspirations and position our client as the provider of choice.
• Identify new mining territories, countries for growth and from a market entry determine if this is through creating J.V’s / Alliances / Partnerships / Direct sales or through distributors.
• Determine if growth should be through providing full turnkey solutions or distribution only (at a country by country level).
• Explore new market sector opportunities not currently being served by the client as well as new product development opportunities with both existing client base and new sectors.

In addition to the above you are tasked to build and nurture lasting relationships with customers through networking, attending industry events, conferences and trade shows & feeding back to the board on any risks, issues, success and mitigation strategies. Additionally you will actively participate in developing appropriate solutions to client feedback around customer journeys and experiences in order ensure customer satisfaction.

The Candidate

The Ideal candidate for this position will be a proven Business Development professional with experience gained selling an engineered, technical, specified product where there is also an aftermarket element (Service, Spares, Repairs etc). For success in the role, it is essential you have a deep understanding of the African B2B market and given our clients current commercial relationships and business in Africa a knowledge of the mining sector whilst not essential would be highly advantageous. You need a demonstrable proven track record in building actionable commercial growth strategies and with that a track record building trust advocacy and in doing so foster long term customer relationships. We are looking for a highly-motivated self-starter, an individual who is data driven and analytical and given the nature of this role someone who is culturally aware and with that an in-depth understanding of the working practices and procurement processes across the African market.

Applicants please be rest assured of discretion and confidentiality and all contact is in line with GDPR.