Manager/Senior Manager/Director – Commercial Sales (B2B & B2G) at Pula

Job Description

What you will be doing

Sales & Business Development

• Commercial Objective Key Results: Defining Commercial Objective Key Results in your region and ownership of the results.
• Sales Plan Execution: Research, prepare, and execute a sales plan focused on delivering new and recurring revenues through partnerships with agro-input companies and the public sector.
• Pipeline Development: Develop pipeline and continuously mature & and qualify opportunities in order to increase Pula’s market share and to enable achievement of sales target.
• Lead Generation: Generating and qualifying new leads and using different approaches to penetrate prospective clients in your region. 
• Sales Process Management: Progress prospects through a defined sales process to eventual contracting and implementation.
• Revenue Targets: Take ownership of the company’s revenue targetsand formulate strategies to achieve and exceed them. This includes setting clear sales goals, creating sales plans, and monitoring progress regularly.

Expanding your networks, influencing and Pula’s positioning in the region

• Relationship Building (B2B & B2G): Constantly building deeply entrenched relationships(B2B & B2G)that will enable one to understand client needs, gather market intelligence, and build a credible pipeline of opportunities. 
• Value Proposition Communication: Effectively communicate value propositions through presentations and proposal
• Spokesperson: Act as the Pula spokesperson in the region.
• Identify Pula’s USP: Using knowledge of the market and competitors in the regions, identify and develop the company’s unique selling propositions and differentiators.

Customer Relationship Management

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

For Success:

Technical Must-Haves

• A proven track record of high value sales: A minimum of 8 – 12 years of core selling experience as a hunter with extraordinary capabilityacross B2B & B2G clients across the region.
• Minimum of 5 years selling to the public sector: You must have a proven track record of at least 4 – 5 years in sales to the public sector (B2G).
• Robust list of networks and relationships with key decision-makers and champions in the public sector: You should possess an extensive and influential network of relationships with key decision-makers and champions in the public sector.
• Experience motivating a government budget: You should have experience in influencing and motivating government budgets to support your initiatives.
• A driven go-getter who never gives up: We are seeking a highly motivated individual who relentlessly pursues opportunities and is not deterred by challenges. You must be willing to knock on any door to achieve your objectives.
• Series of successes closing high-value government deals: You should have a track record of successfully closing high-value government deals.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience selling a new solution: It would be advantageous if you have experience in selling innovative solutions.
• Someone who has tried to start their own business venture: Having entrepreneurial experience and understanding the challenges of starting a business venture is a plus.

Behavioral Must-Haves

• Gravitas: Charming. Has a confident, comfortable presence. Can sit across from a PS or minister and hold his own and pitch without assistance.
• Street Smart: 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: 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.
• Persistence & Intensity: 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 whatever it takes for Pula to succeed.
• Ownership: Capability to own and deliver sales targets end-end as an individual contributor.

What Pula will bring to the table

• Growth potential: With an untapped market of 1.5 billion smallholders worldwide, on track to doubling the number of farmers insured in 2021 and Pula’s global leadership in Agriculture Insurance, our new staffers have a tremendous upside growth potential.
• Market Leader: Not only is the opportunity massive, but Pula is by far the market leader in it’s category with 11m farmers insured as of 2023.
• Solid: Pula has been funded by leading venture capital investors (Omidyar Network, ACCION, MercyCorps) and global philanthropic institutions (MasterCard Foundation, CGAP/World Bank as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Pula closed a  $6m series A funding in December 2020 in the right in the middle of the pandemic a clear testimony of the opportunity that Pula is going after.
• Respected: Winner of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019, Winner of The InsureTech of the Award, Africa. Featured on TED talks, The New York Times, The Economist.
• Impact and creation: This is a high-impact role, that offers a unique opportunity to bring the company to the next level, whilst developing new strategies, approaches and ideas.
• Leadership: The founders & CEO foster a culture of transparency, respect, high performance, pragmatism, execution and personal development.
• Purpose: It is rare to find a professional opportunity that offers accelerated professional development and a life purpose. Pula is going through a second phase of accelerated growth that will naturally provide professional development, whilst contributing to the financial stability of small farmers in the emerging markets.
• Remuneration: Competitive base salary accordingly with seniority and experience, commission on closed sales and an employee share option plan that offers an attractive equity upside.